I am from Egypt and we have some habits when it comes to raising children that I don’t really like. I am more convinced with the western and Australian way of parenting.
I have 2 main problems that I want to change with my kid
1-sleep: he is 10 months old sleeps at 11-12: PM which is very late in my opinion, wakes up approximately at the same time AM. he takes a nap around 2:00 PM and sometimes another one at 6 pm.
I tried to skip the 6 pm nap but he still sleeps late. dont know what to do to make him sleep early.
2- TV, here we have tv’s open all day, I try to shut it down when I’m home alone with him but when the dad comes, he opens it. also when he goes to his grandparents, they always try to make him watch it.
I just want to know how many time do you allow your children to watch TV, and what is it ok for them to watch at this age?
finally, I would love your recommendations about some books to read and your opinion about audio-books for children
Hi I am no help to you on the sleeping, my kids were not the best sleepers. Although once they hit about age three or four read the book "the 7 oclock bed time"I can’t remember who wrote it sorry. my kids sleep better than their class mates now!
As for the TV. I turn the TV off ALOT in out house too. My husband turns it on, I turn it off :yes: I don’t think it is appropriate for it to be on all the time. I think it’s important to closely watch what your baby is watching. If a baby should not know about it then they should not be watching it either! My children are very sensitive and compassionate, I think it is because I have sheltered them from the harshness of the world. Our TV is now in a different room and the kids just don’t go in there very often. They go to bed at 7:00 and that stops them from seeing the worst that TV has to show. in Australia after 7:00 the tv gets very violent. It is hard when your husband doesn’t understand why you turn it off. Try explaining that you don’t want your child to see things on TV that you wouldn’t let them watch in real life. No death, violence, sex or swearing.
As to good books well that is a very big topic covered elsewhere in the forum, use the search button. I love reading dr zuess books out loud! Always a laugh! But good quality picture books are a great place to start. Choose a topic your child likes and find some stories about that. At 10 months your baby is interested in mum and dad, animals, toys and probably music. Aim to read a variety of types, you want to build language and vocabulary and keep baby interested with funny voices. Have fun with it and read often. Good luck
Hi,
I don’t know if I was just lucky, but I think It helped o lot that I had a really strickt schedule since my little one was born. Wake up and take a nap and go to bed in the same time. He is 3 now and wakes up ( I go get him ) at 7 am and go to bed at 8pm. He still has an afternoon nap every day. It helped a lot when we started preschool last september that we actually didn’t have to change anything so the whole process was easier for him.
As far as books I go to the library with him every week. We started when he was 1 year old to go to story times and also find some books for him. Now we don’t have time for story time (it’s usually the same time as his preschool hours), but we still go to the library every tuesday where I can find different books for him.
About tv: When he was 12months old, we started the “Your Baby Can read” program. That was about 30 minuites a day. I never turn on the TV when he’s around- yes, that means that I turn it on at 8 pm after he goes to bed. He still has no idea who Sponge Bob is and knows some Dora and Bob the builder only from DVDs. We also watch other educational DVDs and You Tube every day but all together no more than 1.5-2 hours a day. Sometimes he watches the football game with my husband but that’s not every day.