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Tummy Time Bounce This is a fun way to get your tummy time in, after baby can hold
their head up on their own. Especially engaging for those littles
who just don’t like tummy time on their own.
Lay on your back, with knees bent and to your chest. Place
baby on top of your shins, facing you face to face. Gently
bounce your legs up and down to a rhyme or song while
holding baby firmly.
There are lots of bounce songs and rhymes at Jbrary or VPL’s
The Roots of Reading
Pasta Challenge An easy activity to practice fine motor control. Warning: This
might get a little messy.
• Grab (uncooked) spaghetti noodles and a colander with
small holes (but big enough for the noodles to fit into)
• Give them to your child to play with. Some kiddos will
spend an amazing amount of time working at getting the
noodles into the holes and making fantastic designs.
Sensory Sandwich Bags This activity uses both gross and fine motor skills. It can be very
calming. And, it can smell lovely to play with.
• Fill 1 clean sealable sandwich bag half full with hair gel
(clear works best).
• Add in any of the following or similar: beads, small items like foam letters, google eyes, leaves, flowers, buttons, glitter
• Tape the bag shut with duct tape.
• Play! Write letters, squeeze it, throw it, smack it. How
does it smell? Feel? Sound? What if you freeze it?
• Just make sure this tempting thing stays out of little
mouths!
The Cupboard of Mystery The kitchen can be a place of fascination. All those doors! Your
baby will also likely want to be with you all the time, so it can
be practical and educational for them to have something to
safely explore in the kitchen.
If you have the space: dedicate one kitchen cupboard for
exploration. Transfer some baby and toddler friendly items to
this cupboard. Things like colanders, whisks, plastic containers
and dish towels can be amusing for hours. You can even
occasionally put a toy or two in there for them to rediscover.
Tape Toy Time Getting bored of all the same old toys? Tape them up! Use
painter’s tape or masking tape to attach a few toys to a wall, or
under a chair. If baby is crawling or walking try to make the
height a little bit of a challenge to reach. Baby may even be
inspired to get up on their feet! Make a big deal of celebrating
when one gets torn down.
Baby & Box Party Father any cardboard boxes for the week’s recycling in your
home and spend time playing in, on and around them. You can
stack them, line them up, knock them over, bang on them, hide
in them, play peek-a-boo behind them, or if they and baby are
big enough, gently push them around in a little box “car.”
Toy Trap Next time the box of facial tissues is empty – don’t throw it in
the recycling quite yet!
Try placing some of baby’s regular toys in the box for them to
get out. To make the task easier you can take the plastic out,
and to make the task more challenging, you can leave it in.
If you are willing to endure using tissues out of the box for a
while, letting baby have free reign of the tissue box can be
really exciting too!
Book Dominos Board books are not just for reading! They can also be an
excellent toy to set up and knock over. Place three or four
standing in a row and show baby how to knock them over. It’s
extra fun if you count them out while you place them. This
activity encourages big motor skills, demonstrates cause and
effect for baby and creates positive fun feelings towards
books. If baby is crawling, set them up away from where baby
is any watch as they scoot over to knock them down.
Baby & Bed Sheet Slalom If you have non – carpeted floors and a baby who can hold their
head up, take a bed sheet or a towel and spread it on the floor.
Lay baby down however they are comfortable. Gently pull
them around the house on the sheet. This is a great time to
pretend to be a choo choo train, a motorcycle or an airplane!
You can also sings some songs like She’ll be Commin’ Round the
Mountain or The Wheels on the Bus
Flash Light Fun Great for a rainy day when the sun is hiding, use the flashlight
on your phone to make shapes and movements on the wall or
ceiling for baby. You can encourage baby to play with the
beam of light by putting their hands and feet in it, pointing out
their whole body shadow against a wall. You can also use
stuffies, puppets or other toys and play with their shadows.
You can play with (and talk about) fast and slow, big and small,
back and forth, up and down. For extra fun put a sheer
coloured scarf or piece of tissue paper over the beam.
The Book of Huggles Print off some photos of special family, friends, neighbours
and pets. Put the photos in a small album that baby can hold
themselves, and that you don’t mind if it sees a little rough
and tumble. The full plastic sleeve type are best. You can use a
bit of clear tape to make sure that the photos stay in the
album and don’t end up in little mouths. Include photos of
baby interacting with these people if you have them. Look at
the album together and talk about the people who make up
baby’s circle of love.
Name Hunt This is a great activity for simple letter recognition. It uses your
child’s favourite word – their name!
• Grab paper pieces (post-its are great!) and a pen
• Write kiddo’s name on some paper pieces and hide them
around the house
• Write the names of everyday items like “table” “chair” or
“floor” on the remaining pieces of paper, and hide them
too
• Do a hunt for all the pieces of paper!
• When all the pieces are gathered again, divide them into
two piles: “Kiddo’s Name” and “Not kiddo’s name”
Pasta Challenge An easy activity to practice fine motor control. This one might
get a little messy.
• Grab (uncooked) spaghetti noodles and a colander with
small holes (but big enough for the noodles to fit into)
• Give them to your child to play with. Some kiddos will
spend an amazing amount of time working at getting the
noodles into the holes and making fantastic designs.
Sensory Sandwich Bag This activity uses both gross and fine motor skills. It can be very
calming. And, it can smell lovely to play with.
• Fill 1 clean sealable sandwich bag half full with hair gel
(clear works best).
• Add in any of the following or similar: beads, small items like foam letters, google eyes, leaves, flowers, buttons, glitter
• Tape the bag shut with duct tape.
• Play! Write letters, squeeze it, throw it, smack it. How
does it smell? Feel? Sound? What if you freeze it?
• Just make sure this tempting thing stays out of little
mouths!
The Cupboard of Mystery The kitchen can be a place of fascination. All those doors! Your
little one may also want to be with you all the time, so it can be
practical and educational for them to have something to safely
explore in the kitchen.
If you have the space: dedicate one kitchen cupboard for
discovery. Transfer some baby and toddler friendly items to
this cupboard. Things like colanders, whisks, plastic containers
and dish towels can be amusing for hours. You can even
occasionally put a toy or two in there for them to rediscover.
Bathtime Soccer Star For a messy but fun time, with grown-up supervision, have
kiddo lie on their back in a very shallow bath and attempt to lift
their bath toys out of the water using their hands and their
feet. This works gross motor skills.
Can they launch them over their head?
Can they launch them out of the bath?
Can they launch them without splashing?
Disco Bath With grown-up supervision, fill the tub with water, and if you
are OK with the mess, a couple drops of food colouring, tinted
bubble bath, or a sparkly bath bomb.
Give kiddo a few glow sticks and turn out the lights. Put on
some of your favorite tunes and have a bath party while you
get clean!
Photo Stand Fun Take some scrap cardboard and cut out a circle. Using a dark
marker, draw the body of an animal, robot, fish, character or
whatever inspires you!
Take photos with your own face and your little one’s face
peeking through. Maybe even get the pets in there! Look at
and talk about the photos together. It’s also fun to play with
this in front of a mirror for funny pretend play.
Image: https://www.sadanduseless.com/cardboard-cat-dinosaurs/
Animal Play Get up and get moving! Pretend that you are an animal and
move around a large space the way that animal would. You
could even turn on some music and move to the music the way
your chosen animal would move.
• For example: Flying birds, jumping frogs, hopping
flamingos, running cheetahs, walking elephants, etc.
• For younger children, read a book with animals and ask
them to move like the animals in the book.
(Activity from https://physicalliteracy.ca/)
Friendly Fruit Faces Take a non-toxic marker and draw some funny faces on your
bananas and oranges. You could very easily turn this into a
discussion on feelings for added social-emotional learning. For
an added literacy bump you can then read I Just Ate My Friend.
Shaving Cream Shenanigans
This is both messy and FUN! Take a plastic tray or cookie sheet
and spray some shaving cream on there. Add a couple of drops
of food colouring or paint in different colours. Mash and mix
and mess around with this texture. Talk about what happens
with the colour. Talk about how it feels on your hands. For
easier clean up, try doing this in the bathtub with no water or
outside.
Alphabet Soup Put some foam, plastic, or magnetic letters in a container full of
water. Using a marker, write the letters on a piece of
cardboard (or, if using magnetic letters, on the back of a cookie
sheet, or even chalk on the sidewalk on a hot day). Have kiddo
fish the letters out of the water and match them up with the
written version. This one can get messy, so a towel on hand is
ideal.
The Book of Huggles Print off some photos of special family, friends, neighbours
and pets. Put the photos in a small album that your child can
hold themselves, and that you don’t mind if it sees a little
rough and tumble. The full plastic sleeve type are best. You
can use a bit of clear tape to make sure that the photos stay in
the album and don’t end up in little mouths. Include photos of
little one interacting with these people if you have them. Look
at the album together and talk about the people who make up
your child’s circle of love.
Stuffie Hide and Seek This is a great game to play while you are folding laundry. Set
a few stuffies (or any other toy) around the space, and cover
them with a towel, tea towel or face cloth. Help baby “find”
the stuffies. This is a fun way for baby to learn about object
permanence: the idea that things exist, even if you cannot see
them. You can also extend this activity by playing peek-a-boo
with the stuffies.