I See You!

Babies are fascinated by faces--yours most of all. Within hours of birth they appear to know the difference between a stranger's face and that of their mother or father. And babies immediately seem to understand that they, too, have eyes, noses, and mouths just like those they're looking at. If you stick your tongue out at a quiet, attentive newborn and wait just a moment, she'll slowly stick her tongue out in return. Quite a feat for someone so new to the world!

Babies are charmed by faces in general. Researchers have known for over forty years that babies seem to have an innate attraction to anything resembling a face that is looking directly at them. Sketch two eyes, a nose, and a mouth on a paper plate, and your baby will probably stare at it as intently as a first-time visitor to the Louvre would gaze at the Mona Lisa.

Older babies and toddlers are interested in faces, too. As you enjoy the October issue of BABYBUG with your child, linger over the faces beginning with the cheerful mice on the cover. You'll find Kim, Carrots, and even their pumpkin smiling openly from the illustrations. And don't miss the appealing owl faces in "Baby Eyes" and the mischievous cat face in "Peekaboo!"  

No matter how many faces babies examine, they're most delighted by the faces of those who love and care for them every day. It's through eye contact with trusted adults that babies first learn to interact with others.

Play Together

Whether your child picks a pumpkin from a backyard garden, like Kim does, or chooses one in the local grocery store, that pumpkin is sure to contain a lot more than potential pies and jack-'o-lanterns. Pumpkins also hold opportunities for informal learning about math.

When you and your toddler are picking out just the right pumpkin, you're likely to be fostering a basic understanding of size. Talk about what you see: "This one's big, isn't it?" "And look, this one is even bigger." "I think this one over here is the biggest of all."  

Toddlers relish the opportunity to paint, and painting a face on a pumpkin, as Kim and Grandma do, gives very young children a safe, attractive way to create a decoration. A carved pumpkin can also be a jack-o'-lantern shape-sorting puzzle.

• Cut out triangles, circles, and squares for its features. Then give your toddler the cut-out pieces.
• Your child can match the shapes to the holes, all the while experiencing some hands-on geometry.
• Taking the pieces out and putting them back in helps your child to understand part-whole relationships.

Read Together

Being read to is only one part of literacy development. Pretending to read aloud is another. Studies have shown that it is as helpful for children to share their own stories as it is for them to be read to. When your child pretends to read to you, even though her words don't match those printed on the page, she's developing her own sense of narrative structure--and, maybe even more importantly, her own sense of herself as a reader.