DK Baby's First Skills Book

I read this book in 2010 when my daughter was born and loaned my copy to a friend afterward and never got it back so reordered it in 2018 after my son was born. This book is brilliant providibg you with a month by month guide to you’d child’s development and how to play with them each month to aid their development. It’s easy to read - takes about 5 mins to read up on each month of development meaning you only need to set aside 5-10 mins a month once your baby is born to read this because let’s face it with the sleep deprivation and general lack of time you have when loOking after a baby five mins a month is all you can spare. Stoppard is a genius explaining everything clearly and unpatronisingly providing you with assurance that you’re on the right track/engaging your baby in the best way possible to help them

Absolutely love this. It’s written in a succinct manner, clearly displayed, I like that it’s organised into 2 month blocks and not only provides activities for each of these stages but suggested when and how to use them and why they will benefit your baby at that particular developmental stage. It’s a quick read, decent quality and good value. I’d never heard of this ‘golden hour’ concept before, but I’ve mentioned it to nursery teachers and parents I know they seem familiar with it and like the concept. I’m a tutor (ex teacher) and my daughter is coming up to 8 months. This book goes up to 12 months. I only wish I’d bought it sooner!

Pros:Good range of ideas for something to doActivities seem well thought out and appropriate for ageGolden hour is a good conceptCons:Some of the activities are amongst the general sections, would be easier if they were all together at the back!Time consuming to find activitiesGeneral learning point:You can overstimulate your baby! Don't exceed the golden hour of activities and appreciate looking at one small toy for a length of time may be boring for you but can still be very stimulating for them.

I really like this book and I would definitely recommend it. It would make a brilliant baby shower present, especially for first time parents and parents in lockdown!The book is split into months so you don't need to read it all in one go - you can simply flick to the section that's relevant to you at the time. Miriam gives you lots of excellent ideas for how to interact and play with your baby. It has been really useful for us and given us plenty of good tips. I think it can be quite hard to think of things to do with a little one (particularly during the pandemic) so this has been a great source of inspiration.I bought this book when it was a fiver which is great value - it seems a little more now (around £7), but still worth it!

Very helpful book, written in a very easy to absorb way. It mostly provides practical information for parents and carers, but it also explains a bit of the theory behind it. The authors use a simple and insightful framework to explain babies' development, which is not too rigid but also provides some reassuring reference. The authors list a series of age appropriate games for each month; not only do they explain how to execute them, but they also explains what development milestones they are aimed at and what part of the brain they are stimulating. I wish I bought this earlier!