By Sue Wambolt, Contributing Writer
Westborough – Since graduating from Westborough High School in 1998, Sarah Davis has pursued a teaching career, a parenting blog and, most recently, published a book.
Davis earned a?bachelor's degree?in English?and?government from?Skidmore College, a master of education in literacy from the University of San Diego and?a language arts teaching credential?from?Indiana Wesleyan University. She has also studied?literacy?training at the Dyslexia Institute of Indiana. Davis is currently pursuing a doctorate of education at Texas A&M University.
Davis has taught in public, private and charter schools. She has written curriculum and mentored students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Besides teaching, Davis is a parenting guru who co-created the blog merelymothers.com. She has contributed to a variety of online parenting publications, Yahoo!, Shine and Z-Life magazine.
About a year and a half ago, Davis received an email from an editor at Lesson Ladder publishing company who was looking for a writer with a teaching background and young children, who could write a book about how parents can maximize time with their infants and toddlers. With her education background and experience as mother to Kyler, now 3, and Aurelia, now 8 months, Davis was perfectly qualified to write “Making Kid Time Count: Ages 0-3: The Attentive Parent Advantage.”
According to Davis, “The goal of the book is to provide a resource for parents that explains the major stages of development for an infant and toddler. The book also explains the most current research on why certain activities are key to help a child get as strong as possible in areas such as language, motor development, bonding with their caregiver, and literacy. It is my hope that through this book parents can learn how to give their children the most important tools they need in the first few years so they can be happy and well-rounded.”
While researching for her book, Davis read many current parenting books, a few classic parenting books, many research articles and studies, and did some personal interviews.
“Making Kid Time Count: Ages 0-3”?is research-based and parent tested. It is an overview of the developmental stages that babies and toddlers go through, including language, cognition, literacy, and motor skills. One of its distinct features is that it includes parent- or teacher-tested activities that can be done with little ones to enhance these stages.
As a parent and a researcher, Davis has this advice for first time parents: “New parents have to give themselves time to find their way. There are many ways to raise a child, and we all have to find what works best for us. It's important to be educated, so I would suggest new parents read up on as much literature as they can, but when it comes time to make the parenting decisions, they should listen to their baby, do what feels natural to them, and slowly, they will create the road that works for their family. I would advise parents to remember that children are always learning from their parents, especially when we think they'se not watching.”
As a teacher, a parenting guru and an author, Davis suggests that the greatest gift that we can give our children is our undivided attention. As the title of her book says, make kid time count.