Toys That Unleash Their Imagination
“Smart toys” are “dumb toys,” and vice versa.
StrongStart Practices feature toys made by RAD Children’s Furniture, which has been making them for two decades at their workshop in Inglewood, CA. These toys encapsulate the thinking of Magda Gerber and Emmi Pikler, helping kids explore their abilities without constraints or prescriptive rules.
Use the promo code EARLYENGAGEMENT on RAD’s website and you will get 10% off your order.
Essential Books for Dads
The Science of Brain Development
The way your baby grows – from a blind, helpless blob to a little person who can talk, run and say “no” – is mind-blowing. There are many videos that discuss this.
But what is most important is understanding brain development. It is understanding brain development that will make all the difference in your ability to parent with confidence.
Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University
We recommend the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.
Their videos and presentations are simple, clear, focused on how your baby’s brain develops, and how you can support it.
A Good, Complete Source
“Zero to Three” [ Home • ZERO TO THREE ] is an international organization focused on how “the earliest years of life are a unique period of opportunity and vulnerability.”
To go Deeper into Dad Science
Anna Machin is a British anthropologist who’s book “The Life of Dad” is a great exploration of why and how men parent differently. Some of her work is summarized here – it’s good background on such questions as “Why do Men Hold Children Differently?” “Why do Dads throw their children up in the air?” and, related, “Why do Moms and Dads disagree so much about risk?” (A discussion of “How Dads do it Differently” is here)
Or you can just read the Stoics
A complete text on Stoic fathering is available here – but the main point is “There are things you can control, and things you can’t.”