My daughter is about to turn 1 and I agree there is a ton of pressure to make sure your kid has a good start. But try to just let your child be a child. There'

My daughter is about to turn 1 and I agree there is a ton of pressure to make sure your kid has a good start. But try to just let your child be a child. There's a decent bit of psychology research out there now that everyone must experience all stages of growth. Stages like Baby, Toddler, Terrible 2s and 3s, Rebellious teen, unconstrained 20-something, etc. There are countless examples of people who were forced to skip some stages (often through external circumstances) who then seem to regress for a bit to "catch up" on the stages of growth they missed. I'm afraid that this push to make sure your child is "advanced" will only cause a ton of pain and learning further down the road that didn't have to happen (also, if you want a solid, stable job forever, psychiatry and psychology are looking like good fields). Our plan is to let our daughter simply be herself. Encourage when she's trying to learn. Help when she needs help, but don't push her to do anything she doesn't want to do. We've got ~20 years to help them become adults. They'll get there, there's no need to rush.