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Activities

One tap logs an activity for today. Reading a specific piece? Log it from the Read to baby shelf and the title comes along. Read to baby shelf →

Things to do with the baby

Ideas grouped by the age they usually start working, youngest first. Pick an area to see only those ideas. Open one for the steps, the reason it helps, and the sign to stop. Every idea logs with one tap, the same way the read shelf does.

From birth · 1

Follow my face
  1. Hold your face about thirty centimeters above the baby's, close enough to be in focus.
  2. Talk, then move your head slowly to one side and wait for the eyes to come with you.
  3. Move back through the middle and over to the other side.

Why it helps

A newborn sees a face more clearly than anything else in the room. Tracking it turns the eye muscles and the neck into one system, which is the beginning of reaching for what you look at.

Watch for

Move slowly and stop if the baby looks away, arches, or goes still and glassy. Turning away is how a young baby says they have had enough input, not that they are bored.

From 4 months · 2

Watch the bubbles
  1. Hold the baby on your lap, or lay them on their back on a blanket.
  2. Blow a few bubbles slowly, up and out in front of them, away from the face.
  3. Let the eyes follow each one down, and say “pop” when it bursts.
  4. Once they start to reach, let a bubble drift close enough for a hand to touch.

Why it helps

A bubble drifts slowly, catches the light, and changes direction on its own, which makes it good practice for eyes learning to follow a moving thing. When a reaching hand makes it vanish, looking turns into a reason to move.

Watch for

Blow up and away from the baby's face, so no drops land in the eyes or the mouth. The liquid is soap: keep the bottle in your own hand and then out of reach, and wipe the baby's hands afterwards, because they go straight to the mouth.

Where is that sound?
  1. Sit the baby on your lap facing out, or lay them on their back.
  2. Hold a rattle out of sight on one side and shake it softly.
  3. Wait for the head to turn, and show the rattle when they find it.
  4. Try the other side next, and later from behind.

Why it helps

Turning toward a sound means the two ears are working out where it came from, and the eyes go to check the answer. It is also a quiet, everyday way to see that hearing is on track.

Watch for

Shake softly, about an arm's length away, and never right next to the ear. If the baby still does not turn toward sounds by about six months, mention it to your pediatrician, who can check their hearing.

From 5 months · 3

Watch the ball roll by
  1. Sit the baby against you with support, or lay them on their tummy, facing a clear stretch of floor.
  2. Roll a bright ball slowly across in front of them, from one side to the other.
  3. Pause at the end so the eyes can catch up, then roll it back.

Why it helps

A ball rolling at an even speed asks the eyes to keep up with it smoothly, all the way across. That steady following is what a baby uses later to watch a toy roll across the room and go after it.

Watch for

Use a ball too big to fit in the baby's mouth and light enough not to hurt if it bumps them. Stop when they look away or start to fuss, because that is how they tell you they have had enough.

A basket of textures
  1. Fill a low basket with a few safe things that feel different: a soft baby brush, a wooden spoon, a satin cloth, a crinkle cloth, a silicone teether.
  2. Set it where the baby can reach and let them pull things out one at a time.
  3. Name each one as they touch it: soft, smooth, hard, bumpy.
  4. Swap one or two things every few days, so there is always something new.

Why it helps

Babies find out what things are by handling them, and at this age the mouth is part of the exploring too. Soft next to hard, and smooth next to bumpy, with your word for each, links what the hands feel to a word long before the baby can say it.

Watch for

Everything in the basket will go in the mouth, so use only things bigger than the mouth, and nothing that crumbles or tears into pieces when bitten — no sponges, foam, or paper. Check cloth edges for loose threads, and stay close the whole time.

Splash in the bath
  1. Run a shallow bath, about five centimeters of water for a young baby.
  2. Test it with your elbow or the inside of your wrist: warm, never hot.
  3. Let the baby pat and kick the water, and say “splash!” when it flies.
  4. Pour water slowly from a cup over their hands.

Why it helps

Water answers every movement — a pat makes a splash, a kick makes a wave — so the baby learns that what they do changes something. The warmth on the skin, the sound, and the shine all arrive at once, which is a lot for the senses in one small tub.

Watch for

Keep a hand on the baby and never leave, not even for a second to fetch a towel — a baby can drown in a few centimeters of water, quickly and silently. Have everything within reach before you start, and treat a bath seat as a seat, not a safety device.

From 6 months · 5

A blanket on the grass
  1. Find shade, spread a blanket, and sit the baby on it.
  2. Fold one corner back so a hand or a foot reaches the grass.
  3. Follow what they notice — a leaf, a bird, the wind in a tree.

Why it helps

Grass, wind, and uneven ground give the hands and feet a kind of information a flat indoor floor never does, and the whole session costs you nothing but a blanket.

Watch for

Keep a baby under six months out of direct sun and in the shade rather than in sunscreen. Check the ground for cigarette ends, glass, and anything small enough to reach a mouth.

Smell the kitchen
  1. Pick one thing with a clear smell: a sprig of mint, half a lemon, or a cinnamon stick.
  2. Hold it a little way from the baby's nose, and sniff it yourself first.
  3. Name the smell — “lemon, fresh and sour” — and watch their face.
  4. Offer one smell at a time, with a pause between them.

Why it helps

Smell is the sense parents name out loud least often, though a baby has used it since birth. Naming each smell, and letting them see your face as you sniff, links it to a word and to foods that will later turn up on the plate.

Watch for

You hold it the whole time and the baby only sniffs, so nothing reaches the mouth or the eyes. Skip essential oils completely — they are toxic if swallowed and harsh on small airways — and keep chili and pepper well away from the face.

Dance fast, dance slow
  1. Put on some music and hold the baby close, one arm under the bottom and one across the back.
  2. Sway slowly to a slow song, then step a little quicker when a fast one comes on.
  3. Hum along, quiet in one part and louder in the next.
  4. Say the words as it changes: “slow… fast!”, “soft… loud!”

Why it helps

The baby hears the music and feels it in your steps at the same time, so fast and slow become something they know with the whole body. Hearing the music change, and then feeling you change with it, is early practice in noticing a pattern.

Watch for

Support the head and trunk the whole time, and keep every movement smooth — never shake, toss, or jolt a baby, even in play. Keep the music at about the level of ordinary conversation, and stop if they turn away or fuss.

Sounds around the house
  1. When the doorbell rings or the washing machine starts, stop and say “Listen!”
  2. Carry the baby to see where the sound came from.
  3. Name it simply: “That's the kettle. The water is boiling.”
  4. Next time, pause and let them look toward it before you go.

Why it helps

A home is full of sounds a baby hears all day but cannot yet place. Going to look, and hearing you name it, links each sound to the thing that makes it, which is the start of understanding what they hear.

Watch for

Look from a safe distance: stay well back from kettle steam, the stove, the oven, and anything hot, and hold the baby on the side away from it. A reaching hand moves faster than you can.

Squish the food
  1. Seat the baby upright in the high chair, with the straps done up.
  2. Put a little soft food straight on the tray, like mashed banana or soft-cooked pasta.
  3. Let them squish, smear, and spread it — the mess is the point.
  4. Name what they feel, “squishy” or “slippery”, and let the hand find the mouth on its own.

Why it helps

Squishing is how a baby finds out what a new food is before deciding to eat it. The feel of soft, sticky, and slippery on the fingers is part of learning to eat, and it gives the fingers practice for picking food up later.

Watch for

Use only foods that are safe for the baby's age and soft enough to squash between your finger and thumb, and allergenic foods only once they have already been introduced. Keep the baby seated upright and watched for the whole meal, and end it when they push the tray away or turn their head.

From 7 months · 1

Cool and warm
  1. Wet two washcloths, one with cool tap water and one with warm.
  2. Test the warm one on the inside of your wrist first.
  3. Let the baby touch the cool one as you say “cool”, then the warm one as you say “warm”.
  4. Let them go back and forth, and watch which one they reach for.

Why it helps

A baby feels warm and cool all day long without a word for either. Touching the two side by side, with a word for each, makes the difference clear and gives the baby their first words for how things feel.

Watch for

Check the warm cloth on the inside of your wrist before it touches the baby — comfortably warm, never hot. Keep hot water and hot mugs out of the game and out of reach, and never put anything straight from the freezer on the baby's skin.

Ages say when an idea usually starts working, not when your baby should manage it. Babies reach these months in their own order.