Baby Play Afternoon (Suitable for Toddler too)

Activity 1:  Baby Straws

You will need:

• A cardboard box
• Straws

To make this simple activity, I poked some holes into the top of a cardboard box and threaded some straws through. Simple!  This activity is great for hand eye coordination and fine motor skills.

The  look on G’s face when I showed her the activity was just priceless. She is really getting excited now when she’s presented with a new game.  She began by flapping the box around but I quickly decided to weight the box down with my hand just in case she poked her eyes with the straws.  It also gave her some leverage to pull the straws out of their hole.

It took G a couple of minutes before she started pulling at the straws.  She held on to them at first but as soon as she realised they came out when she pulled them, that was it! BEST GAME EVER!

Just look at the pride on her little face as she succeeded to pull out the straws!  Isn’t it funny how we can be so pleased with ourselves at such a young age!

Another trait from her mother, utter determination to get the job done! The little angel did not stop until every straw was out of the hole!

Activity 2:  A First Baby Post Game

You will need:

• A muffin tray
• Variety of balls

For those who have followed my blog for a while, you will know I love collecting balls! YES, you’re reading it correctly!!  Balls! From a very young age, balls provide fantastic open ended play opportunities and have limitless possibilities. Let’s face it, the whole world likes a ball and there are people across the globe obsessed with watching them flying into the back of a net or hoop, zoom over a rugby post, be blasted by a bat, racket, stick and so on! So, investing in an array of balls is a must in my opinion.  J and G between them have a LOT of balls! Whenever I see an interesting one, I buy it and they are usually less than £1!

For this activity, I simply put one ball in each section of the muffin tin and presented it to G to do what she wanted with it.

To begin with G just moved the balls within their little nest.  She span the slippy. lighter ones and stretched and touched them all.

After a while, G managed to get the balls out, eat them, touch them, roll them and some she shook too as they have pasta shells, rice etc in! I made them a while ago and they’re still going strong! See more here.

With the very light ping pong balls, as well as picking them up, throwing, rolling and exploring them she also managed to put them back into the muffin tin! What a clever baby! I’m sure she’ll love this game more and more as she gets older.

Activity 3:  It’s You!

You will need:

• A variety of child safe mirrors and/or reflective trays

I used a child’s car mirror, small roasting tray, large child’s mirror, a book with mirror at the back and two baby toys with mirrors on.

We all know children love seeing other babies and looking in mirrors! G often talks to the baby in the mirror and is sometimes treats her to a lick! You can see the lovely slobber left in the book!

What a lovely sight seeing my baby look at a book! Never too young to read!

Providing baby with a bunch of mirrors and reflective surfaces allows them to explore their own face and eventually they will discover who that mysterious character in the mirror actually is! J loves looking at himself in the mirror and I always catch him smiling, talking and pulling funny faces at himself! In fact, the two of them look at themselves and each other in reflective surfaces all of the time! It’s very cute!

This open ended play opportunity allowed Baby G not only to look at herself and rehearse her early talking skills but also have a good noise making session! She just loved banging on the roasting tin! Think we need a noisy session tomorrow! God help my ears!