The Talking Baby

I just finished a new book written by a husband and wife team, Jeremy and Karina Sweet, titled The Talking Baby.  Jeremy and Karina are a father and mother who are able to speak from personal child rearing experience. Additionally, Karina has experience as an elementary school teacher.  The book is designed to help parents learn not only how to communicate with their child, but also to help a child gain the desire and confidence to speak sooner. Although the book is thin, it is full of ideas to incorporate into your daily life and written in an easy-to-understand way for parents.   If babies were born with an instruction guide on how to communicate with them, The Talking Baby would be that guide.

The book is 56 pages long and divided into 20 parts, with 16 of those being the communication tips and techniques.  Each tip is explained and examples are provided, including numerous examples of exactly how to say things to your baby to encourage communication and learning.  Just a few of the communication tips to use with your child are words to start with, use of repetition, reading books, introducing a foreign language, and how to praise.  The tips are presented in easily digestible parts, usually only 2-4 pages long.  This is great for busy parents and parents of newborns who do not have time to sit down and read a long book.

As stated in the conclusion of the book, my advice would be to start with a couple of the communication ideas presented and incorporate them into your daily routine.  It would be overwhelming, if not impossible, to do all of these tips at once.  My guess is that many parents may already be using some of these techniques naturally with their child.  However, I would recommend this book to parents who feel overwhelmed and don’t know how to start communicating with their child or for others who may be looking for ideas to jumpstart their child’s communication skills.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book to review from the author. No compensation is being received for this review or from any sales of the book.

Super Baby Food

My mom found this book for me and I really love it. While making baby food is not for every mom, if it is something you are interested in I highly recommend this book. It has a wealth of information on how to prepare fruits, vegetables, grains, and meats for your baby. It also has a helpful chart on when to introduce each type of food (pg. 86-87) and a large section in the back with recipes, party ideas, arts & crafts (including play-dough and other recipes), and baby-safe cleaning products.  I didn’t use the brewer’s yeast and a few other things the author did with her children, as my girls didn’t like the taste of it.  But I do believe that my girls are good eaters (they literally eat anything we put in front of them) because they had “real” food from the beginning and were exposed to everything we eat on a daily basis.