Clever Baby: 100 play ideas to boost your child's development

It contains fun basic ideas - as advertised - but as a gay dad I was struck at how unaware the authors seem to be of modern parenting. There are several instances, including on the back cover (shown here), where it only speaks to mums, as if dads have no role in raising the baby. In other parts it says quite stereotypical stuff like, for “baby blast-off” (which is just lifting the baby up a bit and playing around), that “this is where dad really comes into his own” as if the man only enters the picture for the physical stuff, not the more thoughtful or creative activities. I’m accustomed to such gendered and outdated views but didn’t expect to find them codified in this book given the credentials of the two authors. I encourage them to reconsider their attitude and acknowledge that gay fathers and single dads are equally interested in creative tactics to boost their child’s development.

I did quite like this book to flick through, but to be honest most of the ideas will occur to you to do naturally without being prompted. Nobody knows your child like you and you will know what stimulates them better than a 'one size fits all' book. If like me, you're pregnant with your first child when buying this book, and thinking you need all the help you can get, I promise you, you'll be playing games with your child that come to you naturally, this happened with me and I thought I was a stereotypical career woman with no clue what to do with children, ha, how times have changed!

I have found these authors the most helpful - their approach is balanced and very informed. I started with Your Baby Week By Week, which was a gift and I thought was going to be really pushy and over bearing style but I could not have been more wrong - It is a 5 star recommend!! It was incredibly helpful and always by the feeding chair and I have now moved onto Baby to Toddler and that is equally a 5 star! This book is in the same style and has given me great prompts to keep our very active and nosey baby engaged and very amused!

It's a good book to get if you really don't know what else to do to amuse your baby - but some of the contents we had already done, just by using a bit of common sense - ie talk to your baby - carry them around with you etc. To be fair, you could just google how to amuse your baby and I'm sure it would come up with the same stuff - a bit disappointed as I have really liked the authors other books.

I purchased this book for my son who is a single dad and the book is prooving to be invaluable. The ideas in the book are simple and easy to achieve with ideas that you would never have considered. Its a great little book full of really good tips and advice on how to play and help your baby develop. Highly recommend this book.

Concise and practical, the author excels in giving entertaining activities for babies starting from the age of birth.quick read for busy mums, and lots of advices, I am not sure it makes bsbies smarter, but sure it keeps them busy and entertained in various ways.recommended.

The book is well written with nice photographs and is very clear in describing the activities but I was already naturally doing these things - encouraging my baby to kick etc etc so I was a bit disappointed overall.

It has a lot of fantastic ideas, all very easy & some of which are just common sense. All can be done cheaply if on a budget