Small Beginnings: First Steps to Prepare Your Child for Lifelong Learning

by Barbara Curtis

Book Overview

UNLOCK YOUR TODDLER'S LOVE OF LEARNING NOW! Moms of toddlers run a marathon every day just keeping up with them. But there's still time to encourage their natural love of learning! The secret is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805462872
• ISBN13: 9780805462876
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
• Length: 148 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Making the toddler years fun!

I found this book 3 years ago at a library and promptly bought it. I also have recommended it to my friends. What I love about it is that it has taught me to view the toddler years through a different lens. Instead of just trying to get through the 2s and 3s, I now see these years as a great time for learning and exploring. "Small Beginnings" has lots of practical ideas to help parents structure an environment where young children can develop their potential. The activities in the back of the book have kept my toddlers interested for long periods of time using intense concentration. I can just see the brain cells connecting! This book has helped me to answer the question of what to do with my children to use our time together wisely. More importantly, it has opened my mind to see the endless possibilities around me each day that I can use to foster learning and growth in my children.

Beginning Small is better than trying to start big

Barbara Curtis is the mother of twelve children (that is NOT a typo) and her book Small Beginnings describes how to encourage your child's God-given love of learning by turning everyday experiences into educational opportunities. Because three of her children have Down's Syndrome, she has had to be more deliberate than most in her efforts to teach her kids basic skills. Small Beginnings is a realistic plan to develop practical skills in your children as an integral part of your daily routine. Barbara advocates using a child's natural desire for independence to develop self-reliance, a sense of order, self-control and the ability to concentrate on a task or project. Through her gently comic examples of trial, error and success, Barbara's suggestions are simple and fun. What a relief! Using this method, my children should be doing their laundry by age ten. (I'll get back to you on that in a few years). Barbara even includes a list of age appropriate chores. I thought four was too early for my son to get his own cereal or sort recyclables, until I asked him to try it. He was so excited about the new responsibility that he regularly asks me what else he can do now. I hope it lasts. Small Beginnings was a terrific jumpstart.

An essential easy-to-read parenting resource

I appreciated several things about this book. Barbara Curtis is "real" and credible! She understands the demands of parenting and a parent's desire to build character into the heart of a child. I thought the book was easy to read. It has both vision and practical ideas to stimulate learning and such traits as self-control and service to others in children. You'll enjoy Barbara's personal examples and encouraging style!

Belongs on the Shelf right next to Brazelton & Sears

This is a book I've turned to over and over again, to help me regain my perspective on my two children (born 14 months apart), or to glean some comfort, inspiration, advice, or encouragement. I've loaned it out more than 10 times, and have given it as a gift at countless baby showers. I've never met a person who writes so compassionately, affectionately and respectfully to parents and about toddlers, and her insights cast the Terrible Two's in an entirely different light. I don't consider myself deeply religious, but Mrs. Curtis' tone was not the least bit offensive, and she radiates love and common-sense wisdom.

A Mother of Preschoolers Must Have

"Small Beginnings" by Barbara Curtis, was one of the most insightful books that I have read about young children, the way they learn, and how to inhance that learning potential. This book has enabled me to look at my two children in a whole new way.I recomend it to anyone who would like to challenge themselves to really get to know their children!