Building baby’s brain

FOUR TIPS

Brain-building activities for your baby

By Cara Johnson-Bader

As a new parent, you want to give PLAYING AND SINGING Research your baby the best start in life, highlights the importance of playing with and a wonderful way to give your your baby. Essential elements of your little baby the best start is through brain one’s growth are all developed and finedevelopment activities. It might seem like a tuned through play. Skills such as developing daunting task, but boosting your åbaby’s brain a healthy self-confidence, strengthening does not need to be complicated; in fact, it can listening skills, improving language skills, be a simple part of your daily routine. and growing important physical skills are all

At New Horizon Academy, we know that the developed through play. best way to help your baby’s brain is to actively Whether it is games like “Peek-a-Boo”, engage her through everyday activities like “Pat-a-Cake”, singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, talking, playing, reading, and comforting her Little Star”, or using puppets, this playing and when she feels stressed. Here are four everyday activities that help your Cara Johnson-Bader singing fosters imagination and creativity and helps promote language development. little one’s development. You may think, “Well, I am not a good singer.” That is ONE-ON-ONE TIME The number one brain booster for just fine. Your singing voice does not matter. You are singing your baby is one-on-one time with you. Responsive, warm, to you baby, not being judged on American Idol, and your and supportive interactions between you and your baby build baby loves the sound of your voice and the attention you are the foundation for learning. giving him. TALKING Talk to your baby about what you are doing. READING Reading to your baby is one of the most Describe what you see together, such as, “Here is a bird. powerful things you can do to support brain development. He is red. See him fly in the sky.” As your baby begins to Studies have also shown that children who were read to as babble and coo, talk with her as though she is carrying on a newborns have a larger vocabulary, as well as more advanced conversation with you. mathematical skills, than other children their age and are

By talking to your baby, you are helping her develop her better prepared to eventually start reading on their own. vocabulary. All that babbling and cooing is your baby’s You are the best brain builder for your baby, and it is through pre-language skills developing. Studies have shown that everyday interactions that you help your baby grow and develop. the number of words a child learns by the age of 3 grows in direct correlation to how many words are spoken in the Cara Johnson-Bader is the Vice President of Marketing and Parent home. Experiences at New Horizon Academy and mother of two young boys. Learn more about New Horizon Academy at newhorizonacademy.net.

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“Nope! But you could have had it if you hadn’t spent all your money on that other cheap overpriced toy!” Then…I did a mic drop and walked out of the room (not totally a true story, I wasn’t actually using a microphone).

The truth, I felt her pain a bit, because that little green guy is adorable. We talked through baby Grogu as an opportunity cost to her earlier decision to spend money; I gave her a hug and told her that it’s a great thing to be able to save our money for things we really want, and not just spend money on stuff we sorta kinda want in the moment just because we have money to spend. And I totally changed her life and she’ll forever be a wise spender and live happily ever after and thank me profusely for imparting my wisdom to her (yeah, not even close).

Okay, the truth is that I have no idea whether this lesson will stick with her or not. But wise spending habits aren’t built in a day either, right? They happen over time and particularly during a child’s formative years where they form their life paradigms – the perspective they will have on the world as they move into adulthood. And maybe, just maybe with enough opportunities to talk over the pros and cons of their spending decisions, kids might avoid some pretty costly spending mistakes later in life. So, I guess as a parent I’ll have to be patient and keep sharing gentle lessons on wise spending on a regular basis in hopes that some of it will sink in.

Or…as a professor I might just tell my kids to go buy a cheap giant unicorn at Shelv-mart and soak it with tears of sorrow from all of their spending failures that resulted from their father’s inability to teach them properly. And I’m out (clumsy totally unhip mic drop). Luke Erickson, Ph.D., AFC®, REALTOR®, is an associate professor of personal finance for the University of Idaho. He lives and works in the Treasure Valley. Luke and his wife Rachel have been married for 15 years and live in Meridian, Idaho with their four energetic children. Got questions or comments about kids and money? Email them to erickson@ uidaho.edu and he’ll respond in future articles.

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