Before educational products like Baby Einstein or Seventh Generation baby-safe cleaners, toys and baby products came in just a few shapes and sizes.  But today, manufacturerse have figured out that it’s cool baby gear that people want.  The toy selection for toddlers and babies is really quite mind boggling.

From electronic games to educational and interactive plush toys, if you want something it’s bound to be made somewhere.  But you want to avoid every parent’s dread – the “toy safety recall”.  And with more and more baby toys flooding online baby shop shelves, you have to be careful when choosing a baby toy for your kiddo.

Research shows that babies’ brains develop exponentially in the 2 and 5 year old range.  The toys these babies play with can have a lasting impact on their social development and curiosity with the world around them.

3 Things You MUST Consider Before Buying Baby or Toddler Toys:

Educational Value. Since babies and toddler brains are constantly absorbing information at a massive rate, it is important to engage these youngsters and challenge their growing minds.  Some parents fear they will confuse their baby or toddler if they provide too much challenge.  This is not true – the more challenging, the better.  Of course you don’t want to frustrate your child, but well introduced educational toys can spur a lifetime of learning and well-adjusted behavior.  The harder you make their little brains work now, the more brain connections will form.  These connections can directly influence optimum brain capacity for the rest of the child’s life.  Of course, remember to choose age-appropriate toys.  A toy meant for a 6 year old is certainly not going to be much fun or benefit the development of a 2 year old.  And the most important thing is to make sure your child ENJOYS his or her toy, rather than getting frustrated and losing interest from the beginning.

Safety Concerns. Babies and toddlers explore their world in so many ways.  One minute they are crying and unhappy, the next moment they are giggling and putting everything in their mouth.  Toddlers and babies love exploring their world with all their senses, and taste is certainly one of their favorite means of exploration.  Because of this, you should pay careful attention to the size of the toys you buy and the materials made from it.  Lead used to be used in almost all toys and due to health concerns, is now banned.  If you have old toys passed down to you, you can buy a lead testing kit online to see if it is a hazard.  But with new toys, we go back to the common-sense practice: Check the age level appropriate for a toy.  Small parts on toys are extremely dangerous and present a choking danger for babies and toddlers.  Fortunately, all major toy manufactures state very clearly which age groups toys are intended for.  They also tell consumers if there are any parts on the toy that could become choking hazards to young children.  Also, WebMD suggests parents not purchase electronic toys for children under 8.  That popular baby electronic device?  Probably not such a good idea.  Electricity and babies aren’t a safe mix at all.

Baby personality development. The old method of “boys play with GI Joes and girls play with dolls” is as ancient as the people still spewing out this nonsense.  To ensure that your child develops a well-rounded, well-adjusted personality, encourage him or her to play with a wide variety of toys.  If it makes your baby happy, there is no sense in applying stringent gender roles which will only hamper your baby’s personality development.  If you only buy toy guns for your boy and dress-up kits for your girl, they will quickly learn that this is what is expected of them and cause some strange conflicts later in life.  Problems with social skills, self-esteem, and self-identity are known issues stemming from parent’s over zealousness to adjust their child to what they think their child should be. Keep and open mind and just remember, you can learn a lot about what makes a baby happy because the only thing they do more than cry is giggle and smile.

In conclusion, just be sure to provide toys for two year olds that will challenge their brain, are safe, and will help develop healthy and positive personalities.

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Depending on her environment and the interactions she has with the people surrounding her, she will develop an attachment style that will shape her interactions with people during the rest of her life.

There are four types of attachment styles: secure attachment, anxious-resistant insecure attachment, anxious avoidant insecure attachment, and disorganized attachment.

Secure Attachment

Happy, healthy children typically display secure attachment. Based on previous experiences with caregivers, these children know that they can count on the adults in their life to be stable and consistent. For instance, when the parent leaves the room, an infant learns that by crying the parent returns. An older child recognizes that when the parents go out for the evening, leaving him with a sitter, they will return and the sitter will go home.

Secure attachment happens with consistency and bonding. To help your child become secure, snuggle and be close to him as often as possible during infancy. Try to keep your mood calm as much as possible. Maintain a consistent routine that gives the child a sense of what will happen next. For instance, after lunch, I have a nap. When I wake up from my nap, Mommy plays with me and then Daddy comes home from work.

Children who have the secure attachment style are able to make friends and maintain relationships. They have an easier time at school, both socially and with learning skills.

Insecure Attachment

This category includes children with anxious avoidant, anxious-resistant and disorganized insecure attachment. These children often seem fearful whenever they are in the presence of strangers. When their parents leave, they scream and cry and are often inconsolable. However, when the parent returns, the child may seem completely ambivalent.

These children exhibit a kind of push-and-pull mentality. They are unsure of what will happen next, so they go back and forth between wanting the attention of a parent or caregiver, then refusing that same attention.

Children with disorganized attachment have often been subject to child abuse or have witnessed other traumatic events. Their parent or caregiver can be perceived as either frightening, or afraid. When the child sees that the parent is afraid, or that the parent is being scary, he doesn’t know what to do – does he act as if he needs love from that parent, or shy away from something dangerous?

Avoid this scenario by giving your child the love he needs. If you are experiencing personal problems, address them in therapy – don’t take them out on your kids. Even if there is a family tragedy, a child needs to know that he can turn to you – no matter what.

Parents can ensure that their child exhibits secure attachment behavior by giving him all the love and attention he needs as a baby. The benefits of spending quality time and maintaining a consistent lifestyle will definitely worth it when you consider the long-term affects of your child’s mental health and abilities to maintain relationships.

Katie Franklin is a researcher and writer on parenting, children and child development. She is a regular contributor at Child Development Media Inc She also contributes at Quality Toys and Hobbies

Sometimes you must find child care even for young babies. This happens most often when the parents work outside the home. You may have many choices when it comes to choosing child care for your baby. You may have a neighbor or relative who can take care of him. Alternatively, you may decide to use a day-care center or family home.

It’s a good idea to visit several centers or homes before choosing one. Watch how the staff teaches the children. Watch how the children are cared for. If a neighbor or relative cares for your baby make sure, he or she likes your baby. Make sure he or she knows how important it is to keep your baby safe.

Tips on choosing day care

• Always ask to see the center or home’s license. To get a license, a center must follow certain rules. Homes also must follow rules to be licensed. The rules cover cleanliness and safety. The rules tell centers and homes to have enough staff to care for the children.

• The center or home should welcome visits by parents at any time. The center or home should be clean and should look nice. The staff should spend time talking and playing with the children. The staff should be gentle but have control over the children.

• After you choose a center or home, be sure to follow the rules set by the center or home. Make sure you pick up your baby on time. Give the center or home your baby’s shot record. Tell the staff about any special needs, such as allergies, that your baby has. If you are breastfeeding, let the staff know that you will come in for feedings or you will provide your breast milk in bottles. The staff should call you right away if your baby seems sick or has a minor accident.

Your baby may be upset at first about staying in a strange place. This is normal. You and the staff can work together to help your baby get used to being in child care. After your baby has settled into a routine, he should become relaxed about going to child care.

Day-care providers to avoid :

• Avoid centers or homes that don’t want parents dropping by without notice.

• Avoid centers or homes where you see children left alone.

• Avoid centers or homes where children seem bored or unhappy.

• Avoid centers or homes where staff yells at the children a lot.

• Avoid centers or homes that are dirty or unsafe.

If your friends or relatives care for your baby, go over carefully with them how to make things safe for your baby, especially as he gets older. As a mother, you know to never leave your baby alone, to put him in a safe crib to sleep, to secure him in a stroller and to never shake him. However, sometimes even people who love you and your baby may not know these things. Be sure that they understand how to keep your baby safe and comfortable.

Provide recommendations on child development, baby sleep, baby products like babysitter, baby bouncer, and baby bedding for dads and new dads.

Paul Banas

The nutrition your child receives from infancy through his or her formative years is essential not only to building a strong body, but also to achieving optimal mental and intellectual ability as well as emotional health. This is why the way you feed your child is generally considered an important part of good parenting.

Recent advances in nutritional neuroscience show that particular nutrients have certain affects on the development of the human brain, which influence intelligence, mood, and behavior.

The brain of a human fetus grows rapidly from the 10th to 18th week of pregnancy. During this time the fetus develops thousands of brain cells, called neurons, every minute. Moreover, these neurons begin to develop into a system of interlocking connections, forming essentially a network of specialized nerve cells that can have long-term effects on the child?s development. Therefore, it is important for the mother to eat nutritious foods during this time.

This process of rapid growth and development of the brain continues for about 2 years after birth. Just as a car needs fuel, proper nutrition during this important developmental stage is essential. As a matter of fact, malnutrition, or shortages of essential nutrients, during this period can have devastating effects on the nervous system and neurological development as well as physical growth.

Although the total number of neurons doesn’t increase much beyond the age of two, the number of connections that take place between them continues to develop dramatically over time. When a baby is born, every neuron in the cerebral cortex ? the outermost layer of the brain ? can connect with about 2,500 other neurons. By the time the child reaches the age of two or three, that number has increased to 15,000.

The connections formed within a child’s brain are vital to memory, cognition, and learning. These connections are the conduits along which the electrical impulses that make up our thoughts travel. During the most prominent learning years, children are literally hard-wiring the ways in which their brains work every minute.

For example, as very young children develop language skills repeating words again and again, they literally hard-wire the images they see in the world around them with the sounds they make. Every thought a young child has is represented by a ‘ripple’ of activity across the network of neurons within his or her brain. Repeated thoughts and actions, whether related to speech or movement, reinforce and strengthen neurological pathways. Moreover, as the child develops more advanced skills, like crawling and walking, the connections from infancy that are no longer needed weaken dramatically. Unlike other organs in the body, the brain is constantly renewing and restructuring itself.

The connections that form within the brain, called dendrites, are very important to a child?s physical, mental, and emotional development. The places where one dendrite meets another are similar to the gaps in a spark plug. As dendrites bridge these gaps, synapses are created. In other words, as dendrites ?spark? across these gaps in synapses, messages are sent from one neuron to another. The way in which these synapses traffic information?a process called neurotransmission?within the brain is crucial to the healthy functioning of the body as well as the development of the intellect.

The parts of the brain that send and receive messages are made up of essential fats, such as those found in fish and seeds; the phospholipids present in eggs and organ meats; and amino acids, which make up the raw material of protein. The message itself, known as a neurotransmitter, is in most cases made up of amino acids. Different amino acids make different neurotransmitters. For example, the neurotransmitter serotonin, which helps a child to feel happy, is made from tryptophan. Adrenalin and dopamine, which keep children motivated, are made from phenylalanine. However, turning an amino acid into a neurotransmitter is no simple task. Enzymes in the brain, which depend on vitamins, minerals, and special amino acids work to accomplish this task. These vitamins and minerals also control the steady supply of fuel? blood sugar or glucose?that powers each neuron. From all this, you can see how the food your children eat does more than build their bodies. It also helps to develop their brains, from the neurons themselves to the synapses that transmit information throughout the mind and body. Thus, food plays a vital role in determining how your children think and feel. Although the basic structure of your child’s brain is determined by genetics, the nutrition they receive and what they learn helps develop that structure, and ultimately their intelligence and ability to learn. It also affects how they adapt, and whether they have happy and fulfilling lives. While you can’t change genes, you can control your child’s nutrition and learning environment. For this reason, one of your main tasks, as a parent, is to ensure that your child receives optimum nutrition and a stimulating environment that encourages his or her capacity for learning. In the context of the development of your child’s brain, optimum nutrition is all about ensuring that your child gets sufficient quantities of five essential foods, while avoiding some others.

This Guide

Children play all the time. They play with bricks, or with sand and water, they dress up in ‘grown-up’ clothes, they play chasing and catching games. It all helps to build their understanding and their language skills.

Why does this matter?
Well, they need to find out about the world: the sizes, shapes and feel of things, that hard things hurt, that soft things are comfortable. Later on, they’ll find out that you can’t fit a gallon into a pint pot. Babies and young children teach themselves these and a million other facts of life through their play.

It also helps them to develop their speech and language. There are two main reasons for this.

How does pretend play help language development?
Firstly it helps because language is an especially sophisticated system of symbols, and playing, especially with miniature toys and pictures, helps children to develop their ability to understand symbols.
 
Secondly because this sort of play is fun and stimulating, and they’ll want to communicate what they’re doing to you, so you will have plenty of opportunities to talk.

Why is pretending important?
When a toddler offers you a cup of pretend tea from a miniature cup, and you pretend to drink it, nobody is fooled.  The child knows as well as you do that there is no ‘real’ tea in the cup. What’s more, he knows you know.

The cup represents a real cup of tea, and the situation represents a real-life action he’ll have seen. It represents, or symbolises, one person giving a cup of tea to another.

The word ‘cup’ is a symbol that stands for a real cup, just as the child’s toy cup does.

So, help your child to develop symbolisation or ‘pretending’ abilities.

How does pretend play develop?
It starts with looking closely at his toys. Rattles, soft toys, a mother’s earrings: they all come in for the ‘see it, feel it, suck it’ treatment. Your child needs to explore what these things are before moving on to the next stage.

This is when he is experiments with how things go together.

Soon you’ll see real ‘pretending’ as he uses a toy teacup to pretend to drink. At first he does these actions to himself, but then he’ll offer a ‘drink’ to teddy or brush dolly’s hair.

Now you can see that teddy is like a real person to him. He might kiss him, wash him, start to reproduce aspects of his own life through his play with a teddy or a doll.

Soon, he’ll carry out whole sequences of pretend play.  This is the age of the doll’s tea party or putting teddy to bed.

Your child may be three before he reaches this stage, although many two-year-olds have a wide repertoire of pretend play.

This is a sign that he can do three very important things:

he understands the symbolic nature of toys,
he can carry out a logical sequence of events,
he has enough concentration to play continuously for several minutes.

This is quite a combination of abilities. He is an ‘expert’ in play.

How can I help?
Remember these are developmental stages. Your child won’t skip from the first exploratory stage to complicated play sequences, no matter how many times you show him, until he’s ready. His nervous system develops gradually.

Play alongside your child, offering him chances to develop to the next stage, but never trying to force him. Don’t try to teach. Think of yourself as a facilitator or helper, offering opportunities not lessons, and be guided by the things that he enjoys.

Start by watching what he is doing. What stage is he at? Is he examining one object closely, feeling it, mouthing it? If so, let him have one thing at a time to investigate. At this stage he doesn?t need a cot full of stuff, however pretty it may look to an adult. He can only think about one thing at a time, so let him have one thing at a time. When he is bored offer him something else. Be careful to avoid bombarding him with too many things at once.

When he starts to play with two objects together, at around a year old, you can help by offering boxes to put things in and bricks to build up. Let him bang his spoon on the (plastic) plate and rattle it in the cup. You can clean up the mess later!

Enjoy doll’s tea parties together, bath teddy and dress him before putting him to bed. Build up play sequences. Introduce smaller toys and less obvious representations of the real thing, such as Duplo characters. Match toys to pictures in books, saying ‘Look, shoes like yours,’ pointing at the picture, then at your child’s shoes.

Here’s a checklist of things to remember to do with your child as he develops from one stage to the next. You’ll find they’re things that you’ll really enjoy.

1: Watch what he’s doing, so that you can see what he likes doing most. Let him show you what he enjoys, then you can join in.

2: Play alongside him. If he’s pushing cars around, you do the same thing. That way, you can join in with him naturally, and he will still be leading the play. Resist the temptation to tell him what to do.

3: Begin to introduce things that go together,like spoons and plates, toothbrush and toothpaste. This will help him to move on from playing with one toy into early pretending.

4: Hold doll’s and teddy’s tea parties, give each doll and teddy a place setting and introduce pretend biscuits and play food.
 
5: Give teddy a pretend bath.

6: Dress a doll in doll-sized clothes, undress her and put her to bed.

7: Play with a toy telephone, pretending to speak to a relative.

8: Invest in the right sort of toys. Maybe a doll’s house with doll’s furniture, a teddy bear, a set of toy cars or a tea set.

9: Look at picture books together, talking about the real objects in the pictures.

10: Above all, have fun with him. This kind of play is for anyone. Even relatives who ‘don’t know how to talk to children’ will love to join in tea parties, in dressing dolly games and in pretending to bath teddy and put him to bed.

Frances Evesham is a writer on communication, language, and related topics for the SpeechContacts website at http://www.getmeoffthehook.com/speechcontacts

She worked for many years as a speech and language therapist and is an NLP practitioner and a registered intermediary in the criminal courts.

The SpeechContacts website is a resource for language and communication information.

If you’d like to read more about language development for children go to http://www.getmeoffthehook.com/speechcontacts/bab.php

As the child grows it also requires some needs like the essential in the childhood development of the child. A simple toy in the child life can change its mood in the everyday. Did you know that toys takes a big rule in the development of the child .Pretend play makes up a large portion of childhood playtime? Encourage your child to play make-believe because this type of creative play builds skills in several essential areas of development.

In every stages of the child there is an appropriate toy. Like in the early childhood the first is the baby items which are so cute for the babies. Toys like small household appliances made of wood or wooden dollhouses with miniature furnishing invite children to explore various roles and develop their social and emotional skills. Empathy begins to emerge as children pretend to be someone else and deal with life in their shoes. Through cooperative dramatic play, children learn to take turns and share as they learn important problem solving skills.

The only work of the children is to eat and play all the time. Like I said above toys have a great factor in the child development. In every stages of the child have its own appropriate toys. One of the most common toys that is always treasured by the children are the rocking toys it is one of the popular toys especially in the toddlers that love to play like the rocking horses and other rocking toys.

Buying of toys could be crucial especially if we do not know the right and specific toy for our child. One great store to find toys are in the great toy store in the net. It is one of the best places to find the perfect toys in your children.

As the parents are gradually getting cautious about Autism, one must understand the symptoms of this disease. As the doctors explain, as early the disease is diagnosed the more are the chances of cure. Following below is a list of symptoms of Autism. In case you find any of these in your child, you’re advised to consult your child’s doctor immediately. A simple evaluation & check up can save your child in time.

1. The child does not meet the development stages on time.

While some children start crawling at a tender age of 4 months, some do not reach this achievement until several months. Both ways, it is fine. Similarly, there are many stages that a child reaches in his growth process. Though there is no fixed time span for all these stages, if the child is showing a delayed response in every step, you must check with the doctor.

2. Your child is not able to talk.

As children get aware of the environment around them they show responses in several ways. They start blurting a few words at a very young age and suddenly some day you realize that they are able to speak full sentences. The usual age when the child starts babbling some words is 16 months. In case your child does not react with words even after 16 months, it can surely be a matter of concern. The doctor might call for some evaluation tests that are necessary.

3. Your child does not make any eye contact.

Babies & children usually look at you while you talk to them. Children suffering with Autism avoid all sorts of eye contact. They seem to be lost elsewhere rather than looking at you. Try pointing out an object to them and they would look past the object, reacting nothing to what you tell them.

4. Your does not emote.

Children suffering with Autism do not emote at all. They do not smile back to some one passing them a smile. Normally children start crying if they see another kid crying. An Autistic child won’t react to any such situation. Unlike the normal kids, an Autistic child does not like to be cuddled or held in the arms. They would not approach their parents to be hugged or cuddled.

5. Your child likes to be alone.

Children suffering with Autism normally do not play with the kids around them. They rather like to be left alone and play all by themselves. They make very few friends or may be none. They can not differentiate jokes. As a result, they would follow each and every word told to them literally.

6. The child keeps forgetting anything taught to him.

You taught him to make the bed today and just 4 days later he behaves as if he never knew anything about it. Autistic children can not retain anything you teach them. They need to be told about the very basic chores & skills time & again.

These are very few symptoms of Autism. Also we must understand that all children suffering with Autism won’t show all the signs together. They might show one or some of them. If you note any of these in your child consult your doctor and get the essential evaluations done within time. Remember, the earlier you diagnose the ailment, the sooner you can initiate the treatment. You might find that there was nothing wrong with the child, but its always safer to re-assure in case of any doubts.

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For children, play is naturally enjoyable. And since it is their active engagement in things that interest them, play should be child-led, or at least child-inspired, for it to remain relevant and meaningful to them. Children at play are happily lost in themselves; they are in their own realm of wonder, exploration, and adventure, pulling parents in at times with a frequent “Let’s play, mom!” as an open invitation into that world.

As early as infancy, children immerse themselves in play activities with the purpose of making sense of the world around them. Play gives children the opportunity to learn and experience things themselves, which is vital for their development. Although peek-a-boo games seem pointless to adults, tots are awed by the surprise that awaits them as they see the suddenly emerging faces of people they love.

(Stages of Play)

During toddlerhood, children experience a motor-growth spurt that equips them to solitarily fiddle with anything they can get their hands on – be it a construction toy or the box from where it came.

Toddlers also love breaking into song, wiggling and jiggling to tunes, and imitating finger plays they are commonly exposed to.

Preschoolers begin extending their play to involve others, whether they bring others in at any stage of their game or they plan their game and its players’ way ahead. Their physical and motor skills allow them to widen their lay arena, from dramatic play to table games to outdoor pursuits.

School-age children start appreciating organized play – such as innovated songs and rhymes, games with rules, relays and other physical activities, sports and projects that they can accomplish over a certain time frame.

Play Perks:

Why the big fuss about playing? Play benefits the child in ways that might be a tad difficult for adults to imagine.

1. Play brings pure and utter joy.

A toddler who jumps into an empty box and runs around the house ‘driving a car’ shows the sheer happiness that play brings him or her. When children are asked what they did in school and they answer ‘play,’ it is a clear sign that these kids remember a feeling of genuine joy that is captured in this four-letter word.

2. Play fosters socio-emotional learning.

What does a ten-month-old baby who shrieks at the sight of her stuffed toy have in common with a ten-year-old boy who plays basketball with his friends? They both deal with their confidence as they choose to embark on their play activities. At the same time, they are displaying their independence in the decisions that they make. These two children are also internalizing social rules in their respective play situations: the baby waits patiently for her stuffed toy to appear, while the school-age child has to contend with an impending loss in a ball game.

3. Play hones physical and motor development.

Play often involves the use of the senses, the body, and the extremities. When children play, they exercise their bodies for physical strength, fluidity of movement, balance and coordination.

Perceptual-motor ability, or the capacity to coordinate what you perceive with how you move, is an essential skill that preschoolers need to develop. A three-year-old who is engrossed in digging, scooping, and pouring sand into a container must match his or her perception of the space in front of him or her with actual hand movements, so that he or she can successfully fulfill the motor activity.

4. Play facilitates cognitive learning.

Play is vital to the intellectual development of a child. We live in a symbolic world in which people need to decode words, actions, and numbers.

For young children, symbols do not naturally mean anything because they are just arbitrary representations of actual objects. The role of play is for the child to understand better cognitive concepts in ways that are enjoyable, real, concrete, and meaningful to them. For instance, through play, a child is able to comprehend that the equation 3 + 2 = 5 means ‘putting together’ his toy cars by lining them up in his makeshift parking lot. When he combines 2 triangles to make a square during block play, or writes down his score is a bowling game, the child is displaying what he knows about shapes and numbers.

Through play, the child is constructing his or her worldview by constantly working and reworking his understanding of concepts.

5. Play enhances language development.

Toddlers who are still grappling with words need to be immersed in oral language so they can imitate what they hear. They benefit from songs and rhymes that provide the basis for understanding how language works.

When these tots are playing with toys, adults model to them how language is used to label objects or describe an event. At play, preschoolers use language to interact, communicate ideas, and likewise learn from dialogues with more mature members of society.

6. Play encourages creativity.

Barney the dinosaur was right about using imagination to make things happen. A lump of Play-Doh suddenly turns into spaghetti with meat sauce and cheese; a small towel transforms into a cape that completes a superhero’s wardrobe; and a tin can serves as a drum that accompanies an aspiring rock artist. Play opens an entire avenue for children to express themselves, show what they know and how they feel, and to create their own masterpieces.

7. Play provides bonding opportunities.

Play is an important factor in child development. It provides for interaction, experimentation, and moral development. Here are some ways by which parents can encourage and support their children’s playtime.

- Let your child be the player-leader. Let children initiate their activity, set their own theme, choose the parameters where the play will take place. Play becomes a venue for children to express their feelings and be in control.

- Help them help themselves. When your 5-year-old asks for help, say, figuring out how to piece a puzzle together, stop yourself from coming to her rescue and first ask your child questions that allow him or her to help himself or herself. Say, “Where do you think this piece should go?” Afterward, commend his or her success.

- Play attention. Once you make a commitment to play with your child, watch for the following signals: Does he or she want you to actively play a part in the activity? Does he or she need encouragement? Is he or she tired or hungry? Does he or she need to take a break?

- Have a play plan. If you seem to have little time for playing with your child, consider using self-care chores to have fun with him or her. Also, get support from other people in your household, like older siblings, household help, or the child’s grandparents, so that they understand why play is important and how they should continue to encourage it.

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Judy Hansen is a web administrator of www.child-central.com
She is also a mother of 2 girls and a preschool teacher. Get Real people. Real questions. Real answers. from parents around the world at Parenting Advice and Tips