Lookybook

Lookybook puts children’s picture books online for your viewing.

iPod Lullaby Playlist

1. Take an iPod (We’ve gotten several freebies from work, but any working iPod you can dig up on Ebay — hello, Gen. 1 Shuffle — will work),

2. Load it up with lullaby tunage, and

3. Find a way to play it through speakers. We’re using a tiny plug-in thing that was a $4.99 stocking stuffer at Bed, Bath, and Beyond last Christmas, but there are plenty of more elegant solutions.

Playlists will be according to your taste, of course, but the key is mellow.

LadySmith Black Muzambo

Simon and Garfunkel

Enya

The less exciting works of Mozart, Bach, Mendelsson

Assorted hymns

Etc.

How To Teach Your Baby To Read, Part 2

The AAP recommends no TV for the under-2 set, but studies show that most of you will let your small children watch videos, regardless.

Here’s an idea: DVDs that actually teach small children to read (via the whole language approach). The Teach Your Baby website offers multi-level of DVD’s, flashcards, parent testimonials, and lots of videos of small children reading.

A demo video is also available on YouTube.

Extreme Parenting

The Atlantic covers the Baby Genius Edutainment Complex in an article called Extreme Parenting.

Full article below the jump.

Online Contraction Timer

This sweet little flash application lets you click start when a contraction starts, stop when it ends.  You repeat, then eventually print it out.  The beginning and duration of contractions and time elasped since the last one is automatically calculated and recorded for you. That’s it!

AAP: No TV for the Under-2 Set

The Academy of American Pediatrics has been saying since 1998 that children under the age of 2 shouldn’t watch television AT ALL (early TV use is linked to ADHD risk, agression, and obesity), but The Washington Times reports that 80% of Little Ones are Glued To The TV.

One mom brags, “My reasoning was that my little boy was extremely intelligent since birth. At 1 year old, he was putting his own DVDs in, skipping scenes. I thought it was a real good thing for him to have his own TV because TV helped him grow at a very young age.”

From a recent Kaiser Family Foundation Study:

* 74% of kids under 2 have watched TV.

* 60% watch some TV almost daily

* The average amount of time a kid 0-4 spends each day watching TV or video/DVD’s is 1.75 hrs.

* 26% of kids under 2 have a TV in their room (19% according to The Washington Times)

* There is NO known benefit of TV-watching for kids under 4, much less under 2.

Another Kaiser study has found that kids’ TV use helps parents cope. Maybe that’s why the New York Times is reporting Parents Are Making Use of TV Despite Risks.

Update: Several studies have now linked early (before age 3) TV-watching to autism.