Popular Books, Toys & Games for Babies

Secrets of the Baby Whisperer

Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect and Communicate with Your BabyMy Mum gave me “Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect and Communicate with Your Baby” when I was in hospital after giving birth to Zoe. Good call Mum – it was like a baby behaviour user guide and I kept it by my side for the next 12 months.

You can make your way through the book as your baby gets to each stage or read it in advance then refer back as you need to. Tracy Hogg gives practical tips on how to approach different issues and helps to keep you calm through the difficult moments.

I’d recommend it to all new Mums or those having another baby.

Once your baby becomes a toddler there’s also The Secrets of a Baby Whisperer for Toddlers to move onto.

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Filed Under: Babies, For The Mums

Mrs Wishy-Washy’s Farm

Mrs. Wishy-Washy's FarmAn absolute favourite with both girls and boys, Mrs Wishy-Washy and her cow, pig and poor old duck have been entertaining both my girls and my nephews for the last 8 years. This is one of those books that I could recite without looking at the words I’ve read it so many times. The storyline with rhyme is well done and the illustrations are clever enough to spend extra time on each page finding things.

The story is about 3 animals who get tired of having to have a bath every day and run away to the city “where the barns are big”. They get into a bit of trouble and end up n the animal jail from where they are rescued by beloved Mrs Wishy Washy and happily returned to the farm.

I started reading this to the girls before they could talk and they still loved it up to age 3.  We also had the basic board variety of Mrs Wishy Washy for when they were babies.

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Filed Under: Babies, Books, Reading to Pre-schoolers, Toddlers

That’s Not My … Touchy Books

That's Not My Bear (Touchy-Feely Board Books S.) [Board book]These books are great for babies and toddlers and have different touch & feel elements on each page and the cover. I’ve given several away as new-born presents since they are small enough to post and are solid, quality hard-cover books so you can leave your kids to look at them on their own as well as reading them over and over and over. The series contains lots of different variations of the same theme – they teach about parts and surfaces.

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Filed Under: Babies, Books

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar (The Very Hungry Caterpillar) [Board book]A timeless classic – The Very Hungary Caterpillar is a must for kids aged 0 -4 years. The story is about a caterpillar who pigs out on all sorts of different food – including one serious junk food binge – then curls up into a cocoon and turns into a beautiful butterfly. As well as learning about counting, days of the week and the life cycle of a butterfly there are different sized pages and holes to keep the kids interested throughout the story.

I remember this from when I was a kid, so it’s been around for a while. These days it comes in board book variety – which I’d recommend because it will get a good going over from the kids. I haven’t tried the finger puppet version but a similar finger puppet book that we had for my youngest daughter was extremely popular so I can see how these 2 things would go well here.

The Very Hungary Caterpillar is a great present for a new-born or toddler. Every kids bookshelf should have at least one.

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Filed Under: Babies, Books, From my Youth, Reading to Pre-schoolers, Toddlers

Dear Zoo

The Pop-up Dear ZooWe’ve had a few different versions of Dear Zoo over the years including Dear Zoo with Flaps and the Dear Zoo Pop Up version. The pop up version was by far the most popular as it combines the hands-on attraction of flaps with the surprise element of cleverly designed pop ups.

Each page is different and has a different animal on it. There is repetition to help keep the interest of young kids and interaction with the book to make them feel involved and reinforce the words. This is great for teaching animal names, sizes and behaviour without the child realising that they are learning.

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Filed Under: Babies, Books, Reading to Pre-schoolers, Toddlers