Parenting- Challenge Your Baby!!!

I am not an expert.  I didn't go to school for child care or child psychology.  However, I am the mother of a VERY intelligent, well spoken 3 year old little girl.  My daughter, Alex, can spell her name and several 3 letter words, she knows simple addition, she has a very high vocabulary, can write several letters without seeing them before hand, and can figure out several problems by herself.

As soon as I found out I was pregnant, like most soon-to-be moms, I began planning EVERYTHING.  Little did I know, all that went out the window when my 7lb. 8oz. angel came into this world.  I instantly saw the potential of this little tiny newborn.  So, as many parents so, I talked to her, played classical music while she slept, and covered the sides of her cribs with those black and white pictures of blocks and diagonal lines and such.  By the time she began lifting her head, I became to challenge her.  I would show her a toy and put it just out of her reach.  And wouldn't you know, she found a way to get to it.  At 4 1/2 months, Alex started to crawl, even before she sat up.  Then, I was SHOCKED when my daughter took her first 3 steps... at 7 1/2 months old.
After that, I began teaching her things that everyone around me said she was too young to learn.  I started with sign language.  I taught her simple things at first, like eat and milk, and as she got older, I taught her things like more, several different animals, and then, enough for her to tell me things that she needed.  She could sign to me that she wanted more milk please, or more to eat please, etc.
When she began talking, I talked to her all the time, like she was an adult.  Now granted, I did do the baby talk from time to time, but usually, I would use proper grammar, and bigger words than most people use around a child.  She picked it all up very easily.

My point in all this being, even if everyone around you says your baby is too young to learn something, challenge them anyways.  If they get something wrong, still encourage them, and reward them if they get it right.  Children are so smart, and their parents need to learn to challenge them more.  Let's make this next generation the smartest of them all!