mommy-and-babyPlaying and learning is an interactive activity and the child will achieve better results if he or she is in a relaxed and appropriate environment. Parents that are too anxious for their child to achieve immediate results, and others that are indifferent and do not value the effort are both contra productive. Games need to be fun for everyone that is participating in them.

Songs and childish rhymes are more and more important during this stage. The child will not only move to the music but will also try to sing. At this age babies will also invent texts that have to do with their body parts so that you signal to them, so teach your baby a happy and fun intonation with mimics, clapping and gestures.

You can also use puppets, marionettes, and rag dolls in order to enhance your stories, talk with the dolls and create a personality
for each of them. You will see that your child will imitate you and that when he or she is alone, he will give life to the rag dolls as well.

Take the baby to the park and allow him to come into contact with other children, it’s possible the baby will not play with them yet but he will start learning to socialize.

Sit the baby in a chair in a table appropriate for his or her size and teach him how to color his own story with crayons. Make play dough dolls and allow the baby to play with them without caring if he ends up destroying them in a second. Watch though that he does not put them inside his mouth, even though colors are generally not toxic, children need to learn that these colors and things are not to be eaten but are used to play with.

Hold the baby’s hand and help him kick a light weight ball, little by little he will no longer need of your help and will learn to keep his balance and lift his leg and kick on his own.

Give the baby simple jobs like taking or bring big but light objects such as a big balloon, an inflatable ball, a rag doll, a plastic chair etc. Doing this will help the child to bend down and then stand up while maintaining his balance.

Teach the baby how to make bubbles. Put a few drops of baby shampoo in a plastic cup with water and let the child blow through a straw. When the baby is in the tub, give him rubber toys with little holes in them so that he or she can squeeze them and make bubbles.

Jumpy: This is a chair that is generally made out of canvas and suspends on an elastic cordon that is fixed onto the ceiling. The baby’s feet reach the ground and can jump up and down.

Swings: Swings favor the sense of balance and contact between the child and the people around him or her, since the parents or caretakers are the ones that will push the swing. Never leave a child alone on one of these rides.


From babysstory.