Destiny Baby

Picture books often make the best educational “toys” for young children. Why? One of the key concepts that children must master as part of their cognitive development and language building skills is the difference between individual things and categories of things (for example, the difference between Mom vs. woman). Pictures themselves represent two different things at the same time– the picture itself is a thing, but it also represents something else. An article I wrote on why picture books make great toys discusses the latest research showing that children may learn new words more accurately from pictures than from 3D objects, especially when part of reading time between parents and children.

So, if you are going for picture books as educational Christmas gifts, which books should you buy? The Huffington Post recently posted a picture slideshow of the ten best children’s picture books of 2009, provided in part by Greenlight Bookstore. It’s a lovely compilation, with a wide range of titles from Princess Hyacinth (The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated)by award-winning author Florence Parry Heideto the touching story of the search for color in a black and white world in A Penguin Story by Antoinette Portis, the bestselling author of Not a Box, her picture book debut.

Along with A Penguin Story, one of my favorites on the list is A Really Short History of Nearly Everything,which is really a science book for kids, addressing all the big questions about the history of life on earth.

How’s this for an astounding fact that your kids and you will learn: Did you know that every atom in your body has almost certainly passed through several stars and been part of millions of organisms on its way to being you? Or what about the fact that a baby weighing 4 kilograms has about 400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms in its body! The book is a lot of fun.

Follow the jump for the full list of the best picture books for children published in 2009 at Huffington Post.

I’m planning on getting Destiny Baby his own set of art supplies this Christmas. An easel, set of paints, brushes–the whole works. He has a creative streak in him that hasn’t been fully explored, even in his preschool. They do lots of preschool and toddler teaching with drawings and tracings with pencils and crayons, but not a lot of painting or art work (although the toddlers in his class did build and paint a fabulous Green Recycle Man out of recycled materials the school collected from families during the course of a week).

My real motivation is envy (I mean this in a good way). Several months ago, we went to a birthday party for our friends’ 3 year old son. Around the house were framed hanging of these beautiful abstract watercolor paintings. “Who did those?” I asked. “Our son,” replied our friends the proud parents. Now, their son is probably gifted, because the paintings really were good, but his mom explained that she had enrolled herself and son in a Mommy and Me art class and these framed masterpieces created at the hand of a highly intuitive toddler were the result! So, I’m on a mission to inspire Destiny’s Baby’s inner artiste with his own set of art supplies. Since I am not an artist (or artistically inclined) myself, I’m going to need some help. I’ve been looking at art books and have narrowed it down to three well-reviewed books:

First Art : Art Experiences for Toddlers and Twos

(This is the #1 bestselling nonfiction education book for preschoolers on Amazon–I didn’t realize until I checked!)

The Big Messy Art Book: But Easy to Clean Up

According to reviews, this 144-page book really lets your toddler’s imagination and sets it free. Activities include painting masterpieces from the things they see in everyday life like a swing or a ball.

Scribble Art: Independent Creative Art Experiences for Children (Bright Ideas for Learning)

The author has also written and published 13 other books on teaching young children to either create or learn about art. I’m also looking at Science Arts: Discovering Science Through Art Experiences (Bright Ideas for Learning)

Have you had success with inspiring your child’s artistic side? Share your experiences in the comments below!

Don’t underestimate the amount of creative, educational, quiet play packed into this compact portable travel toy kit by Lauri! Kids can use the 25-piece “locktagon” construction set to build imaginative shapes and structures. Three lacing and tracing cards come with long, grippable threads to keep hands and eyes busy. A 27-piece puzzle teaches kids letters and their sequence in the alphabet. The pieces to four round, “fit-a-space puzzles” help children learn their shapes. (Read more…)

The beauty of this entry in the Baby Einstein catalog is its integration of puppets, toys, and live farm footage to help babies and toddlers make the connection between their plastic play sets and stuffed animals with images of a real farm. As always, the spoken language is minimal, omitting the pesky verbs and adjectives that would confuse the very young. The 30-minute main program is divided into sections: barns and equipment, animals, planting crops, and harvesting. (Read more…)

You know those cool toddler activity play centers with spiral zig zag mazes for counting beads that you find in your pediatrician’s office? Well, this is an affordable portable version of those activity centers that your child can take with them on the road. The EverEarth Triangle Activity Center for Toddlers features three different activities. These include bead fun, a sliding wood peg maze and sliding wooden beads! (Read more…)

This large wooden workbench is geared for pretend play for toddlers aged 3 and up. It’s a child’s version of a wooden work table equipped with tools, accessories, pieces of wood and a versatile tool belt that can be worn or attached to the workbench. Wooden pieces can be used as building toys with your child’s imagination! Children will be able to familiarize themselves with basic carpentry and construction techniques. What a cool toy for the child of a carpenter or someone in the construction industry. Or, if your child just likes to build things!(Read more…)