check out these activities I found to do with shydan. 1) Outdoor Play Take your infant outside! Place a blanket on the ground, or just sit them in your lap. Let her touch the grass and hear the sounds. I just did this with my daughter this morning while my son was playing outside in the backyard. Of course you need to supervise so she does not eat the grass, dirt, etc. Its amazing how mesmerized they can get with these simple experiences. 2) What is inside You need a box with an opening in the top. Any kind of opening large enough to place toys inside and remove them. (I have used a cardboard box that held garbage bags. It had a pre-made opening that was perforated so I could rip an opening to remove the bags.) Place a few toys that make noise into the box and present it to your baby. Ask them, Whats inside? You may have to pull out one toy to model the action for them. Your baby will enjoy the mystery of what is inside and will try to dig inside the box to find the toys. There are pre-made versions of this toy at stores like Lakeshore Learning: 3) Water Play Lay a towel on the floor, and fill a little bowl or small container with water. Place your child in your lap, if they are not sitting up on their own yet, and let him/her play in the water. I actually placed a towel over my daughters lap as well to minimize any wetness getting on her clothes. My daughter loved this. It only lasted 10 minutes; you can only ask so much of an infants attention span! Just let them grab for the water, lightly splash, and pat at it. You can also extend the activity by placing a toy in the water when boredom sets in and then he/she may try grabbing the toy to retrieve it. Great for the eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills that you want to emphasize at this age! Always talk to them while they are playing: introduce vocabulary, tell them its water, tell them they are splashing, things like that. Simple repetition, but its all reinforcement. 4) Sticky Ball Take a plastic ball (baseball size or bigger to avoid a choking hazard), and wrap tape around it sticky side out. Yes, sticky side out. Wrap it tightly so the tape does not slide off of the ball, and all around the ball as well. Watch as your infant inspects this interesting plaything! Passing objects back and forth between hands is a developmental milestone, and this adds a little more interest. Always talk to your child: tell them its sticky and a ball, etc. Language is good!! 5) Homemade Shape Book A) You need: a black marker, scissors, plastic zip top bags, a piece of construction paper, and packing tape. B) Fold paper into quarters. C) Draw a shape in each quarter, and write the name of the shape below the image. D) Cut along the fold lines to separate the shape pages and place each shape page into a zip bag. Seal the bag. (Note: You may want to tape the paper inside the bag with a small piece of packing tape before you seal the bag. This will help keep the paper in place in the bag.) E) Lay the bags on top of one another and tape the bind or edges together with the packing tape. I recommend folding each page over and taping along the bind in between each page to reinforce the book. F) Voila! You have a book. They can mouth it, crinkle it, and you can read it to them. You can make one of these with numbers, family members [print out pics and tape them to the paper pieces], or use animal images from the web. NOTE: Please do not give this to infants with teeth unsupervised. They could bite the plastic. Supervise and teach! My daughter has been playing with her book for two days now, and it is still in good shape. Remember, its a cheap throw away if it becomes too used, unlike board books from the book store. Enjoy! 6) Have a Conversation: Do you ever just sit and talk to your baby? Children LOVE to interact, and although you will not be solving the problems of the world, you will be making your child feel very confident. You may just be copying their sounds, creating words from their sounds or actually chatting by talking to them with conversation directed by you. Here is what I mean: As in the photo above, sit with your baby, and if she makes any sounds, you can say them back to her. You can also take the sound she makes and expand on it. I am working with my 6 month old to teach her the names of the members of our family, so I try to associate her sounds with our names. If she says, Bah, I say, Brother or Maybelle (our dog). If she says, Mah, I say, Momma. Additionally, when I am holding her, I will talk to her about what I am doing. If I am working on laundry, I will say, We need to put the wet clothes in the dryer. Lets get them all in and turn it on. Oh, listen to that loud dryer. It makes a loud noise. Or if I am cooking, I will use similar conversation: We need to stir the pot. Do you hear the noise of the food cooking? Its crackling. Whenever I am holding my daughter or she is in the room with me, I talk to her. She hears language and gets used to conversational tone. Also, and here is the big point, she learns that she is important to me. I am including her. Particularly when she makes a noise and I respond. She learns that she has something valuable to contribute. More tips on conversing with infants here. 7) The Baby Climbed Over the Mountain: Place a few pillows on the floor or you can use couch cushions. Place your baby on one side of the cushions and sit yourself on the opposite side. Encourage your infant to climb to you over the mountain of cushions. Have hands ready for any dives once they start the decline! This activity helps them develop more balance, core strength, coordination, and encourages them to approach challenge. 8) Wipes Box Pull-Out Using an empty diaper wipes box or facial tissues box, create a pull-out toy. Infants and young toddlers love to pull wipes out of the box. At some point, almost every mom finds the tissues all over the floor and an innocent-faced child sitting a midst a sea of white. You can make this in less than 5 minutes! Heres what to do: 1. Take a light scarf, or sew or tie together squares of scrap fabric at the corners to make a long fabric scarf. 2. Gently stuff the scarf in the bottom of an empty wipes box or tissue box. 3. Pull out a corner of the scarf through the opening in the box lid and show it to your baby. 4. Close the lid flap (wipes box only) and let your child try to push the release button to open the flap and view the scarf. 5. Encourage your child to pull out the scarf. *Note: As your child grows, you can use this same toy to teach them to put back into the box. Teach them to put the scarf back into the box through the lid opening or tissue box opening. You can use bandannas, scrap fabric, or strips of construction paper taped together to make a longer strip. For younger infants, use pieces of white construction paper with designs drawn on them with a black marker. This will increase the visual/mental interest as well as keep them pulling out of the box to improve their fine motor skills and understanding of cause-and-effect relationships. 8A) Travel Wipe Box Pullout Using a small travel wipes container (empty) and ribbon scraps, you can make a smaller version: a) Tie together the strips of ribbon being sure to double knot. b) Tape the end of the ribbon rope to the inside bottom of the box using a piece of packaging tape or duct tape c) Leave an inch of ribbon peeking out of the opening and close it. Show it to your infant and encourage them to open the flap and pull the ribbon out. 9) Ball Pit Turn your baby pool into an indoor activity during the colder months: create a ball pit. Fill the pool with colored plastic balls. You can find them at Wal-Mart or on Amazon. We used this at our sons first birthday, and it was a hit! I left it in the house for a while after, and my son loved climbing in and out. 10) Nesting Cups No need to buy another toy for this purpose. If you have measuring cups, use them. Young children learn that wholes have parts, and one volume can fit into a larger volume. This play opens up math lessons of order and seriation (number 1 comes before number 2, etc.). 11) Mouthing Infants NEED to mouth items. You of course can pick which items you would like your child to access and which they need to not touch, but allow your infant to put safe toys that are not a choking hazard in their mouth. An infants most sensitive sensory input receptor is her mouth. It is how they feel. As your infant reaches 9 months old, their need to mouth will probably start to decrease, especially if you have allowed them to use that tool to explore. Their hands and fingers will become stronger receptors and less will go in their mouth. 12) High Contrast Cards Using index cards, draw on designs using a black marker. Start with straight bars for the newborn, and increase the complexity for your infant as they grow. You can even place these in zip top bags and make the book I describe in #5 above on this list. My son, no kidding, would just look at these cards from about birth until 3 months . After a month or two, you can add colors like red or blue to vary the interest. Talk to your child about what they are looking at to increase the learning! 13) Easy Vehicle Push a baby in a box. Yep! My kids had a ball with this one evening while I was making dinner. I would only use this with an infant who is a strong sitter. Supervision definitely required! Its safest when pushed from the back. If you tie a string to the front and pull, the risk for tipping is greater. 14) Egg Carton Pointer Using an empty egg carton, glue little items in the bottom of each egg cup. I glued down pom poms of various colors, a piece of yarn, small scrap of fabric with a pattern, small cut piece of sponge, and a small cut piece of ribbon. I also squirted puffy paint into a couple for texture and color, and stuck a couple colored circle stickers down as well. This toy will encourage your older infant to use their fine motor skills to point into and feel the items in each cup. We want that skill of pointing and moving the index fingers to be strong! Supervise so that if any items become loose, they do not go in the mouth. 15) Peek-a-Boo Box Using a small cardboard box with a flap-type top, create a peek-a-boo box to encourage exploration and further development of object permanence (knowledge that something exists even when it is not seen). I cut a piece of colored paper and glued it to the top of the box, then wrote my childs name on the top (to further use this as a learning tool of exposure to print, specifically her name). I taped the tab in half (you can see this at the bottom of the picture to the right) to create a handle that sticks off the box, but this is completely optional. Inside the box, using clear packaging tape, I affixed a picture of my child to encourage her to open the box. She will learn face recognition, self-esteem since we get to celebrate seeing her every time she looks in the box, and the fine motor skill of opening the top. You can make one for each family member, or wrap tape around different images, place a velcro dot on the back of each picture, and place one in the box so you can stick a picture to the velcro and easily change out the images to expand the interest of this game. 16) Natural Materials Feely Box If you have collected rocks, leaves, pine cones, shells, or any other larger natural materials from playtime outside, bring them inside and create a feely box. Place collected items (related, or not) in a small cardboard box, cloth bag, or other receptacle. Show them to your baby, and let them reach into the box or bag to pull out items and feel them. If you are worried about the cleanliness of the items, hand wash them prior to use. Make sure to talk about the items with your child to expand vocabulary and exposure to language. 17) Ribbon Feely Box Infants LOVE to get their hands on things, and the more involved that the hands-on touching time can be, the better. Recently, by accident, I discovered that a box of ribbon can be a great sensory activity! While taking a few moments to blog, I gave my daughter a box of ribbons-random lengths and colors that I collected from gifts we received...yep, I re-gift ribbon on new gifts that I wrap! (You caught me!) The box of ribbon pieces was very entertaining as it had different colors, textures, widths and lengths. It did not get terribly tangled, until my son got involved, and it really was not my rolls of ribbon that I save for special crafty projects. Try it! Get involved too talking about color and texture. 18) Dont Underestimate the Simple Toys We do a great disservice to our children when all we give them are toys with lots of functions, buttons, and noises. The simple toys that have been around FOREVER are the best-particularly for infants and toddlers. Remember, a foundation of learning is not built with complicated structure, but simple and sturdy repetition. The toy pictured may seem boring to some, but it teaches number names, number order, fine motor movements of the wrist and fingers that require coordination and strength, and cause and effect. It can also teach animal names (vocabulary) since there is a different animal under every door. When using simple toys, expand on them. With this toy, when I open each door (to expose my daughter to the how to since she cant complete it yet) I count. I count forwards with it when the doors open, I count as she closes the doors whether in order or out of order, and I discuss the motion of opening each door whether push or turn. 19) Wrap, Unwrap We all know that at gift-giving times our infants tend to enjoy unwrapping a package more than discovering what is inside the box or bag. Turn this into an activity: Wrap a few boxes, simply, and stuff a few gift bags with colorful tissue paper. Allow your infant to pull out the tissue and unwrap the paper by ripping it apart. After one time, place the shreds of paper in the box, wrap again-if you desire-and let her unwrap another time discovering the previously shredded paper pieces inside. (Reaction should look like: Hey! Ive seen these before!) Great for motor control of the hands, fingers and wrist as well as eye hand coordination and sensory exploration. As your infant reaches 9-11 months, he/she will start putting the tissue back in the bag as well. 20) Flour Sensory While my son and I were making two different kinds of play dough one morning, I had to give my daughter an opportunity to be near us and occupied. Since we were using flour in our play dough recipes, I added a few teaspoons of flour to her high chair tray so she could explore. It kept her attention, in between watching us, and if she tasted it it was safe. Great fine motor exercise as well as cause-and-effect exploration since she was using her finger to drag through the flour while seeing the lines remaining. 21) Monochromatic Duplos Pull out only one color of duplos and present them to your child. Talk about them using the color word. Variations in tone are ok: learning occurs when initial confusion leads to scaffolding and deeper understanding! 22) Animal Names Poster You can tell from the picture that this poster lasts, and gets used a lot...not to mention moved around and re-taped to our wall! I made this for my now-four-year-old when he was an infant. I use it for my one-year-old now...still. Search on-line for images of animals, if you do not have any on your computer. Print them out, trim them and paste them to a piece of posterboard. I labeled the poster Animals as well as labeled each animal with its name to add print awareness. I did overlay a piece of contact paper to help preserve the piece, but that is optional. This poster is something that you can sit and chat about with your child as a one-on-one activity, and when kept in view of them, you will notice your child investigating the poster on his/her own as well. 23) Infants Can Paint! I know its a scary topic to bring up infants and paint, but do it! I undress my child down to the diaper, place her in her high chair (which is all plastic/vinyl/wipe-able) and prepare her work surface. On the tray, I tape a piece of construction paper using a few small strips of masking tape. I place a small bit of paint on the paper directly, and she moves it around using her fingers. Keep extra pieces of paper handy so you can simply peel off the painted paper, replace it with a clean sheet, and let your child paint until they are tired of it. This obviously is art exploration, fine motor, sensory, gift-giving (since you can send the additional paintings to family members), attention span (keep them painting as long as they are focused on it), as well as direction-learning since you will be saying things like, Paint on the paper, Use your hands to paint, Keep the paint on the paper [not in your mouth], etc. These make great Christmas gifts: Themed Activities page, scroll down to Winter section and look at #17. 24) Crayon Sensory My son was sorting through the crayon box to remove any broken pieces that were not usable any more. My daughter helped! She loves grabbing the crayons and taking them out of the box. (If there is a key activity for infants it is dump and put!) I talked about the colors as she looked at them and counted how many she had in her hand at each grab. I was teaching not to put them in her mouth, and we were sorting with my son making a pile of the broken ones, so she was exposed to that as well. Need a quick activity to get your infants hands exploring? Give them the box of crayons-with supervision, of course. 25) Shredded Paper Sensory Shredded paper is something we ALWAYS have plenty of in our paper shredder bin. It can be used as a sensory bin material. I hide magnets, small toys, or foam letters inside the paper shreds, and my infant digs through it until she finds an item to pull out. You can make this thematic as well by using all dinosaur toys or small toy cars, as well as Easter eggs, or plastic Christmas ornaments. Letter and number magnets pulled from the paper shreds. 26) Touch the Textures This little make-at-home booklet is a great exploration activity that allows your infant to be exposed to a book and engaging their sensory interest! I created it from paper board that is the material in cereal boxes, but you could use cardboard as well. Cut the board into 4 inch by 6 inch pieces and punch two holes in the left side of each page as shown in the picture. On each page, I used hot glue to attach scrap pieces of fabric, rug grip, and ribbon. After the glue cooled, I wrote a corresponding word to describe how the material on each page feels-sticky, bumpy, smooth, etc. This way print is being introduced as well for early literacy. After all the pages were labeled, I laid the pages on top of each other with the holes lined up on the left side, and tied a piece of yarn through to bind the book. Obviously, this is great for infants or toddlers with supervision so that if they start to pull the material off of the pages, you can teach that we can touch but not tear. A great lesson that will need to be learned with the use of real books as well. 27) Pillow Path Try making this game out of pillows...yep, only pillows! Line a few pillows on the floor-placing them on carpeted surfaces or rugs will help reduce the risk of slipping, but supervision is key when introducing any new activity to your child! Once you have made the path, show your crawler or walker how to crawl or step on the pillows. You will notice how much balance is tested when your child attempts to walk on this cushy path. Count each pillow as you walk on it all the way to the end and talk about the colors or textures of the pillows as your infant stops to explore along the path. 28) Personalized Songs Check out this post with a couple of song ideas that your infants will learn from and love. 29) Buzz to the Body Part Put your pointer finger together with your thumb and buzz like a bee pretending that your two fingers are a bee flying around. Land the bee on your childs knee and say, The bee is going to buzz to your knee! Then fly the bee around and land on their hand and say, The bee is going to buzz to land on your hand! Teaches observation, body parts, language, and of course makes them feel special since you are one-on-one with them.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 19:15:46 +0000
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