Anyone have any favorite websites and games and toy suggestions for developing a baby's mind?
I already play regular games and read to him. I'm looking for new ideas.

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Each child develops at their own rate. While it is true that outside influences can "speed up" the process, for the most part the baby's mind is not going to reduce in capacity or potential unless he/she is sat in a corner with absolutely no interaction 24/7.

Now, my eldest son, by the time he was 15 months, had been cajoled and pushed into talking in simple sentences. He was babbling the alphabet (although I am sure he did not have a clue what he was saying) and counting to 10. He could sing along with the Sesame Street Gang and would repeat any word he was taught, including Constantinople and Encyclopedia.

You see, he was caught in a power struggle between me, his young mother, and his dad who was a school teacher. We had divorced when our son was 6 months old and boy, did we compete against each other trying to find harder and more difficult words and phrases to teach him to show each other up.

Needless to say, the kid was pretty messed up later on. Oh, he was brilliant, tested near genious level, was reading by age 3. Big whoop! He couldn't make it past the first semester of college! He was use to having his father hold his hand through the whole learning process. Without his father making sure he got up to go to class, our boy would over sleep and just not show up to class. He was arrogant. He though all he had to do was read the material and pass the tests. Wrong! Our super smart son flunked out of college because his father and I pushed him too hard.

Dont do that with your child. Have fun. Give him/her a wooden spoon and a pot or pan to bang on. Building blocks are good. Share good music with your child. Less TV, more reading books to him/her. Enjoy this age. The terrible twos are just around the corner.

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Forget about "developing the mind" and just have fun with your baby.
Read to her
Crawl around on the floor with her
build with blocks and let her knock the towers down
take her for walks and stop and talk to people
play peek a boo
Just spend lots of time with her, focused on HER and her mind will develop beautifully!

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Whatever he/she is interested in. Just keep paying attention and don't push too hard or expect too much

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Go to Playskool.com they have alot of learning toys and games.

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Not sure if you would call these games. But we are working on teaching our daughter different things. Like where her ears, nose, belly are. How to snap her fingers, blow kisses, do the indian. All of these things she can do very well now so it works! Plus its rewarding for her when she learns something new!

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Go to babycenter.com, they have a lot of good suggestions to help you.

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SWIMMING!

you and him/her face to face in the water singing nursery rhymes. Make sure you always give a command (the same every time) before putting his head underwater, like 1 2 3 Go! When his face comes up and he opens his eyes.... no matter what his reaction is, you are always SMILING and PRAISING! Get him to hold onto the side of the pool and once he's done that, get him to walk his hands along the edge to a toy he likes a few feet away. Get him to push off the wall to come get you or a toy... head up or under. Always push him to do something more when he gets comfortable. There isn't any learning happening when they are comfortable. When they're nervous and unsteady is when they are learning something new! Scared is good! Always push through the scared, and make them feel that it's just the way it's done. Smile through the crying, sing a song, but always keep their shoulders and yours under the water, face to face as much as possible with as little support as possible. Floating is important too. Twinkle twinkle little star softly while on their backs (yes... they may cry because of the water in their ears, and if you're in a well kept pool, there will be NO infections, so don't worry about that so much Chlorine kills everything!). The point of everything is to finally get them to jump in the water from the edge without you catching, and they float up to the top on their backs to breathe... then roll over and paddle somehow to the edge. This is water safety for infants and toddlers in case of the dredded "pool fall." That they can be taught to instinctively take care of breathing and getting to the side or a ladder and out on their own. So, teach climbing out and jumping in too.

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