Remember these guidelines as you toyshop for your baby:

1. The visual perception of infants is limited, so make sure to buy toys in bright, contrasting colors.

2. Activity centers and crib mobiles fascinate newborns. Some mobiles come with an adjustable height option so that you can make sure mobile is in your baby’s visual range.

3. Babies up to six months old have very limited motor skills and love high-pitched sounds. Chimes, rattles, teething rings, colorful pictures and soft blocks will stimulate your baby at this age.

4. For babies between six to nine months old, you can buy building blocks, activity boxes and cubes, stacking ring cones, and bath toys. Try to vary textures of toys.

5. Between age of nine months and a year, babies are old enough to enjoy and learn from toys such as nesting cups, push and pull toys, large crayons, spades, and stacking blocks.

6. It always helps to keep in mind that you do not need fancy and expensive toys to stimulate your infant. You might bring home a very trendy toy for your baby only to find that baby finds packaging far more interesting. Your young child just needs stimulation and a way to express their creativity, and this can be done with homemade toys as well.

Finally, it’s important to keep in mind some travel elements as you take to Rocky Mountains, streets of New York or museums.

Children are veritable sponges, absorbing information, even when you can’t believe they’ve heard a word you’ve said! The world is their classroom.

As a homeschool mom to four beautiful children I can assure you that incorporating learning into vacation isn’t nearly as scary or overwhelming as you might think.

Traveling is one of best ways to enhance your child’s education. It’s hands on, it’s visual, it’s auditory, and kinesthetic (touchy/feely) – all at same time.

Children will absorb much more information than you might think, even when they are complaining loudest. And best of all, you don’t have to travel to exotic places or spend a lot of money for children to enjoy themselves.

Another secret I learned is that by traveling with our children (and not for our children) we opened up a whole new world for them. Their imaginations took over while experiencing new topographies, histories, climates and cultures. It made learning “real” to them and showed up for months in their reading interests and reports.

Our children also learn to handle glitches in our travel plans by watching and learning from us.

When we hit inevitable traffic jam on highway or our flights are delayed do we throw a fit or sit back patiently and make lemonade from lemons?

Can we laugh in face of adversity and keep going or do we angrily pout and make everyone around us miserable?

How we handle ourselves is a clue as to how our children will also handle themselves.

Happy travels!