Baby Play

A friend from church lent me some playing cards called '50 things to do with your baby'.

I've been thinking that it would be a nice thing for me and Joel to undertake as many as we can before I go back to work, to try some nice mummy and baby fun activities to just enjoy our last few weeks together.

So here's the first list we'll try next week:

1 - Body games - in front of a mirror ask 'where's  your tummy', and point and say then move onto another body part.  Sing heads, shoulders, knees and toes.
2- Paint hand prints onto some paper using non-toxic paint.
3 - Pointing can be encouraged by finding lots of things for baby to point at.  Read a book and point at the pictures and begin asking where items are.
4 - Ball games - roll a ball back and forth between you.  Lift baby to a standing position and swing him to 'kick' the ball.  Line up bottles and boxes and roll the ball like a game of skittles.
5 - Help babies curiosity by putting some small objects in a pillowcase to find.  Use noisy toys such as jingly toys, rattles, clattering spoons and rustly paper.
6 - Make a postbox from a cardboard box with a slit and let baby post household objects.
7 - Make a photo gallery and go through it with baby to identify family members.
8 - Crawling games - have fun crawling with your baby and race each other to encourage your baby to keep up.
9 - Play tent - peg a blanket over the backs of two chairs and let baby explore the space inside.
10 - Go fishing.  If baby likes to drop things for you to collect and pass back.  Try attaching objects to baby's high chair with elastic and show him how to pull them back up again.

I think he'll cope with all those!