REVIEW: My Baby Compass Ages 2-4 Years

 Book 1: Birth to Two Years

Each booklet is six pages with developmental milestones on one side and activities to bring out the skills on the other side. A parent will know if there child is on track within 15 -20 minutes. This program covers areas of development including: Getting to Know Your Baby, The Communication Process, “Tracking Your Child’s Progress, My Child Did Not Meet a Milestone. Now What?” and an Appendix that tells you how to get help with resources that will give you support. The manual covers topics such as:

• feeding
• routines
• how babies learn
• developing speech sounds
• understanding baby’s cries
• vocabulary development
• appropriate toys & activities
• nursery rhymes
• finger plays
• music selections
• recommended web sites
• using sign language (144 sign illustrations)
• parenting resources

 Book 2: Two to Four

Each booklet is six pages with developmental milestones on one side and activities to bring out the skills on the other side. A parent will know if there child is on track within 15 -20 minutes. This program covers areas of development including:

• individual sound development
• expanding vocabulary development
• toddler learning styles
• potty training
• temper tantrums
• reading and writing readiness
• appropriate toys & activities
• nursery rhymes
• finger plays
• language categories
• normal dysfluency
• music selections

Book 3: Four to Seven

Each booklet is six pages with developmental milestones on one side and activities to bring out the skills on the other side. A parent will know if there child is on track within 15 -20 minutes. This program covers areas of development including: Getting to Know Your Preschooler, The Communication Process, Tracking Your Child’s Progress, My Child Did Not Meet a Milestone. Now What? and an Appendix that tells you how to get help with resources that will give you support. The manual covers topics such as:

• maturation of sound development
• grammar (syntax)
• speaking and learning styles
• social interaction
• creative play
• how preschoolers learn
• picking your preschool
• reading & writing skills
• cognitive development
• appropriate toys & activities
• nursery rhymes
• finger plays
• visual & auditory processing
• phonological skills (66 illustrations)
• recommended books
• music selections

We were afforded the opportunity to review one of three books from the "My Baby Compass" Child Development Program Series by Kathryn Thorson Gruhn. 


I chose the book designed for two to four year olds, with "Cheeky" turning 2 in September I thought this would be the perfect selection to use. 

I was excited to begin looking through this book and starting to use some of the ideas with "Cheeky". As you can probably see "Cheeky" was excited about it too. He tried to taste it before reading! Yes, you can see where he chomped the right hand corner, I promise it did NOT arrive in this condition.

While I read through the whole book, only a part of the book pertained to where "Cheeky" should be. "Cheeky" is now 21 months and the book does start at 24 months. While this is not a major concern because children develop differently, which means there were some things listed as milestones for older ages that he can do now.

You can see that there are many suggested activities that you can do with your child. These activities are not only for "fun-time" with your child, they also aid in helping your child reach milestones. The book encourages you to NOT over-react if your child does not hit milestones at a certain stated age. She is very clear that each child develops in certain areas faster than others. She does however mention some signs as to where you might want to focus a little more, if you are not seeing developmental growth, and again when you might want to seek outside advice.


What is FANTASTIC about these activities is that they are located in a pamphlet found at the back of the book. There are four of these pamphlets at the back of the book, outlining the activities and checklists needed for ages 24-30 months, 31-36 months, 37-42 months, and 43-48 months. These pamphlets are easy to handle and are only 12-15 pages long, there is even a few pages you can write your own personal notes.


Examples of Activities would be: (taken from the 24-30 month pamphlet)


1) Engage in rhyming wordplay- Recite nursery rhymes and/or read books with rhyming words with your toddler. Refer to Chapter 6 of the My Baby Compass for book ideas.


2) Use gestures/signs along with your words- To assist your toddler in learning new words and in following directions, use gestures or signs to give him clues. Refer to Appendix ll of the My Baby Compass book for a list of universal gestures and signs.


3) Provide sticker books to increase eye-hand coordination- Once you toddler can put stickers in books, introduce him to pasting and gluing pictures.

Each one of the four booklets are stored in the back of the My Baby Compass Program book. This way you can grab only the one you need and always know where the others are, which is essential in my house.

As you can see in these pamphlets they have an easy "symbol" system, to help you know milestone category you are dealing with. For example the hand means physical and the heart means social/emotional.

I stated earlier about the activity involving gestures/signs, here is a sample page of the many selections of universal signs. They are clear and easy to decipher.

There are six main chapters in the My Baby Compass Book, each chapter is FULL of great information. The topics are vast and very easy to understand, there is none of that "psychological" lingo that seems like a foreign language. I like that she writes as if she were speaking to you. There are many, many ideas and suggestions throughout the chapters.

There are a bunch of very helpful checklists, that allow you to record when your child meets a particular milestone. 

I like the pages that suggest ways of play that you can do with your child. 

The My Baby Compass has been extremely beneficial to me, in helping my "Cheeky" reach those milestones. While I do have six children, with a few already teenagers and older, I still learned from this book. This book is setup to make learning FUN for you and your child. It makes it enjoyable and not a chore, the way some books and programs are.


I  am looking forward to using this book through the next two years, and getting the rest of the series. I believe that "Cheeky" is really going to benefit from the use of the ideas of this book.


There are many ways you can connect with My Baby Compass, here are just a few;


Check out their website: My Baby Compass
Follow on Facebook
Follow on Twitter
YouTube Channel

****Disclosure I was given one or more products to review, usually stated within the review. The opinions and comments are entirely my own or my children's, our opinions of a product are not swayed by how we obtained the product. All views expressed are completely honest and truthful.