Rookie Dad Tackles the Toddler

Chapter One

Brain Gym: Colors, Sizes, and Shapes

It's a well-known fact that intelligent dads usually have intelligent kids, which means that the next Einstein could be sitting in your living room watching Teletubbies. But when it comes to "smarts," genes aren't everything. Nurture is just as important as nature, and you can give even the brightest toddler a boost in the learning department by providing brain exercise in the form of new experiences.

Right now, your child's brain is literally under construction. Over the next two years, trillions of connections will form between her brain cells, and those connections will help determine everything, from how well she'll speak a foreign language to how good she'll be at trigonometry, history, or quantum physics. Every interesting new experience you offer her -- petting a goat, smelling a flower, reading a new book -- will build new connections, and those connections translate into increased brainpower.

Show her how bathtub toys float and how rocks dropped into a puddle sink. Buy her a set of toy tools, and show her how they work. Have h ... read full excerpt from: Rookie Dad Tackles the Toddler ebook