Seeing my baby learn and grow is so exciting. She is changing every day and learning about the world! You can help your baby learn new things right from the start! Playing games and setting up fun learning activities for babies helps them develop: mentally, physically, and socially. There’s a lot that babies can do under a year old!
Before trying these learning activities for babies, think about what your baby is ready for. Each and every baby develops at a different rate and may or may not be ready to try every activity quite yet.
Create Music Together
For Christmas, we gave my daughter a Baby Einstein piano (she was 6 months at the time) a few months later, we gave her a little drum instrument made by the same company as the piano.
She fell in love with tapping these instruments and hearing the tunes come out. It’s fun to sit and make music with her. She, on one instrument, and I on the other!
Try creating music with instruments with your baby! It could even be tapping on the floor, stomping or clapping! Anything that make a beat.
Sing and Dance
My baby loves music. Anything with a good beat makes her happy! And what makes her even more happy is me holding her, dancing and singing to that music! It makes her smile and laugh and she even tries to sing along too! It sounds more like “ahhhhaahhhhooo”…. but…she’s trying to sing! It’s so cute. Hold your baby while you dance around and sing- see what they do!
Pre-Made Activity box
KiwiCo offers age-appropriate activity boxes for each developmental age range. It takes the guessing out of “what should I do with my baby today?”. The Panda Crate was made for ages 0-24 months. It was developed in partnership with Seattle Children’s Hospital. Each crate helps babies learn by doing what they do best — playing, exploring, and most importantly, interacting with the adults in their lives! Crates arrive every other month and are filled with two months’ worth of items for baby to learn and play with!
2022 Update : My daughter is now on to the Koala Crate (for ages 2-4) and recently had a visit at her pediatrician. He was thrilled with her mental and motor skill development, saying how advanced she is for her age! I’m sure some of these age-appropriate toys and activities as well as time spent working with her have attributed to her advancement!
Read A Book
From the time my baby was in the womb, I read to her. It didn’t have to be a children’s book, it could have been something I was learning about online, I just read to her.
I’ve continued reading to her most every day now that she’s actually here! It’s another great way to help your baby build that vocabulary and learn to talk. This is one of the best learning activities for babies of any age.
I have a great list of books to start your baby’s library with that you can check out, great for babies from one week old and up!
Tugging Lid
Take a lid from your kitchen storage container, poke holes in it and put 8 inch long ribbons through those holes. Tie a knot in the ends of the ribbons so they can’t come out when pulled. Let baby pull the ribbons from one side to the other.
Peek-a-boo
My baby’s first experience with peek-a-boo was with those little stuffed animals that sing a song and play peek-a-boo with the baby. Once I realized it was something that made her happy, I played it with her! She really enjoys playing it with a blanket.
I hold the blanket up in front of me and lower it quickly. It gets laughs every time. She recently began doing it herself! Holding the blanket up in front of her and dropping it down.
At 9 months old, she was playing peek-a-boo like this with our family dog! It’s funny to watch.
Try it with your baby and tell me how it goes in the comments below!
“First 100” Books
There is a set of board books that I recommend all babies have. It’s the First 100 board book set. You can get it on Amazon. It has pictures and words stating what is in the picture.
They teach numbers, shapes, everyday objects, animals, all kinds of things. My baby loves to sit and look through the books by herself, but I like going through and pointing at the pictures, saying what the words are.
Sometimes she tries repeating the words. As we do it more often, she will learn a lot from these books!
It’s almost like flash cards.
Bubbles
For whatever reason, bubbles are fun and fascinating to babies. Blow some bubbles for your baby and see what they think of it!
No Mess Painting
You can find small blank canvases in a pack on Amazon or any craft store. Place small globs of paint on top of the canvas. Then place the canvas inside a Ziplock bag or wrap it in plastic wrap.
Let baby smack it, smear it, wiggle their fingers across it. When they’re finished playing, remove the canvas from the bag and set it in a safe place to dry.
Add your baby’s name and the date somewhere on the canvas and you have their first painting! Mess free!
Basket Of Toys
Put all of baby’s small toys in a basket. Set the basket in front of the baby and let them take all of the objects out of the basket. When they’re done, add all the objects back in the basket and repeat!
Play In The Mirror
If you have a mirror that’s not breakable, you can position it horizontally, on baby’s level and let them play in the mirror, checking themself out and watching themself move around!
You can find more ideas for fun learning activities for babies here:
Help Them Learn To Walk
You may have already started this activity, because around 6 months+ your baby may be very interested in trying to stand. Hold your baby’s hands or place your hands under their arms to help them stand.
Allow them to take steps slowly..or fast! Depending on the speed they are trying to go. Walk down the hallway or around a room in your house. Your baby will let you know when they are done by either refusing to walk, trying to drop to the floor, or crying.
(Go with your baby’s development- if they aren’t ready for it, wait a week or two and try again)
Play With Water In a Cup or Bowl
I never thought to let a baby play with a bowl or cup of water until I had my cup in a cupholder and my baby leaned over while I was holding her and started splashing her hand around in my cup of water!
She enjoyed it so much that I set up a little station outside when the weather is good and she can play and splash as much as she wants! All you need is a few plastic bowls, cups, and water and your activity is all set up!
I recommend doing it outside or in the bathtub just for mommies’ sanity.
Touch And Feel Books
These touch and feel books are some of my baby’s favorite things. She loves flipping through the book and taking her pointer finger, touching all the different textures on the pages. This keeps her occupied for a while.
Sensory Bags
Simply grab a gallon sized Ziplock bag, add a little bit of water, maybe some food coloring, and objects that will easily move around, like peas or beans, maybe even sparkles. Line the outside edges of the bag with duct tape to reinforce the edges for mess free fun. Tape the edges to the floor and let your baby slap it, jiggle it, and be entertained.
Tape Pulling
Simply rip off a few pieces of painters tape approximately a foot long each and tape about 5 or so of them to the wall, leaving the ends slightly peeled up off the wall.
Real World Sensory Play
Feel the dirt and grass. When my baby did this for the first time, she looked amazed by the ground outside. She could dig her nails into it and play with the earth’s carpet! (Grass). Take a blanket outside and lay on it with your baby. See what they do! Just make sure they don’t put anything nasty in their mouth!
Sensory Bottles
I don’t know what it is about mommy and daddy’s drinking bottles, but once I’m finished drinking my Gatorade, my little one loves playing with the bottle. She doesn’t even care if its empty! It’s a new toy to her!
Try adding fun objects to your plastic bottles, like coins or beads, anything small that can make noise like a rattle for them to shake around.
Another fun sensory bottle could be filled with water and add some food coloring and sparkles or confetti! They’ll be mesmerized!
Go On a Walk Outside
Get out of the house and enjoy a beautiful day outside! Walk around your yard pointing out different objects to your child and saying the name of that object. Repeat it a few times for them.
Stand there and feel the breeze and the warm sun. Listen to the birds chirping! Walk through the garden and let baby touch a few vegetables.
My baby loves being outside. When we walk out on a gorgeous day, she starts wiggling her arms and legs in excitement of just being outside, with a big smile on her face!
Even just a walk in the stroller will put you and baby in a great mood!
Just Have Fun!
Keep in mind your baby’s personal developmental stages and do the learning activities for babies they are ready for. As long as you are spending time with your baby, they are having fun. So, relax and enjoy time with that sweet baby of yours!
Wow thank you for this ideas Im so happy that I’ve already try them and it went very well
I’m so happy it all went well for you! Thanks for sharing your success!
I can’t wait to try some of these simple activities with my grandchildren!!! Thank you for the great ideas!!!
Debbie