Role play forms a natural part of childhood, before long your little ones will assume characters in different scenarios and act out the different parts.  Often role play is based on what children have observed, such as caring for younger siblings, keeping a shop or playing doctors, families or schools.  As their imagination grows, so they begin to play made up scenarios such as fairies or princesses, explorers  or monsters!

Role play offers many lessons to a developing child; clearly pretend play extends language and social interaction as children play with one another, or with a parent.  Make believe nurtures imagination and helps children to develop abstract thought where they can extend the rules of the physical world into their pretend world.  As they play they are developing their understanding of the world, learning to solve problems and learning the ability to view the world from the perspective of others.

Many role play games reinforce gender stereotypes from an early age; this seems to be a natural part of early play.  Doctors and nurses and mummies and daddies might seem politically incorrect in this day and age, but the lessons learned from free play are much more important than lessons enforced about gender stereotyping at this young age.  Any separation along lines of gender simply mirrors their understanding of the world through their own observation, and is done entirely innocently.

Other role play games reinforce notions of good and bad; cops and robbers, fairies and witches, cowboys and indians or simply goodies and baddies all draw lines between the good side and bad side and children dividing themselves in such ways will conform to the expected behaviour.

Young children should be encouraged in their make-believe worlds.  They might be asissted with dressing up clothes or large props such as play houses or camps, but at the end of the day, children will be children and will explore their imaginary worlds even without these!

Children can be very inquisitive, often asking very good questions, and it's easy to brush off or ignore ones we can't answer, but if they ask a question that you don't know the answer to, seize the opportunity to explore the topic and both you and your children will learn something new!

The internet gives us the most amazing resource imaginable - at our fingertips are the answers to almost any question on the planet, and certainly to any questions that our children will pose!  If a challenging question comes your way, take time to research the answer, and encourage the inquisitive, learning nature of your little ones.

The internet is not the only resource at hand.  Perhaps a question might lead to a trip to the library, a museum or the zoo?  You don't have to answer just a single question, take the time to explore the topic area more broadly and that way your children will learn so much more.  Young children absorb facts in an astounding way, but they also need to hear the conceptual reasons behind something as they build up their knowledge and understanding of the world more broadly.

Of course, your children won't understand scientific reasoning behind complex answers, your job is to couch  explanations in terms that they will comprehend.  Reference things that they do understand, and explain things using examples and experiences from everyday life that your little ones will understand.

Well, why is the sky blue and why do fish live in water?

The sky appears to be blue because air molecules scatter more blue light than other colours, until the sun sinks on the horizon at which point the light is coming indirectly and more red, yellow and orange light is scattered, sometimes leading to glorious sunsets!

Fish don't have lungs, but gills - these have developed to filter oxygen out of water rather than taking oxygen from the air.

Now, try explaining those in terms that a four year old will understand!

Play is important for every child and for the first few years of their lives, babies and toddlers learn a huge amount during what they consider to be 'play'.  This is why teaching through play is such a great way to guide and educate our children because the message gets through, they learn and yet it all happens while they are having fun, playing!

During play, children expand their understand of the world, their understanding of themselves, and indeed their understanding of other people.  Once children play together, it is also a way to start communicating with other children and sharing ideas and games.

By six months, children have learned, through trial and error, various sequences that they practice.  If they push a ball, it rolls!  They see that something happens and they like the feeling of it happening.   They are learning to grip and drop and use their hands.

By nine months they might push a ball, crawl to get it and push it again.  They master new skills and make the play more interesting and complex for themselves. They use props more and gravitate towards toys they like.

By a year, they are able to be even more accurate with their props/toys.  They know a rattle will rattle and can kick or throw or roll a ball.

Types of play

• Sensory play: As they gain confidence and control their games become even more complex.  They enjoy the sensation of movement such as swings and slides. They will do things over again to relive the experience.

• Pretend Play: Children begin by being adult led and take the initiative from parents when starting out with pretend play.  Once they see what they can do, they may take the lead.  They may take familiar roles of doctor, or Dad when playing.  They may need, props and costumes and will probably be happy making a dressing gown into a super hero cape or tying a scarf round their head to make a princess veil.

• By 4 or 5, pretend play becomes peer focused and they children will happy to share a pretend game together, working out what to do and who is going to be who in the game.  They will discuss the rules of the game, how it will unfold.  They may well guide behaviour by suggesting an action.  "You'll need to drink your tea before you go to work, Dad."  Pre-schoolers will also have to overcome conflict and negotiate.

• Constructive play: Blocks and boxes are used to create a pretend miniature world.  This type of play, allows the child complete freedom to create a world of their own.

• Physical Play: Rough and tumble, running games, chasing games are all popular with pre-schoolers.  They have more control at this age and can jump, run, climb and chase.  Overly aggressive behaviour should be checked, but it's all about learning how to control their body and what they are capable of.

• Organised games: A more logical and formal game arrangement becomes popular between 4 and 5 years old.  They can cope with and understand the idea of having rules and  are able to follow those rules in order to have a fun game.  The idea of competition is introduced and that of winner or loser!  Teams are also introduced and the idea of working together for a common goal.

What's our role?

Observe and comment in a positive way to encourage them.

Play with them especially when they are young,  It affirms the idea of playing and makes them feel worthwhile if you are willing to play too.

Create a playful atmosphere and allow them to play - give them permission to make some noise or a mess!

Make suggestions if they are stuck.

Ensure everyone plays safely ie. the equipment is safe and that the children behave properly too!

The biggest annual celebration of books and reading is coming soon - 4th March will see the 15th World Book Day event in England and Ireland, but the origins can actually be found in Spain!

On 23rd April 1616 one of Spain's most famous authors, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, died.  Better known simply as Cevantes, he wrote Don Quixote. On that same day in England, William Shakespeare, our most celebrated author also died.

But it's not just because of these two authors we celebrate 23rd April - it is also St George's Day which is very significant because in Spain on 23rd April it is customary for men to give roses to their lovers.  Since 1925 it has become the custom for the women to give their men in return, a book.  Many booksellers today still carry on the tradition is Spain, you'll often get a rose in your  new book if bought on this day.

It is for these reasons that UNESCO deemed this date most appropriate to celebrate books in all their glory.  Children especially are encouraged to take a book and read it!  Children all over the world will do so each year!

In the UK the date was revised in order for World Book day to fall in March when children are mid term at school rather than on school holidays.

Nowadays it's an important part of the calendar and schools and children celebrate it all over the country.  Some will wear costumes to school dressed as their favourite characters, others will dress in their pyjamas to stress the importance of the bedtime story.  Whatever you do, just don't forget to do something with a book on 4th March - and make it fun!

It stands to reason that art and craft assists to develop fine muscle control in your babies, and that kicking, running and chasing games improve their physical strength and control, but how do you kick start your baby's ability to think and solve problems?  Funnily enough, abstract thinking and analytical skills are the focus of many toys created for babies and toddlers.  You may not have thought about it, but toys such as shape sorters, simple jigsaws starting with just two pieces per puzzle, old fashioned building blocks and musical instruments all help to develop analytical and thinking skills in babies and toddlers.

Walk into a toyshop and so many of the toys available today were available in a similar form in our own childhood - many were available in similar form during our parents and grandparents childhoods too!  Science has long told us that interacting with such toys helps us explore the world and develop our thinking, perhaps what is more surprising is that there are so few innovations in childrens toys over the last two generations.  That comes down to the fact that human development hasn't evolved in that time, and for a long time we have had a pretty good understanding of it.

When nurturing your chilren, or children that you work with, introduce a good balance of 'thinking' games and activities.  This is only one area of child development, but it can be easy to overlook the importance of this area if you particularly enjoy more physical activities.  That is one reason that the Early Years Foundation Stage is so important - by following the guidelines and ticking off boxes for areas that you have pursued, you will automatically be delivering a well balanced development plan to your little ones.  If you aren't the most creative person and struggle for ideas in areas of EYFS, or you simply want ideas that you can adopt and develop, then sign up to ToucanLearn now!  We offer hundreds of activities concentrating on key development skills, and for premium members we link them all to EYFS too so that you can track progress with your little ones.  If you are toying with the idea of subscribing to ToucanLearn, then there are several hundred good reasons for doing so!

The EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) is a set of guidelines provided by the government to set the standards for the learning, development and care of children. It covers babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers from birth to age 5.

It gives childminders, carers and nurseries guidelines within which they can care for and guide the children. It provides targets for children and a means by which to measure a child's progress.

There are six Areas of Learning and Development defined in the Early Years Foundation Stage. These are as follows:

1. Personal, Social and Emotional Development: This includes among other things how to make a maintain relationships, self-confidence and self-esteem; behaviour and self care and children's sense of community.
2. Communication, Language and Literacy: How children use and develop language to speak, how they think, how they learn letters and soundsm how they learn to read and write.
3. Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy: This includes numbers, counting, shapes and calculating.
4. Knowledge and Understanding of the World: How children explore new places and objects; how they design and make things. How they use information and technology to learn; also, time, history and other people's cultures.
5. Physical Development: How children move and use space and equipment, their health and bodily awareness.
6. Creative Development: How children respond to what they see, hear, feel smell and touch; how they use new materials and make new things; dance, music and imaginative play.

Since 2008 all childminders registered in England who look after children must deliver the EYFS and be inspected by OFSTED.  Although childminders are trained professionals, its not restricted to them alone and parents can also learn a great deal from the EYFS and the guidelines it offers.

All of ToucanLearn's activities are linked to the EYFS Areas of Learning and Development which means premium members can search for activities within each area and encourage and entertain their children with appropriate crafts, games and activities.

The EYFS makes it easy for childminders and parents to see what each child should be doing. ToucanLearn gives a practical implementation and a whole lot of fun!

What's the best way to handle the situation when your toddler says a bad word and why did they say it in the first place?

Using bad language is fairly common in toddlers.  They pick up new words from other children at nursery or school and suddenly you hear them say things you've never heard before!  Using a bad word is a way of expressing frustration or anger.  They may say it because they think it's funny or because their best friend at school said it.  But, what ever the reason behind saying that word, your reaction is the most important thing.

How to react

• Try not to react too much. Ignore it if you can the first time.  They might see that there's no reaction from you and never say it again!  Certainly don't go crazy and tell them off as this will get them lots of attention which may be what they are after!  Just explain calmly there are some words we don't say.

• If they are over 2 years and know how to say sorry, ask them to apologise to you or whoever the bad words were directed at.  Explain that it was offensive or hurtful and try to make it clear that it's not nice or acceptable.

• Don't laugh, because they will think you've found it funny and will do it again and again to make you laugh even more.

• Think of other words to say when they are angry.  'Upsy Daisy' or 'Oh Dear' when they fall over or stub their toe rather than anything more aggressive.

• Look around at the environment or the people round your child and see where the language might have come from: an uncle who uses bad language, older cousins who might have said things between themselves and been over heard.  If it's just 'potty' talk, then it is probably just children at nursery, but do have a look at the people who spend time with your child just in case its a family member and you may need to request a "toning down" of their language.

• If they keep using profanities, then you have to make clear what will happen: introduce "time-out" or withdraw privileges as a means to make it clear that you do not approve and will not tolerate the bad language.

• Television may be the cause.  Make sure they watch appropriate programmes!

• If they are using bad language to get something definitely don't let them have it.  Say 'no' and explain that using bad words will not get them what they want!

• If they are copying an older sibling, trying to be like them, make it clear to the older child that it's not acceptable language and show how it's causing problems.  Copying and imitating older children (in language and behaviour) is a way of learning, so it's not something they are doing wrong necessarily.

Make sure you don't use bad language either... watch what you say because they will hear, copy and think it acceptable to be like you!

At ToucanLearn we promote a 'learning programme' for children from birth to 5 years, and although we hint at how this is derived in our FAQ, we don't offer an in depth description of the processes we took to devise at our 'programme'  - we'd like to offer that detail here.

At the outset, we examined a number of key texts in child development theory.  Although these are based on science and academic rigour, they propose differences in the understanding of how children learn and develop.  We don't favour a single theory of child development, but instead looked at the practical components and created our own 'scale' based on what different proponents offer.  ToucanLearn is built on many different sources but some of the key sources include work published by The American Academy of Pediatrics, we borrow from the unique longitudanal study still ongoing as Child of Our Time and presented by Professor Robert Winston, and the work of eminent child psychologts such as Dr. Richard Woolfson, Professor Tanya Byron, Professor Linda Pound, Jennie Lindon and other less well known, but no less important, individuals.

Common to most of the developmental literature and sources was the way that they break down 'development' into a number of key areas.  These aren't static, but there are key skill areas examined by child psychologists and practitioners.  We concentrated on four particular areas that were largely common to developmental analyses, and devised our own scale unique to ToucanLearn, but based on the experiences of different proponents.  These areas of development are:-

• Fine motor skills
• Gross motor skills
• Cognitive skills
• Language development

In order to offer this to a broad audience rather than the scientific community, we refer to these as 'Making', 'Moving', 'Thinking' and 'Speaking'.

We created a scale of milestones for each of these four broad areas of development.  We took the first five years of development and created a chart based on age, from day 0 when a baby is born, to day 2,190 when our programme ends (when a child turns 6).  For example, our scale pinpoints the day when a child should be able to pick up an object, when they should be able to clap, when they should be able to understand instructions, tell a story and so on.  Our chart, which we don't publish, has hundreds of milestones across these four broad areas.   Some of these achievements are trivial, others siginifcant, but to a parent or childminder, all of these are significant in the context of their own children.

We then created hundreds of activities aimed at encouraging each developmental milestone, no matter how significant.  We categorised each activity against our derived scale.  Every activity is categorised across all four areas, with a score relating to the age of a child in days, pinpointing the day on which a child should be able to complete the activity.  Each activity has a single overriding focus, and this is the focus that we state for each activity, offering each as a making, moving, learning or language based activity.

Unfortunately for us, not all children develop at the same rate and although many of these milestones are linear in that they will be acquired in a certain order (for example, a child learns to stand before they can walk, and jump before they can hop), our 'programme' has to offer deviation to account for differences in development.  There is also a potential disjoint between developmental theory and real children!  This is where 'feedback' comes in.  We offer the option for every adult participating in ToucanLearn to 'feed back' in our blog area as to whether each activity was too difficult, too easy or just right.  This is a positive feedback mechanism that does two things.

First, we track the progress of each ToucanLearn child along four axes, one for each key development area, and depending on the feedback, we move them up or down each scale.  The scales relate to age, so if an activity aimed at teaching a child to clap is found to be too easy, we increase their 'fine motor' or 'making' score so that we take account of their ability; if it's too hard, we decrease their score.  This ensures that the activities offered to them are appropriate to their capabilities.  At the outset, we offer activities appropriate to their age in days across each of the four skill areas.  Over time and with feedback they are awarded a 'handicap' for each skill area that may be positive or negative.  This accounts for differences in the development of our different children across different skill acquisition.

The second feature of 'feedback' improves the placement of every individual activity.  Our scale derived from developmental literature might have walking or talking in the wrong place, but the collated feedback of each participant pushes the activity backwards or forwards depending on the response.  Over time this will have an averaging effect that refines the position of every activity thus feedback for each individual improves the experience for everyone.

Because our scales are based on age, if a parent registers their children at birth and participates intensively in our programme for a few months, but then goes away for two years and then comes back, the activities presented will still be relevant to the child.  If a childminder registers one child in order to access activities for several children of a similar age, then our programme falls down, because the benefit of individual tracking is lost.  That's not to say that activities won't be broadly relevant, but it won't be possible to drive each child according to their unique abilities.

Our feedback mechanism also allows for our programme to be used for children with special needs or different learning disabilities.  Although it can't be completely accurate for every situation, we believe that the core experience remains relevant for such children.  Their initial participation in our programme needs to adjusted according to their capabilities, and progress may be different to other children, but the linear nature of development across our key areas remains relevant and we can work with parents and carers to ensure that they remain on a suitable path.

Every activity is also rated according to the UK government's Early Years Foundation Stage Areas (EYFS) of Learning and Development.  This information is offered only to Premium Members as an enticement for people to subscribe.  We have to derive enough revenue to continue offering our service because we don't currently receive any governmental or other sponsorship!  EYFS is very much the 'icing' on a programme based on child developmental psychology, anyone participating in ToucanLearn will benefit from the underlying science whilst also being able to fulfil and track their progress through EYFS.

If you're still reading at this stage, then clearly you are interested in the route that we took to bring ToucanLearn to market and we hope that you have understood and agree with the path we have taken.  We conceived our initial ideas early in 2007 and spent over two years researching and developing the service before our formal launch in June 2009.  Every child is different, but we hope that our programme will remain broadly relevent to the majority of participants and whether the science is important to you or not, we hope that we can stimulate an interest in learning and development and foster a strong one to one relationship between every child and their parents and carers regardless!

Observing children forms a fundamental part of the Early Years Foundation Stage, childminders are required to observe children and make notes.  This helps to record each child's progress through EYFS and also helps you to plan ahead and work out what areas of learning to focus on for the medium term.  Key to observing children is simply that - watching what they do without offering any external direction, or offering only minimal interaction.  Childminders are so used to interacting with their wards that it can feel a little strange just stepping away and watching!

Make notes of what you observe; you might choose to do this straight into a diary, or you might prefer to take notes whilst you watch and later write them up more formally.  A written record creates an invaluable resource both for you and to share with parents, or indeed to carers in other settings.

When you undertake your planning, go back though your diaries of observations and work out what areas of learning you need to concentrate on over the coming weeks.  Compare your notes over time to ensure that your children are progressing.  Although keeping a diary seems a big chore, if you write it regularly you will quickly find that it takes very little time and becomes part of your routine.  A number of ToucanLearn members are using their private blog spaces to record their observations and this is an area that we intend to improve to facilitate better records for professional childminders and diligent parents alike!

Research has found that babies put into incubators when first born are less likely to develop depression as adults - something known as the incubator effect!

The findings suggest that babies put into an incubator when they are born are three times less likely to develop anxiety or depression in later life.  The results surprised the researchers, who expected to find that infants taken away from their mother so early, and placed in the incubator for long periods of time, would be more inclined to feel anxious and experience mental health problems when adults.   Separation at birth has always been considered a major contributing factor to behavioural problems in adolescence and adulthood.

The long term study took  a sample of 1,200 children, in Quebec, from 1986 through to 2006.  Full results were published in the medical journal, Psychiatric Research.  It may be due to the incubator having an impact on brain cell development or perhaps that poorly babies were given more close attention and care.

Interesting findings!

In the first few months following birth, your baby is experiencing the world through its senses, and it is those experiences that help form connections inside the brain and these connections that shape the individual mind of your baby.  At birth, a baby is barely able to see but they have an acute sense of smell.  At three days old they can recognise the smell of their mother's breast milk and the odour of their parents, yet they can still see only centimetres in front of them.  They have an innate ability to recognise faces and are attracted to faces close by.

By three months their brains have developed considerably and they are able to control themselves better - they can choose where to look rather than being fixated on moving objects nearby.  They might move their arms and legs seemingly randomly, but this is helping them to build up muscles, an essential component on the way to being able to roll, crawl and later walk.  This movement allows them to interact with their physical surroundings and this intensifies the rate at which the brain develops as it is exposed to new experiences.  Research shows that babies who are denied the opportunity to interact physically with their surroundings develop at a slower rate so it is particularly important to work with babies suffering physical or mental disability to ensure that they can develop as best they can.

Interacting with your baby is especially important even during these early months - try to spend time with your newborn baby stimulating them.  Stimulate their vision by exposing them to high contrast patterns and making movement in front of them; stimulate their hearing by playing background sounds and music, and rattling toys in front of them.  Stimulate their sense of feel by touching stroking them and letting them hold your fingers and baby toys.

It would be easy to ignore your newborn baby and leave them lying in another room for their first few months while you get on with the chores you have to do, but the more time you can spend with your baby, the more rewarding for both you and your little one!

Don't forget that here at ToucanLearn we have activities suitable from birth onwards.  Our early activities are simple and aimed at helping to stimulate early development in your child.  All our activities link into the Early Years Foundation Stage Areas of Learning and Development, so you can monitor that you are giving your baby a broad range of activities even at this early stage.

Shapes and colours are amongst the first concepts that babies learn and learning them helps to stimulate connections in the brain that will continue to serve your baby as they learn throughout their childhood.  Learning both shapes and colours with your baby can be fun for both of you.  Here's a fun idea on how to familiarise your baby with both.

Take two potatoes and cut them in half so that at least one of the cross sections makes a circle.  Now carve the other faces into a rectangle, square and triangle. You now have four large stampers!

Dip the face of the potatoes in finger paint and stamp different coloured shapes onto a large sheet of paper.  Practice the stamping and discuss each shape with your baby - count the sides on the shape and point your finger around each shape as you show them.  Start with a single colour and state the colour with each stamp: 'red circle', 'red square', 'red triangle', 'red rectangle'.  Wipe the paint off the face each time and then start on another colour.

When you have played with these for a bit, show the effect of mixing colours; demonstrate how two colours mixed together create a different colour.  Try mixing various combinations of colours to create a varied array.

Playing with shapes and colours will help to cement these concepts in your child's mind and start them on a learning path that will set them up well for school in a few years!

It's never too early to introduce your toddlers to science - you don't call it science, of course, but there are plenty of fun activities that you can do to help build an understanding of the world around them.  Here are a few ideas:-

Weather: Create a series of card pictures for different types of weather, and a picture for each of the seasons.  Each morning look at the weather and put the appropriate weather and season pictures up on the wall.

Faces: Create a large picture of a head and then create a series of different eyes, noses, mouths, ears, eyebrows, hair and pairs of glasses.  Have your toddler create faces, placing features in the right place.  Discuss different coloured eyes, different shaped features and talk about what glasses are for.

Planting: Buy some cress or mung beans, plant them in a plastic pot, water them and watch them grow.  Have your child chart the progress each day as they germinate and shoot up.  Discuss the ways that they change each day, draw how they look and at the end, make a sandwich and enjoy them!  Talk about how healthy they are and that good food makes you grow.

Colours: Show how mixing finger paints creates different colours.  Create swirling patterns on paper by pouring on generous amounts of paint and swirling with your finger.

Growing: Use a wall to mark the height of your children.  Have them stand against the wall, make a pencil mark at the height they stand and measure how tall they are.  Add a date, and repeat on the first day of each month.  Sometimes you'll see almost no difference, other months you might notice change.  Over a prolonged time you will see how they grow.  Discuss what makes you grow and the concept that your little ones are growing into big children.

These are just a few ideas, there are hundreds more activities that you can undertake with your toddlers to get them used to the concepts of science, and to spark an interest in the world around them.

We are all so conscious of dangers when we take children out: cars on the road, tripping on pavements, falling from a swing.  However there are 400 children admitted to hospital every WEEK with injuries following accidents in the home.  This is a staggering number - especially when this is just those under the age of five!

What we have to remember is that children and toddlers and babies are constantly growing and experimenting and exploring.  The way they learn is to watch and copy us.  So, we need only take a look through their eyes to see what they might see and then we'll realise how accidents - that are totally avoidable - can happen.  And, we'll see how easy it is to prevent those accidents taking place.

Tablets and pills - many toddlers can take off the child-resistant caps on bottles of pills. The child-resistant caps make it more difficult to open, but are not impenetrable for a child.  A simple adult painkiller could poison a child.  They see you take a few, and it helps your headache.  If they get hold of them, they take a few and it could be disastrous.  Toddlers may think they are sweets, that they taste nice, that Daddy has them so why shouldn't I, that they make them grow strong.  So, keep bottles of pills well out of reach. 

Lighters and matches - children can ignite lighters by accident and can cause a match to inflame by just playing with them  They don't realise the danger they could cause.  There are 6,000 house fires every year caused by children under ten!  When they look at a match or lighter, children see the flash of light, the spark, it's like magic.  Keep the matches and lighters out of reach.

Stairs - About 800 under fives are taken to hospital each WEEK having fallen down stairs.  They develop the climbing skills need to get up stairs very quickly... almost without you noticing they could suddenly be able to get up a few steps. It can be dreadfully dangerous if they fall down.  Kids think its fun to go up, it's a challenge and everyone else does it so why shouldn't I?  Well, if they do they might fall and hurt themselves, get a stair gate and remember to use it!

Knives and utensils in the kitchen - It's so easy to forget that little ones can one day reach kitchen surfaces.    Make sure all knives, and heavy utensils are well back just in case they reach up and something comes crashing down.

Hot Drinks - tea and coffee can scald and burn a baby's skin.  Don't put hot drinks on low tables or on unstable surfaces.  Tea and coffee is made with boiling water and stays hot for a long time.  If they they go to try your tea without you seeing, and pour it over themselves by accident - it could scar your child for life!

It's not all gloom and doom!  But being very aware of potential dangers is vital in order for you and your child to have a relaxed home!  If you make just a few changes to the way you do things and if you just keep one step ahead if you can... you'll be okay!

A few final tips:

1. Fit a smoke alarm and TEST it frequently.
2. Keep all medicines, cleaning fluids in a locked cupboard out of a child's reach.
3. Fit stair gates and safety guards round fires.
4. Keep hot drinks on tables that are out of reach.  Don't drink hot tea with your baby in your arms.
5. Keep saucepan handles, electric flexes etc well out of reach.

Music is an important part of a baby's development but at different stages in their early life it can be used in different ways.

Newborns love music played softly.  Prepare a nice warm room, cuddle up with your baby and put on some lovely relaxing music.  Rock slightly to the rhythm and enjoy some quiet, peaceful time together.

3-6 month old babies love looking at you and your face so this is a great time to introduce singing to your little one.  They will enjoy hearing your voice (no matter how good or bad you are at singing!) and will love to be near your face as you sing.  Perhaps tap the beat of the music gently on their feet too!

6-9 month old babies are looking for a little more stimulation so this is a good time to introduce actions to your songs and rhymes.  Gently hold their hands and guide their arms through the songs.  Bounce them on your knee in time with the music and perhaps introduce puppets or teddies that dance along to the music too!

9-12 month old babies will be able to hold rattles and instruments when they are doing their 'singing'.  Get hold of some nice bells or wooden rattles and shake in time with the music.  See if baby can copy the sounds you make when you sing or the sounds the instruments make. Don't forget to have a dance around together to music.  Sway, bounce, and even jig if you feel like it!

12-18 month olds will enjoy moving around a little more to music.  Play all sorts of music - not just kiddie songs.  Put on your favourite tracks and see how your little ones like it.  Do some fast dancing, or slow dancing too.  And, don't forget to have some relaxing time together too.  Listen to the music in a comfy chair and have some down time.

Have fun and enjoy yourselves!