Talk, read and sing with your baby - A list of tips from Natalie, founder of Babylist

My name is Natalie and I love making a positive impact in the lives of pregnant women with the company I started, BabyList baby registry. When I was asked to take over the Lucy Darling blog, I considered telling you all the amazing reasons to register at babylist or to tell your pregnant BFF about it. The BabyList Best Guides we just launched are pretty awesome too, but instead I want to talk about something that I’ve found challenging and I’d love to hear it talked about more.

Because my doctor is in Oakland, California, I’ve been a part of a pilot program of Talking is Teaching: Talk, Read, Sing. I love their message so much! It’s simple -- talk to your baby more. Read to your baby. Sing to your baby! The more words children hear spoken to them by parents and caregivers from birth, the more words they learn. It’s a small thing that has a huge impact on the development of your baby.

Rather than just reminding you of the importance of spending time with your baby, I find it helpful to put this powerful suggestion into bite-sized, actionable pieces. To help explain what I mean I’d like to introduce my son Ben - he’s 7 months old, loves to eat everything and his favorite activity is currently trying to scoot anywhere and everywhere.

Ben can’t talk back yet, so sometimes it feels odd to speak to someone when there is not much of a response. And sometimes it’s tiring.

Some of the ways we hang out together:

• Put on some of my favorite spotify mixes. You don’t have to listen to kid’s music (even though I love love love Raffi -- he’s a calming presence).
• Talk math by counting steps as I walk with him or talking about the shapes of objects he stares at
• Play “I’m going to kiss your toes!”, “I’m going to kiss your elbows!”
• Play “peekaboo” while folding laundry.
• Talk about the food we eat and how we made it.

• Describe all the things we see in the backyard, out the window, in the bedroom, etc.
• Sing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” Love this print displaying this action too:

 I’ve also found that telling my 5-year-old how important this is, gets him in on it too. “Ben will be able to talk to you earlier if you tell him things everyday.”

My question for you is what do you do with your baby? What fits best into your life?