Today's example of simple activities you can do with your baby/child to stimulate development is suitable for toddlers aged 18-24 months. This activiy is very cool and you'll have lots of fun with your little one sitting in a dark room following torch lights.

All you need is two torches - one for you and one for your little champ. Shine your torch light on the ceiling and ask him to follow the light with his torch. Draw figures or discover objects in the room. Describe what you are looking at and ask him to tell you what he sees. Perhaps without even realising it you've just helped your toddler develop eye tracking skills and trained hand/eye coordination.

Enjoy,

Stef

By Ken Burns about his experiences as a stay-at-home-dad

The first 2 years are the hardest to get through when you become a stay-at-home-dad. This is the time when the people you used to work with realise you won't be back - so many of your social contacts stop in the end. You can then have lots of time to read between the lines about why you have no contact with the guys anymore but there is point you have to accept what you've got and get in a position to reinvent yourself.

Women seem to have a lot more social contact than men but dads are happy to spend time at home with their kids and get on with their own housework / shopping routine. Some guys manage to get new contacts / parent help with kindy and school but these groups are mainly run by women. Not that men are deliberately left out but guys can find it harder to get involved as the meet-ups are often run by the same group of people for long periods.

If you have a toddler or an active young person then changing their clothes 3-4 times per day might seem like the norm? Well apart from putting them in dirt proof clothes you're probably also doing a lot of washing and may wonder how to get some of those damn stains out ...

Well, fear not, as usual DIYFather boldly goes where no dad has gone before ... a recent investigation into why our clothes are getting ruined and how to get rid off all sorts of nasty stains has revealed this very valuable information below. This should actually be in ALL parenting books (and yes we will put it in the 2nd edition of Call Me Dad). The stain removal tips will hopefully help you save some of the clothes for round 2 or make for a presentable item on your next clothes swap event. OK - here it goes - make sure that you treat the stains ASAP and they actually come out (I tried!!!)

Adhesive Tape

The third part of our little series on simple exercises you can do with your baby/child to stimulate development is suitable for toddlers aged 12-18 months. Even if your little champ has already mastered walking it's still a good idea to encourage him to crawl every now and then (this is because crawling encourages a cross-pattern movement where the left arm / right leg and right arm / left leg are moved simultaneously. This movement stimulates the creation of pathways in the brain to help develop co-ordination skills and body balance).

This exercise is extra simple - go to your shed / garage / neighbour and pick up a ladder, put it on the floor and let your little genius crawl over the rungs. As he gets used to it, you can raise the ladder off the floor by putting a few books under each end. The higher the ladder, the more difficult ... so you can play around with this set-up and keep practising with your toddler until one day he can easily step across a raised ladder.

If you've got an iPhone and a toddler you must know about the iPhone lightsaber application by Lucasfilm Ltd. If you haven't heard of it - get down from whatever planet you are on, hop on the App Store and download the "Lightsaber Unleashed" app. It is very cool and will allow you to produce endless videos of your toddler acting out real-life light saber duells (and with no risk of losing life or limb). Like this one ...

If there is such a thing as a non-technical gadget, I believe I've found one for having extra fun in the bathroom. Check out "Tinti" painting soaps - we recently got it as a present and it is just AWESOME!!! It's basically a combined soap and hand paint that you can use in the bathroom. It's non-toxic (food grade), non staining on skin, tiles, clothes or glass and your kids can use it to draw stuff around the bath tub or shower. But wait - there's more! It's also a soap of course ... so not only can your little princess draw her favourite animal on the tiles, she will come out nice and clean afterwards. The soap washes off with the water so all you need to restore your child and bath to a completely clean state is a simple rinse at the end.

The second part of our series on simple exercises you can do with your baby to help them develop fully is for dads with babies aged 6 - 12 months. It's called the "Wheelbarrow" exercise and here's what you do:

1) Lay your little champ on her front on top of a small (soft) ball, holding her around the hips
2) Encourage her to use her hands and walk on her hands, rolling back and forth over the ball
3) Watch her hands to make sure she puts them flat on the floor (and you don't step or kneel on her hands while holding her!)

Remember these are short exercises - so a couple of minutes at a time is perfect.

Enjoy,

Stef

For more exercises like these check out Margaret Sasse's book "Smart Start". It's definitely a good investment of 30 bucks and you can buy the book in most bookstores or online at Exisle Publishing.

We have a particular item in our home which is fast moving up the pecking order. To our 3 year old daughter Sophie, this item is a best friend, confidante, constant companion and fully fledged member of the household. White Blanket is his name, Sophie has insisted on this and we must address him as such. He is simply a blanket, no more special in design than any other piece of material, apart from the incredible amount of dirt that seems to hold him together.

If you ask our daughter about this rag, she will tell you that he is a boy and he is one year old - the same age as Sophie’s little brother and according to her, can do everything just a little bit better than her little brother can do it. White Blanket gets pushed around in a small plastic pram when he’s not being carried like a newborn. He is very good on the slide, and you’ve never seen another blanket perform like he does on the trampoline.

In the foreword to Margaret Sasse's book "Smart Start", Professor Frances Page Glascoe points out that kids in Gymbaroo sessions are mostly accompanied by their dads. This is obviously somewhat unusual and you'd be well aware of the "alone among women" phenomenon if you've done your fair share of parenting education / activity groups for kids. So this is great - it means Margaret has found a formula that works for dads! To celebrate this we've got agreement from the publisher of her book to post a mini series of exercises dads can do with their kids at home. The book is divided into 8 chapters (by age range) - so we will post one exercise from each group ... and hey there may be a prize in it for you at the end!

First up is a simple exercise for babies who can lift up their head (i.e. typically 3 months or older). It's called "Rocking" and what you do is get on the floor (ideally where you've got a soft surface - like carpet), sit up with your legs stretched out and put bubs in your thighs with his feet against your stomach. Hold onto his hands and rock backwards and up to the sitting position again. Do this a few times (not more than 10) - this exercise gives your little champ an opportunity to experience alternating between lying down and being upright. Great for developing balance and as preparation for later on when he tries to pull himself up to practice walking.

Enjoy,
Stef

For more exercises like these check out Margaret Sasse's book "Smart Start". It's definitely a good investment of 30 bucks and you can buy the book in most bookstores or online at Exisle Publishing.

I recently had the opportunity to review comic and award winning filmmaker Chris Mancini’s book “Pacify Me – A handbook for the freaked-out new dad”. The book delivers everything you expect from a comic come involved dad. It’s short, funny and contains lots of references to cult movies, TV shows, music and baby toys. Ah yes, and it covers all the weird and wonderful feelings, situations and experiences fathers (and in this case Chris) typically go through on their journey from lad to dad.