Learning in the Earliest Years
Ages 0 to 2

The Original  

LIVE

Love

Laugh

Sing ...

Verbalize ...

Play ...

0 to 3 Months

Sing

starting at birth ...

For the Lord your God is living among you.
He is a mighty savior.
He will take delight in you with gladness.
With his love, he will calm all your fears.
He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.

Playfully sing songs

Mindfully sing songs

Over your precious little one.

Learn songs if you do not have songs in your repertoire. 

Practice songs -- 

Proclaiming life.

 Proclaiming identity.

 Proclaiming purpose.

Teach these things to your children.  Talk about them when you're sitting together in your home and when you're walking together down the road.  Make them the last thing you talk about before you go to bed and the first thing you talk about the next morning.

-Deuteronomy 11

Use songs to . . .              

Speak 

  Shout

 Celebrate

Inheritance - in your child's life - everyday             

(every step of the way)

for I know the plans I have for you ...

plans to give you a future filled with HOPE


Let the songs begin ...

Songs about God as savior...

Songs about God the giver of Life ...

Songs about being safe in God's care.

Sing these songs

So often,

So strong,

That they are the song, early on, heard in your child's heart even as he plays in the sand!

Verbalize ...

Talk to your child.  

Right at Birth

Often

Continually

Look them in the eye.

Smile.

Stare a long while.

Smile some more.

Chat with them.  Read them Poems.  Right at birth. 

Memorize things you love so you can look them in the eye and speak the words right into their steady gaze:

John 1 - "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the very beginning.  Through Jesus all things were made;  without Jesus, nothing was made that has been made.  In Jesus is life, and that life is the light by which we all see."

And that light shines in you.

And that light shines in me.  

For that is light through whom we are created.

Tell your brand new baby such things every day.
Twice a day ... Or more:)


Play ...

There are miles of advice out there - but the best advice I was ever given, beyond singing, talking and reading to my little one was ...

to take inexpensive black or white gift bags, filled them with tissue, and   cover them in white and black (at birth) and, then, later, white, black, and red print designs. (see below.) 

You then place these bags just out of reach of your infant.  Near  their hands where they stretch and their feet where they kick. 

I used this with my children from day one at home.  It is more satisfying for the infant than anything you can purchase.  The moment your baby kicks the gift bag - they love that sound.  They may even knock it over.  Just from freely moving - but over time they are able to connect their actions to the sound.  You can move the bags about as the child grows and because the bags provide larger points of contact,  you infant is more often delighted by the sound they are able to make.


This site provides a whole lot of black and white and black, white and red prints to cover a plain white or black bag,

There eyes can see and and to place red and white and black tissue paper in them.   You can print out 

4 to 6 Months

6 to 9 Months

9 to 12 Months

12 to 18 Months

18 to 24 Months

Children - love feedback 

Young Children - while lying on their back place 

Your first paragraph ...