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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 4 months · 1

Shake it, hear it
  1. Put a rattle or a squeaky toy in the baby's hand.
  2. Help them shake or squeeze it once, so a sound happens.
  3. Let go and wait. Give them time to make it happen again on their own.

Why it helps

The sound comes because of something the baby did. Making it happen again on purpose is one of the first experiments a baby runs, and the pause you leave is where they get to try.

Watch for

Use a store-bought rattle made in one sealed piece, with no parts that come off, and throw it away if it cracks. Homemade shakers filled with rice, beans, or beads can split open, and everything inside is a choking hazard.

From 6 months · 2

Peekaboo under a cloth
  1. Put a thin cloth over your own head and wait.
  2. Let the baby pull it off, and be pleased when they do.
  3. Next round, cover a toy instead and let them uncover that.

Why it helps

Pulling the cloth away is a whole arm movement with a reason behind it, and the reason is worth more than the movement: things still exist when you cannot see them. Reaching under the cloth for a hidden toy is that idea becoming certain.

Watch for

Use a single thin, breathable cloth and keep it in your hand between rounds. Nothing that covers a face stays on the mat with the baby.

Drop it and look
  1. When the baby drops a soft toy from the high chair, say “Down it went!”
  2. Lean over and look down at the floor together.
  3. Pick it up, hand it back, and expect it to fall again.

Why it helps

Dropping things on purpose is a baby testing whether the toy still exists once it leaves their sight. Looking down together, and finding it every time, gives the same answer again and again until it sticks.

Watch for

Keep the baby strapped in, because they will lean over the side to look. Use soft toys only, and never tie one to the chair with string or ribbon to save the trips: a cord near a baby's neck is a strangulation risk.

From 7 months · 1

Pull the towel to get it
  1. Lay a small towel on the floor in front of the baby, with the near end within reach.
  2. Put a toy on the far end, just out of reach.
  3. Wait. If they stay stuck, give the towel a small tug yourself so they see the toy move.

Why it helps

To get the toy, the baby has to stop reaching for it and do something else first. Using one thing to get another is an early form of problem solving, and a towel is the simplest tool there is.

Watch for

Use a towel to pull, never a string, cord, or ribbon, since those can wrap around a neck or a finger. Stay with the baby for the whole game and put the towel away afterwards.

From 8 months · 3

Under which cup?
  1. Set two upturned plastic cups in front of the baby.
  2. While they watch, hide a toy under one and ask, “Where did it go?”
  3. Let them lift the cup and find it.
  4. Once they find it every time, hide it under the other cup instead.

Why it helps

Finding a toy under a cup means keeping it in mind while it is out of sight. Switching cups is harder than it sounds: younger babies often look again where they found it last time, and getting past that is memory catching up with what the eyes just saw.

Watch for

Hide a toy too big to fit in the mouth, and use cups that are not glass. If the baby gets frustrated, lift the cup yourself, show them the toy, and end the game on a find.

Open and shut
  1. Share a lift-the-flap board book and let the baby do the lifting.
  2. Give them a container with an easy lid and a toy inside.
  3. Say “open” and “shut” each time the toy appears and disappears.

Why it helps

A flap or a lid makes something vanish and come back, and the baby decides when. Each time, the hidden thing is still there, and saying “open” and “shut” as it happens gives those words a meaning the baby can see.

Watch for

Once lids and doors interest the baby, put safety locks on every cupboard that holds cleaners, medicines, or sharp tools. Watch little fingers at hinges and at lids that snap shut, and pick containers with no small parts to pull off.

Nesting cups
  1. Show the baby how a small cup drops into a big one.
  2. Hand them two cups at a time to start, with sizes far apart.
  3. Add a middle size once two is easy, and let them stack the cups upside down too.

Why it helps

Big holds small, and small does not hold big. The cups teach size by letting the baby get it wrong and see why, and two cups far apart in size make the answer easy to find before the harder ones come in.

Watch for

Use cups too big to fit in the baby's mouth, including the smallest one in the set. Check them for cracks now and then, and throw away any cracked plastic, which can break into sharp pieces.

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