It is important to ensure a child that is months old is busy doing different activities instead of having idle days.
There are many things a child might be encouraged to do at different stages of their life before they turn a year old.
All such activities are vital to the child’s mobility and health. These will keep them active and will find ways to channel all of their energy into fun and productive things.
Key Notes
- Children require different activities that will encourage the development of different skills overtime
- Toddlers begin to develop fine motor skills and object permanence around 4 to 6 months
- Engaging with the child especially in regard to communication and social play encourages them to develop further
- Reading, bubble play, water play, etc. all encourage cognitive and emotional development for the toddler
Activities for 2-Month-Old Babies
Around 2 months, your child will be able to roll around and lie flat on their stomach. However, their independently sitting up days are still a little further off. You may involve your child in a few activities around this age as it is the perfect time to get started!
Your child will most likely engage best with sounds and other activities that are visually exciting. Here are some activities you may try.
Singing a Lullaby
Since the baby’s auditory senses have newly been enhanced, right now is the perfect time to sing to them.
Not only will they find this calming, but they might also try to sing along! This will further improve their speaking and communicating skills and encourage them to participate in singing activities.
This activity will encourage brain development and will also soothe the child helping them relax and even fall asleep.
Dancing
It might seem a tad bit early to start your child on dancing, but it isn’t! You may support your child’s back while you teach them to move around and move their body to the sound of music.
Not only will this cause auditory arousal but also will excite the child emotionally.
You may even carry your child while you dance with them. This will ensure they feel safe and close to you while also carrying out a fun activity.
Dancing will allow your child to learn about music and even form a deeper bond with you as a parent or guardian!
Introducing Colours
One of the most exciting activities for a toddler at this age is engaging with new and different colours, especially if they’re vibrant. You may add a mobile to their bed so they can interact and play with the different colours.
You may even want to incorporate light into the activity. This will keep their focus and excite them further.
This activity will encourage better brain and sensory development overtime.
Activities for 3-Month-Old Babies
Around 3 months, your child will be using their senses more than ever before. They will be using their hands, mouth, feet, ears, and eyes to engage with the world around them.
Therefore, their play should encourage the use of these senses so they may build on making them more refined over time.
Tummy Time
Around this time, your child will be able to push their head and shoulders off the ground while they’re on their stomach. Tummy time will help improve on the child’s basic motor and gross motor skills overtime.
This will strengthen their arm muscles and improve function.
By presenting them with exciting toys, with perhaps exciting colours, they will be encouraged to move their arms and legs to get to the toy and eventually play with it. You may even prop them onto a pillow to give them more freedom to move.
Encourage Body Exploration
Sit your baby in front of a mirror and show them all of their different features. This will build recognition for the child when it comes to their own body and how it looks.
You may even stretch their arms above their heads while they look at their own reflection.
Children often find these activities to be very amusing and exciting. This activity will encourage them to look at their body more often and be aware of the different functions it performs.
Imitate Noises and Faces
While you’re sitting with your child, imitate the noises that they’re making and the different facial expressions they show you.
Around 3 months, the child is beginning to realize they have a voice. It is important for them to know that they’re being heard. Repeat after them or attempt to have a conversation with them.
This will encourage them to speak more, helping them develop their communication skills over time.
Activities for 4-Month-Old Babies
When your child reaches the 4-month mark, they are becoming more and more alert by the minute. They will be able to hold their head up, their legs will get stronger, and their motor and communication skills will be improving.
Apart from this, toddlers at this age are more aware of their environment than ever before.
Here are some activities you may do with your child in order to encourage further development and growth.
Shaker Toys
The process of grabbing and shaking the rattles will encourage the child to learn about the cause-and-effect relationship of objects and sound.
Apart from this, the sound will provide an auditory stimulus that your child will definitely enjoy.
These shakers can be made at home from adding lentils to small plastic bottles. This way you save a trip to the store and your child can easily enjoy this activity and improve on their motor skills all at the same time.
Encourage Texture Exploration
Around this time, your toddler will be very interested in the world of textures and their feeling on their skin.
By setting your child on different blankets made of different textures, you are allowing them to explore their curiosity and learn the feel of different fabrics.
This will help them build on their sensory development and will encourage improvements in motor and gross motor skills.
Bubble Play
This is an activity that all babies enjoy so it is a foolproof way of getting your child to have some excitement and activity in their daily lives. Lay your child on their back or stomach, or perhaps even in a supported sitting position.
As the bubbles fly over the child, they will look at them in awe. This will stimulate their visual as well as their tactile senses once the bubbles come down and pop gently on their arms and legs.
Activities for 5-Month-Old Babies
When your child reaches the 5-month stage, they will have better dexterity, visual perception, understanding of sound, and other cognitive abilities including a better understanding of object permanence.
This is the perfect time to explore activities that are more invigorating for the mind and encourage thinking and communicating.
Story Time
You will need a visually stimulating children’s book in order to keep the child’s focus and encourage betterment in the visual sense department.
When you are reading to the child, make sure it is in an exciting and colorful voice as this will encourage better focus and understanding.
Point towards the illustrations while you read. This activity will encourage better communication skills and develop a deeper relationship with you as the parent.
Bouncing Ball
This activity involves you sitting the toddler up and gently throwing a soft and bouncy ball towards them.
They will, in turn, most likely attempt to throw the ball back at you. They may crawl around with the ball which will engage their leg muscles increasing dexterity.
This activity will improve their motor and gross motor skills and encourage play. The child will also show curiosity and will develop their social play skills as well.
Find the Toy
This is where their skills with object permanence come into play. Show the toddler their toy and hide it behind an opaque object, perhaps a blanket. The child will attempt to find the toy once it has disappeared from their sight.
Encourage them by tugging at the blanket so they may see the outline of the toy and attempt to reach for it. This will help them develop their fine motor skills.
Activities for 6-Month-Old Babies
Around 6 months, your child will have mastered object permanence and will be developing their fine motor skills. You will need to encourage them to engage with the world and develop their cognitive skills further.
Peek-a-boo
Around this time, your toddler will be at a point where they will have mastered their object permanence skills. When you hold a blanket up, ask them where they think you might be. Slowly pull the blanket down and say ‘peek-a-boo’ once they see you.
The child might seem confused at first, but they will slowly begin to catch on and enjoy the game. This will help them finetune their listening skills.
Splashing in Water
Your 6-month-old will be able to mostly hold up their sitting position. This is the time to explore fun activities in the bath. Fill their bath up to a safe level and sit them down with a floaty.
Place a toy in front of them and encourage them to splash the water onto the toy. They might chuckle and laugh as they do so.
Do it a few more times till the child catches on and begins to do it themselves. This will improve their back strength and encourage muscle dexterity.
Block Stacking
Around this age, your toddler will be working on their fine motor skills. This activity will allow them to finetune their skills.
Find colourful baby blocks and show the child how to stack them on top of one another. They may not be able to do to so successfully but the engagement with the blocks will encourage them to keep trying.
This activity will help improve their hand eye coordination and will encourage the use of their hand muscles.
Conclusion
Children require different levels of invigorating activities as they go through their early stages of childhood.
These activities help improve motor, gross motor, and fine as well as encourage cognitive development. All of these activities will contribute to their development over time.
