Conference moira::parenting_v3

    Mark & Paula:
    
    My son, Danny, is 4 1/2 months.  He loves those huge colorful keys,
    the Sesame Street Play Gym, and the Sesame Playmat.  I have found
    that other toys can be too overwhelming for him right now.  He's
    found the "baby" in the mirror and loves peek-a-boo.  
    
    You are right now your baby's favorite playmate.  Dan also loves
    the small beach ball.  He giggles and giggles all the time.  Maybe
    he'll be a future soccer player like his father.
    
    Shelly

	Let's see...  Amazing how long ago that seems now.  (Katie just turned
13 months old.)

	If I remember correctly, 4 months was about the time that Katie was 
really getting the idea that rattles rattle.  A favorite with her was the 
Fisher Price Rocking Horse Rattle.   It's a red ring (suitable for teething)
with a bar across the center on which there is a rocking horse.  At first 
all she could do was hold on, but as she grew older, she was able to 
move it from hand to hand, shake it, twirl the horse in the center and so on.
 
	Another good thing was to brightly colored cloth books.  She was 
nowhere near being ale to appreciate them as books, but wanted to encourage 
her interest in them the bright colors held her interest.

	At this time Katie also loved the "sneezing game".  We stumbled upon 
this by accident.  I sneezed, Katie startled and then laughed!  So I faked a 
sneeze, she startled again and laaauuughed.  It got elaborate as we went on 
with bigger build ups to the sneeze and so on.  She LOVED it!  (To this day, 
she LOVES to be "scared".  Give it a few years and "look out rollercoasters!")

	I think it was around 5 months that we started playing "Where's Katie?
There she is!" Under blankets and towels and so on.
	
	In general the guidelines on baby toys (0-6 months, birth to 18 months 
and so on) are pretty good.  However we always try to have at least one or two 
toys that are "beyond her age" and make them available to her. (After making 
sure that they are safe for her of course.)  She let's us know when she is 
ready for them.  

Tracey

    Justine's favorite from about 4 months to 8 months was the
    Johnson&Johnson Wiggle Worm. You can get it at Toys R Us.... Jan

Things my 3-and-a-half month old (Michelle) loves.  Some of these can entertain
her for up to 15 minutes:

- her mobile; it has clown faces that look down at her
- cartoons or music television.  Of couse as a '90s mom, I make sure they're
  not violent (who knows what that little mind can absorb?).
- those little tiny rubber squeeze toys.  She can't squeeze them, but she
  loves to mouth them
- any small, and I mean small, toy she can grasp easily.  Ones that make
  noise, like rattles, are even better.
- mommy's fingers, especially when I have rings on
- singing songs where I make "boo" or "boom" sounds and sometimes
  combining that with holding her hands and moving them together and apart,
  or playing with her feet.  She loves the patty cake song, especially the
  roll it all up and throw it in the pan part where I'm moving her hands.
- talking to her and pretending to "eat" her hands or feet
- one of those toys that hangs down over her in her playpen; she's just
  now able to purposely touch it and move it around, but I also twirl it,
  shake it, or squeeze the squeak toy on it for her

Sometimes I notice she doesn't need me or a toy at all.  She likes to look
at and eat her fingers or fists.  And also sometimes I prop her up on the couch
and she tries to grab her legs or feet.  Of course I don't leave her alone when
she's propped up as sometimes her reaching makes her keel over!

I also bought a walker because she loves to stand but when I tried it she
was way too small and didn't stand in it, just kind of sat there like a lump.
I guess I'll try it later.

Also Michelle likes to go for stroller rides, but only, again, for about
15 minutes.  If the weather's nice, we also sit outside on the porch and look
at the flowers and my cats, or we'll walk around the yard and look at things.

Kyra

    
    I've just been invited to a DISCOVERY TOYS party.  What can I expect?
    I'm assuming it's similar to a Tupperware party.  Any good toys
    I should look for.  My daughter is 8  months old.
    
    Thanks,
    Vicky

    I've found that Discovery Toys are not inexpensive, but they are made
    VERY well (no, I'm not a DT rep!) and their play value extends through
    several age groups in many instances.  Good example is their nesting
    cups; there are 12 of them, I think, and at first all the baby wants to
    do is take them all out and knock them together... but then you find
    out that, upside down, they stack to a very solid and satisfying tower;
    their bottoms have animal outlines in relief so they leave an imprint
    in wet sand; and their volumes are mathematically workable (the #1 cup
    + the #3 cup = the #4 cup, EXACTLY).
    
    I've never been to a DT party but I manage to get ahold of a catalog
    about once a year (just got the latest one at the Bolton (MA) Fair on
    Saturday).  I don't think I've ever been disappointed with their stuff.
    
    Leslie

    
    Jason received a Discovery Toy last Christmas.  It is a peg-board,
    and while I can't speak for other toys that they offer, this one
    doesn't do much for me.   The toy itself is okay; the child can
    put the "pegs" into hole in the board in any arrangement of colors
    or stack them into a tower -  but Jason prefers most of his other
    toys over this one.   What I don't like about it is that each
    peg must be in its own hole in the board in order to get the 
    darn thing back in the box.   If the box as about 1/2" taller,
    you could put the board (with whatever pegs were in it) into the
    box and throw the rest of the pegs in on top.  Minor annoyance, I
    know, but a simple solution would be to provide a different box or
    a small bag to collect all the pieces in.
    
    Carol 

In general I've found that there are "regular" brand name toys like Fisher
Price or Little Tykes that are very similar to the Discovery Toys.  They do
have some really cute things, but it's mom and dad that care, not the kids.

    	Marissa has really liked the Giant peg board mentioned in .7, she's
    been playing with it since before 12 months (and she's now almost 20 
    months).  I haven't seen a similarly nerdy toy like that available yet 
    in the toystores.
    
    	It is definitely one of the toys that she mostly likes to play with 
    mom, not alone, although she also plays with it alone in her crib.  She 
    used to really enjoy knocking the little pegs all over the place
    (especially when mom was trying to see how high she could stack them).   
    Now we talk about the color and number of pegs, and she makes the 
    towers herself that she knocks down.  We still aren't in to placing
    them in the pegs in patterns yet, so I can see future fun down the road.
    
    	We also got a little toy that was like a busy box, except no box:
    the little spinners etc (farmer, windmill, cow) were mounted on a 
    flat piece of yellow plastic.  That's been great to keep in the 
    diaper bag or pocketbook for whenever a little distraction is needed
    (e.g., long car trips, slow restaurant service, etc.)
    
    	I think the prices are quite high, remember you have to pay sales
    tax and shipping charges on top of the listed price.  
    
    	--Andrea
    
    ps	If you're looking for baby books (get her reading early!), I  suggest 
    you drive over to Newton (MA) some Saturday to get 20% off list at the New 
    England Mobile Book Fair on Needham St, which has got a fantastic 
    selection of popup, flap, cardboard, picture books, etc.  (As well as 
    books for everyone else!)

    At four months, my son really like a DT called Shake Rattle n Roll.  It
    is a rattle/busy box that is small enough for the baby to hold, but has
    lots of moving pieces.
    
    We have the pegboard too.  I think my daughter liked it as much in
    first grade as she did when she was little.  If you flip it over it
    becomes a geo-board that the kids can use to create shapes with
    elastics.   Also, at four years old, she liked to string the pegs on a
    shoestring to make necklaces.  This was great for her to develop fine
    motor skills.