If anybody is interested in this, then it's worth looking at the RIE approach for babies and toddlers (Janet Lansbury's blog is a good place to start http://www

If anybody is interested in this, then it's worth looking at the RIE approach for babies and toddlers (Janet Lansbury's blog is a good place to start http://www.janetlansbury.com/ http://www.janetlansbury.com/). A large part of it is about allow babies and toddlers to choose what they pay attention to. Anecdotally, I very loosely followed it with our two and they have amazing attention spans compared with most kids their age - certainly both their teachers have commented on it. It's also much more relaxing as a parent I found, letting your children be in charge of what they want to pay attention to most of the time.