Baby Activities - Ideas, Toys, and Games for parents of Children Ages 6 months +

• Develop a loving relationship with your child and set them on the path to early academic success through reading and fun activities.
• Reading exposes babies to new vocabulary and strengthens their senses when they listen and look at a book.​
• ​Encourage sensory development by introducing your baby to different textured objects that they can hold and listen to as they move them.
• Enjoy playing with your baby and watching as they grow at an incredible rate!

Farm Mat

 .  Motor Skills  .  Language .  

• This mat helps with physical development.  As your baby grasps and squeezes the animals they are strengthening their muscles.  The bright colors appeal to their improving vision.  The different sounds the animals make stimulate your child’s hearing.
• Talking to your baby about the mat can help familiarize them with vocabulary before they can talk.  Hold up each animal and say the name.  Point to the different colors and name them.  Hearing words is crucial to a young child’s development.

BONUS ACTIVITY
Get silly with it!  Introduce your baby to different farm noises.  You are sure to get a great response when you hold up the cow and give your best “MOO!”

The Melissa and Doug Take-Along Farm Mat is a great toy for developing these types of skills - and just enjoying playing with your baby! 

Baby Faces Book

.  SOCIAL SKILLS   PRE-READING SKILLS  . 

• Exposing children to books is one of the best ways to foster a love of learning!
• This book exposes children to many emotions that they will come across. The exciting book will help children understand emotions and nonverbal communication.  The multicultural characters provide a more representative picture of modern society than many children’s books.
• Your child is free to chew, pull and play with this book in any way they want.  The indestructible nature of the book allows them to experience holding a book, an important pre-reading skill, without you having to worry about the book being damaged.
  

​BONUS ACTIVITY
With your child practice making the faces to match the characters.
​

The indestructible Baby Faces is a great addition to any nursery library or floor activity space. The colors are vibrant and the book can handle whatever your baby throws at it!

Baby Blocks

.  GEOMETRY    MOTOR SKILLS  

• Blocks help develop motor skills, which support language development.  
  
• Stacking may be frustrating for your child, so an adult can stack the blocks and your child can knock them over!  Your child will still improve their motor skills by squeezing and playing with the blocks.
  
• Try tossing the blocks!  Point to the animal on each block, say the name and have your child repeat it. For added fun, make the animal noises and move like the animals!  Things to talk about: Colors! Animals! Letters (but learning letters comes later…)!
  

BONUS ACTIVITY
Find the animals somewhere else! Books, TV shows, nursery rhymes, and songs are great places to start!

Soft baby blocks are great for developing early hand dexterity and strength. The different colors, textures, numbers, and images will keep you busy over tons of play sessions.