Baby Minds: Brain-Building Games Your Baby Will Love [Paperback]

Linda Acredolo (Author), Susan Goodwyn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 5, 2000

More than 65 delightful games and activities to jump-start your baby's amazing brainpower

Can simply singing a song or blowing a dandelion under a toddler's nose help her mind to blossom? Can your baby count, remember events, and solve problems even before he can talk? The exciting answer to both questions is yes!

Breakthrough research is revealing the extraordinary inborn abilities of infants.
It is also showing how experiences during the first years of life profoundly
influence intelligence, creativity, language development-and even later
reading and math skills.

Now two psychologists and child development experts-authors of the bestselling Baby Signs-have created a delightful guide for parents based on the most up-to-date knowledge of how babies discover the world. You'll learn how to:

_ Create a homemade mobile to stimulate your three-month-old's delight in solving problems
_ Play a patty-cake game to help your two-year-old
make logical connections
_ Initiate bedtime conversations that build your child's memory and sense of personal history
_ Develop "Baby Signs" to help your toddler communicate before he or she can talk
_ Stimulate your child's natural number skills with puppets and counting games
_ Use nursery rhymes and special read-aloud techniques to foster reading readiness
_ Nurture budding creativity with humor and fantasy play
_ And much more!

Baby Minds is not another program for creating "super babies." Instead it
builds on activities that babies instinctively love to develop their unique abilities and make your daily interactions full of the joy of discovery-for both of you.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Acredolo and Goodwyn, child development psychologists and coauthors of the acclaimed Baby Signs, have teamed up again to assist parents in teaching their infants from birth to 36 months of age. Their goal is to take state-of-the-art research and translate it into pragmatic techniques for fostering child development in the areas of problem solving, talking, reading, and math preparation. The authors' philosophy is well articulated in their statement on baby education classes: "If your baby is not having fun, it's probably not worth doing." Their work differs from other baby-game books, such as Elaine Martin's Baby Games (1988), in that it is not simply a laundry list of nursery rhymes, recipes, and action plays. Rather, it addresses broader developmental concepts and provides more open-ended questions and activities to stimulate learning. However, they do include a brief yet useful "Tips Revisited" section that outlines age-appropriate techniques. Recommended for both public and academic libraries.DLisa Williams, Moline P.L., IL
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

More than 65 delightful games and activities to jump-start your baby's amazing brainpower

Can simply singing a song or blowing a dandelion under a toddler's nose help her mind to blossom? Can your baby count, remember events, and solve problems even before he can talk? The exciting answer to both questions is yes!

Breakthrough research is revealing the extraordinary inborn abilities of infants.
It is also showing how experiences during the first years of life profoundly
influence intelligence, creativity, language development-and even later
reading and math skills.

Now two psychologists and child development experts-authors of the bestselling Baby Signs-have created a delightful guide for parents based on the most up-to-date knowledge of how babies discover the world. You'll learn how to:

_ Create a homemade mobile to stimulate your three-month-old's delight in solving problems
_ Play a patty-cake game to help your two-year-old
make logical connections
_ Initiate bedtime conversations that build your child's memory and sense of personal history
_ Develop "Baby Signs" to help your toddler communicate before he or she can talk
_ Stimulate your child's natural number skills with puppets and counting games
_ Use nursery rhymes and special read-aloud techniques to foster reading readiness
_ Nurture budding creativity with humor and fantasy play
_ And much more!

Baby Minds is not another program for creating "super babies." Instead it
builds on activities that babies instinctively love to develop their unique abilities and make your daily interactions full of the joy of discovery-for both of you.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (July 5, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553380303
• ISBN-13: 978-0553380309
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 0.6 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #46,346 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

91 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating but not a quick game guide, August 4, 2006

By 

Sharmin Panjvani "Preschool Teacher and Mom" (Long Island, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Baby Minds: Brain-Building Games Your Baby Will Love (Paperback)

As a teacher, child psychology graduate and mother I have to say that this book was very useful. Even having studied most of the material in this book in university, it was a excellent reminder of the many ways to stimulate a child's mind. Yes there are not many gmaes - and the ones included are simple and sometimes obvious. However the connection the book makes between the games, that most parents play with their babies anyway, and how those games stimulate the mind is fascinating and is what this book is really trying to do. Once you understand the function of a particular game you can adapt and modify and make new games that stimulate the same parts of the brain.

If you are looking for a strictly games book with less psychology and more actual games and songs, definitely buy Baby Play by Gymboree. It has games organized by age and then color coded on each page to highlight the game, song, skill, related research etc and you can easily find just what you want without reading all the extra stuff. Plus, there are fantastic pictures!

But I digress. Baby Minds is a book with a lot of information. It is designed, I believe, for the parent or teacher who wants to understand what their child is learning when they play. Can you successfully raise your child without reading this book? Absolutely! Will this book make you more aware of the types of activities you do with your child and what your child is gaining? Absolutely!

155 of 161 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Deceptive Title, October 8, 2004

By 

Kristen Ramsay (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Baby Minds: Brain-Building Games Your Baby Will Love (Paperback)

When a book is titled "Baby Minds: Brain Building Games Your Baby Will Love", you would expect that games would be the focus of the book -- at least I did! Instead, the "games" are limited to a few tips. In fact, the authors summarize the "games" in a mere 4 pages at the end of the 190 page book. And as other reviewers have noted, many of the games are regurgitated ideas. (like "Have a Tea Party" or "limit television time" or "Read Nursery Rhymes") The informationon brain development is interesting, but I expected that to be the lesser portion of the book, give the focus of the title.

52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and Useful, September 20, 2000

By 

Rev. Judith Quarles (Oneonta, New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baby Minds: Brain-Building Games Your Baby Will Love (Paperback)

I received this book as a gift and read it practically cover to cover right away. It was really fun getting a peek into how research with babies works. It's amazing what they've found out babies can do. I also like the fact that the authors never forget the importance of the emotional side of everything. They emphasize that the games they describe are good ways to connect with a baby and that a warm relationship is the most effective way to help a baby learn. This book is a great choice for anyone with a child under the age of 3. I recommend it highly.