Brain building activities for Newborns

Support your baby’s development from day one

A newborn’s or infant’s brain develops faster than at any other time in a child’s life.  Research shows that during this early period, back-and-forth interactions with caregivers, also known as “serve and return” interactions, strengthen neural connections in the brain. These connections are important for early learning and they establish pathways for future learning.  Relationships with nurturing and responsive caregivers are foundational for early learning and beyond.

Resources

• 5 Steps for Brain-Building Serve and Return
  This resource, by the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, details five steps for serve-and-return interactions with an overview video and downloadable PDFs in English and Spanish.

• InBrief: The Science of Early Childhood Development
  This brief from Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child is part of a series that summarizes the Center’s essential scientific findings on human brain development.

• Baby Games Calendar
  Enter the baby’s date of birth on this website to find age-appropriate activities, milestones, and games or get them by email.

• “My 1st Year” and “Discovering Feelings” Books
  Download these PDF booklets to help better understand a baby’s development, recognize important milestones, and record experiences.

• Learning, Play, and Your Newborn
  This Nemours Foundation resource describes what newborns are learning and how caregivers can support them. Also available in Spanish.

• How to Play with Babies
  This article from Zero to Three offers fun ways to interact with newborns and describes common signals that indicate when they want to stop the interaction.

• Nurse-Family Partnership
  This national non-profit provides free support to first-time moms with regular nurse visits from pregnancy through the child’s second birthday to keep mom and baby healthy and safe.

Baby talk before baby talks

Sign Up for Signing

Excerpt with permission from Parenting on the Peninsula and author, Evelyn Preston

Every parent’s been there, those fraught moments when their cuddly, cooing, oh-so-cute baby suddenly turns into a cranky, frustrated infant or toddler, spitting food, constantly crying, or even throwing tantrums. When it’s a toss-up over who’s more frantic and confused, baby or mommy, and it’s definitely not colic, a bump or a burp, there’s an ingenious way to ask baby “What’s up?” The little tyke may not yet have any words but definitely demands to be heard.

To bridge this super charged communication gap, Happy Baby Signs’ dedicated instructors teach new parents how “to talk” with their young offspring via American Sign Language. The amazing results calm everyone, get baby’s message across and offer brain enhancing benefits: accelerated language ability, reduced aggressive behavior and positive interaction plus the bonus of a stronger bond between baby and parent.  

The fun-filled classes with songs and interactive activities teach classic American Sign Language to parents (babies welcome), who then weave it into their infants’ everyday routines. Tricky to learn from a book, however an experienced “personal trainer” can fuse the nuance of signs, sounds and gestures that will work—and stick.

Check out the international best selling book, Signs of a Happy Baby!

Parents begin the Happy Baby Signs programs just as children’s long-term memory and motor skills kick in at about 4 - 6 months old.  At 8-10 months, as kids start mimicking adults and gesturing their wants, simple signing provides a jump-start for the verbal skills ahead.

The 90 minute Introductory Workshop presents the basics and benefits of signing (with a proof-positive video of adorable babies signing), prior to the follow-up six weeks of themed, one hour courses designed to help absorb about 100+ signs (for foods, colors, clothes, animals, playtime, etc.), that cement the magic.

According to Teacher Bill, even the youngest babies want to be connected to the world around them and can be clever and resourceful while learning how. Infants will emphatically indicate, “all done” after meals and baths or begin moving their hand to their mouth when they’re hungry. Emotions shine via smiles and hugs to the unmistakably signal “I love you.”

With mom, dad and grandparents consistently reinforcing with words, expressions and body language, signing kindles indelible associations in the fast forming infant brain. “It’s like riding that proverbial bicycle,” explains Bill, “once learned, not easily forgotten.” Early communication in languages, whether signing, Chinese, English or all together, becomes natural, interchangeable, useful and fun. Babies just do it and quickly catch on!

As children mature, the pleasure of being understood enhances self-esteem that in turn, encourages confidence toward increased communication which leads to more effective signing…a lasting circle of learning that spirals on to pre-school and beyond.

Parents wholeheartedly endorse this training. Just read the testimonials. Happy Baby Signs' instructors are lauded and loved for their special expertise and super enthusiasm. Paraphrased excerpts include, “My baby is rarely frustrated and therefore so am I; my child was so excited when we understood him; such a fun way of presenting the material—never too rigid; my daughter adds signs together for sentences...like 'MORE' + 'BOOK'.” and “the payoff is tremendous!”

As a speaker, Mommy’s Coach, and class participant, Carrie Vawter-Yousfi, says, “I especially appreciated Bill’s teaching by example, his wonderful stories of how signing with his own two young sons made their family life so much easier. I learned to start early, the sooner the better.”

Liza Baskind, mother of three, dispels the mistaken notion that signing will limit speaking. “On the contrary,” she says; “especially for so many children with delayed speech ability, signing will coax out more words, another factor in reducing frustration for parent and child.”

With the increasing popularity and positive results of Happy Baby Signs classes, parents who consider saving for a far off college future can make a nominal investment of time and money for their babies today that pays huge dividends in just a few months. It’s proven that children who communicate early via signing are verbally ahead a year or more by age three. Along with Thoreau’s premise that “language is the basis of all knowledge,” Teacher Bill reminds parents that “You can never redo those most important first two years of life!”

Estate Planning for New Parents

Taking care of our children is one of the most satisfying and rewarding things we will ever do, and it is hard to imagine a world where they are growing up without us, or where our spouse is suddenly a single parent with insufficient resources.

You might be surprised to learn that you already have an estate plan – the California default estate plan. Your minor children will be placed where it is “necessary and convenient” until a formal guardianship proceeding is held. Your assets will be liquidated through probate and held in trust for your minor children, who will receive cash when they are 18 years old.  If you are suddenly unable to care for yourself or take care of your own financial affairs, your family, including your spouse, may have to go to court to get permission to make financial and health care decisions for you.

With a personalized estate plan that includes a revocable or “living” trust, you decide when your children receive their inheritance.  You can protect them from receiving money when it might do more harm than good (divorce, litigation, addiction). A trust can also keep your family out of probate court – where everything (your assets, your debts, your heirs) is made public and the process is time consuming and expensive.

With a personalized guardianship nomination designation, you can provide a vision for your children’s future by providing the guardians with instructions on where you would like your children to live, what type of education is important to you, and who you want to have in, and out, of your children’s lives. You can even specify a spiritual advisor or ask the guardians to take your children to see the Giants play at least once a year.

You don't need to be "ready" to do an estate plan. You don't need to have your ducks in a row or your finances in order. You don't even need "an estate".

You only need to be willing to face the task head on and start. I can help you figure out the rest.  I hope you will attend my workshop at Recess.

I provide highly personalized estate planning services to families with young children. In addition to my workshop on estate planning fundamentals and guardianship nomination for families, I will have information on low cost estate planning options, tips on choosing the right estate planning attorney for your family, and I will bring my notary materials in case anyone would like to have statutory durable powers of attorney or advance health care directives notarized. Email me if you would like the forms – patricia@defontelaw.com

More information at: www.defontelaw.com

March and Beyond

Lucky us! 🍀

We have a really nice variety of events coming up in the next couple of months that we're excited to share.  From fitness, to mindfulness, to sign language & lots of opportunities for music.  Check out the schedule below or click this link to get more detailed information.

MARCH:

• 3/3 Music with Mega 12:15pm *

• 3/7 Live Cello in the Playspace* 

• 3/7 First Saturday Expecting Parent Meetups & New Parent Circles with Parentline *

• 3/7 Intro to EMbody Every Mother 1pm (TWO SPOTS LEFT)

• 3/9  Little Ladybugs Music with Toby 11:30am *

• 3/19 Establishing Healthy Eating Habits for your toddler, preschool & whole family 7:30pm

• 3/20 Intro to Baby Sign Language 10am

  • 6 class Playgroup every Friday runs 3/27 - 5/8

• 3/21 Japanese Storytime 10am

• 3/25 CPR for Parents & Caregivers. Infant, Child and Adult CPR + Chokesaving. 7:30pm

SNEAK PEEK into APRIL:

• 4/5  Drop off Cooking Class for Kids, followed by a family meal. Stay tuned for details 10-12:30

• 4/13 Intro to Mindfulness for Parents - cultivating, calm & compassion in the face of chaos

  • 5 week series, enroll before 3/23 to get the early bird special!

* = free for members

Live Cello is just one of our Playspace Activities.  
When you're a member of Recess, all of the following activities are included in your plan!

Mondays: Coming Soon - Infant Sensory Play 

Tuesdays: Music with Mega 1130 (playspace) 1215 (classroom)

Thursdays: Stories and Songs w/Regina 11am

Fridays: Sensory Play 4pm 

Select Saturdays:  Live Cello 10am & Sensory Play 11-12, New and Expecting Parent Circles

THIS COULD ALL BE YOURS!
When you book a party at Recess, the entire playspace is yours.  Invite up to 45 of your closest friends, bring whatever food/drink/decor you'd like, and get ready to enjoy a stress free celebration.  

Hop over to the calendar and secure a date.

BUILDING COMMUNITY.  New and Expecting Parent Groups - First Saturdays
Creating a network of support is important at every stage of life...but it's particularly crucial for new parents.  We invite you to build community through Parent Circles at Recess. You’ll organically meet like-minded parents and begin building your new family’s community, while gaining resources to help support your little one's growth.  More info here.

INTRO TO MINDFULNESS FOR PARENTS. You may know Charity Kahn the children's musician and educator.  She's also an incredible parent educator and community builder.  Recess is teaming up with Charity to bring a five week class, Mindfulness for Parents, to the space on Monday evenings 4/13-5/11.  We hope you'll join us in this opportunity for self care, stress reduction and insanely useful skills to ground yourself so that you are able to support your children.  More info here

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It's just a space without you.  What would your family like to see at Recess?  Many of you have completed our survey to help shape the future of Recess.  If you have not yet, and would like to share your thoughts/desires for our organization, please hop over to the survey! 

Would you like to help bring play to families who cannot afford it.  

$1, $5 or $10 a month can make a difference in the lives of local children.  Click here to donate.