There are a number of skills that you child needs to have developed before they start school, and they might not be the ones you think! Our early childhood expert, Jan Jones, discusses which skills you really should be working on (and worrying about).

Choosing a child care option for your child can be both daunting and overwhelming. How do you know what the best option is for your family, and will you instantly know if the centre is up to scratch? Our early childhood expert, Jan Jones, provides some suggestions for things to look our for and what each type of care has to offer.

Many parents wonder if children’s language and listening skills are developing normally. While individual children develop their talking and listening skills at different rates, our early childhood expert, Jan Jones, reveals that there is a general pattern to children’s language development.

Need a strong argument for play-based learning in preschool. Read on.

Do you find that it is difficult to find someone you trust to look after your children? Do you feel guilty asking friends or relatives to baby-sit? Do you feel you often need to pay for a baby-sitter? A baby-sitting club is the ideal way to solve some of these issues.

Kids love the water, and there are so many ways to incorporate it into playtime. With summer on the way, Jan Jones shares a number of water activities that we can use with our 0-6 year olds that are fun and will keep them entertained for hours.

Babies inhabit the floor – and it is a very different world to what we are used to. Jan Jones, our early childhood expert, challenges us to get down and see things from our baby’s perspective and provides a range of activities to allow us to play at their level.

Block play can do more than simply entertain your toddler. Our early childhood expert, Jan Jones, explains how it can help with their development, and the best ways to implement it.

The first few years are extremely important in the growth and development of your child. Parents guide their children through these years. These are wonderful times to laugh, play and learn from and with your child. Our early childhood expert, Jan Jones, looks at the four main areas of development and provides some ideas to help aid your child’s development.

Children grow naturally – therefore, given the right environment most will grow into happy well-adjusted human beings. Jan Jones explains how the carer’s rule is to enhance the setting and respond to their interests, answer their questions and cater for their energy, and encouraging them to take advantage of the moment.

Jan Jones lists the stages of development from 12 months to five years. She covers developmental milestones for skills such as fine, gross and social, as well as speech and language, and suggests ways to encourage development at home.

Every baby learns to talk by listening to people talk, by playing with sounds and words, and by talking to others. Our early childhood expert, Jan Jones, describes how babies first learn to recognise sounds, and then create them based on these foundations.

Jan Jones provides a comprehensive list of activities that you can use during playtime with your 0-9 month old.

Baby Hints and Tips member Ambre shares how she and her husband are raising her son to be bilingual, and why it is so important to her.

Jan Jones provides an extensive list of play and leisure activities to stimulate particular areas of learning from birth right up until 12 years old.

The first step to guiding children’s behaviour is understanding what is behind the unwanted behaviour, but sometimes that is easier said than done. Our early childhood expert, Jan Jones, discusses some of the common causes of bad behaviour, and suggests strategies for helping to develop your child’s coping mechanisms in these situations, and for encouraging new, more positive, behaviours to form.

Instructions on making a scrunch bag (suitable for 4-18 month olds) plus other homemade toys. There is also information on the value of these toys for babies’ development.

Babies might not be able to talk, but they definitely know how to let us know how they are feeling! Jan Jones explores how children communicate and provides tips on how to encourage their communication skills and reasons why things might not be progressing as well as they should.

This list  contains the main skills that your child should have before they are ready to begin their year preceding formal schooling.

Decades of research have documented that play has a crucial role in the optimal growth, learning and development of children from infancy through adolescence.