Best toys for babies and toddlers
The best toys for babies and toddlers are simple objects. Some of them aren't even toys, per say. They're everyday objects. One of the first toys we recommend from the wry approach is a cotton scarf or napkin, which is just to be able to make it like a little teepee. Then a young infant can grasp it easily. They can swing it around, they can put it over their face, they can put it in their mouth. So we want toys that they can do a lot of different things with, not toys that have one purpose, not toys that have a right way to use them. We want our young children, they're just active, active learners, and we want them to be able to play with things that they can learn from and figure out, because that's what they're driven to do and that's ideal learning. So when we get them things like rattles even, which is a very innocuous, lovely toy, but that has a little mysterious sound and the child can never figure out how that sound is made. So that toy wouldn't be as good as the child having rings that they knock together and make a sound with and discover a sound that way and they know how it's made. So we want the child to be an active learner, not a passive watcher of a toy. We want them to be able to learn and understand from it and be creative with it, use it in many different ways.
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Janet LansburyRIE Parenting Expert
Janet Lansbury is a parenting advisor, writer and teacher. She has served on the board of directors of Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE) for over a decade, written childcare articles and been a frequent presenter at early childhood conferences. A former actress/model (Janet Julian), Janet found her true calling when she gave birth to her first child and sought guidance from renowned infant expert Magda Gerber. Inspired and mentored by Gerber in the early 1990s, Janet became a RIE Parent/Infant Guidance Class instructor and has since had the privilege of providing support and guidance to thousands of parents and caregivers throughout Los Angeles. Most recently, she has become a prolific and influential parenting blogger with a worldwide following.
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