Tips For Mom and Dad - Baby Activities
Activities for Baby
You can stimulate your baby to be active and to learn! Talk and play with your baby! Encourage your baby to be active! Make your baby’s world bright and colorful!
Which of these activities do you do now?
- Talk and sing to your baby.
- Touch and carry your baby.
- Show brightly colored pictures.
- Use colorful sheets and crib liners.
- Offer bright rattles and teething toys.
- Loosen clothes so baby can kick.
- Dangle toys so baby can reach for them.
- Play pat-a-cake.
- Have other children play with baby and around baby.
- Encourage baby to crawl toward you or toward toys.
- Give safe household objects for playing or banging.
- Take walks with your baby.
- Pay attention when baby “talks” to you and talk back.
- Smile a lot and laugh with baby.
Activities help baby grow and learn!
- To be active, your baby needs to be able to look around. Don’t just keep baby in the crib or baby seat. Baby needs people to “talk” and play with.
- Maybe you don’t have much time to talk and play with your baby. Maybe you work all day or go to school. Then you have a lot to do when you get home.
- Talk to baby while you make supper or do the laundry. Tell baby about your day. Baby doesn’t need to understand what you say. You are stimulating baby just by talking.
- You can also play with baby when you talk on the phone or watch TV. You can dangle toys for baby to reach for. Or you can give baby a rattle to shake.
- Your baby is likely to have a normal weight if he or she is active. Also, being active is a good way for your baby to learn to use different muscles.
- Babies learn from playing with toys. Toys should be simple and safe. Watch out for sharp edges, pointed parts and moving parts. Do not buy toys with small pieces that could be swallowed.
- Why not ask people to give books instead of more toys? Even a small baby loves the sound of your voice when you read a book. Start reading to your baby now! It doesn’t matter that baby is too young to understand the story. Hold and cuddle baby when you read.
- Being held and cuddled is important. Being active and stimulated is, too. But the most important thing of all is for baby to feel loved and secure.
- Babies aren’t little for very long. So take some time every day to enjoy your baby. Have some fun! It will be good for both of you!
This page last updated on 2/21/07.