20 Simple and Fun Baby Activities
When I came home from the hospital with my daughter, I wasn’t sure about any baby activities that I could with her other than care for her and recover from childbirth. I was somewhat at a loss. However, there are actually lots of possibilities! My baby’s senses and her brain were developing rapidly, so exposing her to new things, even simple things, would help that process. And this is true even for older babies. Thus, even if it feels like babies can’t do much, there are so many activities you still do with them! You don’t have to stare at them all day 🙂
I’ll be discussing activities that you can do with babies from 0-6 months of age. Each of these activities can help further develop the senses, as well as your baby’s brain.
Baby Activities: 0-3 Months
1.Tummy time. In one post, I discuss some tips for tummy time. Tummy time can be lots of fun and can help develop the neck, shoulder, and back muscles that are necessary for other motor skills such as rolling over and eventually crawling.
2.Balloon kick. Gently tie a balloon to your baby’s ankle. As they kick, this will make the balloon move. This helps your baby learn about cause and effect.
3.Dancing. I never knew there was such as thing, but according to a post from MamaBuzz, you can do mommy and me ballet! She mentioned how baby wearing through dance can help promote maternal bonding. In addition, this can help build your confidence and as well as fitness level. Plus. babies seem to love movement such as swaying.
4.Go for a Walk. I’d put my daughter in a baby carrier or stroller, and my husband and I would go for a walk around the neighborhood. This helps develop your baby’s senses (such as hearing and vision), but it also helps develop a bond between you and your baby.
In addition, this is great for self-care. You get some fresh air and some time outside!
5.Read to your baby. It’s never too early to start reading to your baby! According to one article, if you read to your baby early on, the faster their language will develop. In addition, according to that same article, a baby’s vision changes quickly early on. So, their vision will be helped if you read books to them that have high contrast (such as black and white) and bright colors!
6.Go to the zoo. My husband and I did this when our baby was maybe 2 months old. Again, I think this helps develop their senses such as vision and hearing and further helps develop a bond between you and the baby. You can also talk about what you are seeing, so this will help your baby’s language development.
7.Visit a splashpad. According to a post from MamaBuzz, splashpads are great because they are “visually appealing and highly interactive to see the spray of water.” Thus, this is a great sensory experience for your baby!
8.Let them touch and kick tissue paper. You could also use one of those baby books that makes crinkling sounds when your baby touches and grabs it. This helps your baby learn cause and effect (I touch something, and it makes a noise!), and it helps develop their sense of touch. Or you can try one a crinkle book, such as this one:
I highly suggest one of these books! My daughter had a ball with hers. It helps with so many things other than sense of touch. For example, it can help with fine-motor and language development. Eventually, my daughter got to a point where she could grab the pages.
9.Talk and sing to your baby. This helps with the development of language, but it may also help calm your baby.
10.Try “Dancing Ribbons.” I found this wonderful activity from one article on newborn activities. You get a wooden spoon and tie ribbons to it. You can wave it front of your baby’s face or tickle them with it. This helps develop your baby’s vision as well as hand-eye coordination (if they try to reach for the ribbons).
Baby Activities: 4-6 Months of Age
1.Swimming. It is recommended that you wait to do this until your baby is 6 months old. According to one article, younger babies do not have enough “neck strength to keep their heads up.” They may also have trouble regulating their own body temperature.
2.Play with toys. According to Mindful Mama Health, your little one can begin to grab and shake toys. So, this is a great time to offer rattles and other fun things for them to grab and play with! If you use a rattle, this helps your baby learn more about cause and effect (If I shake the toy, it makes a noise). I would highly recommend this one, because it makes noise and has lots of bright colors:
3.Play Peek-A-Boo. In the same article by Mindful Mama Health, your baby is beginning to understand object permanence, so they will start to look for you behind your hands. My daughter would giggle with delight every time I peeked out from behind my hands!
4.Sensory play. For a great article on sensory play activities for 4-6 month old babies, click here. She suggests everything from water play to finger painting! Sensory play is important for babies, as it helps develop connections among the cells in their brain.
5.Listen to music. This helps further develop your baby’s sense of hearing. Babies will also look for where the sound is coming from.
6.Mirror play. Babies at this time like to look at themselves, so grab a mirror and let them have fun with it! You can try this one:
7.Play with bubbles. Just grab some bubbles and blow them in front of your baby. This can help your baby with hand-eye coordination as they try to reach for the bubbles. Bubbles may also just be interesting to watch!
8.Have “conversations” with your baby. Your baby is likely starting to coo and babble, so when they do this, imitate them. This helps them develop later conversational skills such as turn taking.
9.Work on rolling over and rolling around. If your baby hasn’t mastered this yet, keep working on it, as it will come! Lol, my baby eventually learned to roll over to get anywhere she wanted to go.
10.Grab some kitchen pots and pans and play the drums! Babies seem to love this! My daughter loving making any kind of noise. As she does this, she’s learning more about cause and effect (I hit this pot, and it makes a noise). Babies are beginning to become little experimenters, so help them explore and experiment with new things!
Final Thoughts on Baby Activities
At first, it was difficult for me to come up with activities for my new baby. After doing some research, I found some that were great for bonding time as well as helping her develop. I also tried to expose her to as many new experiences as I could, as this is a time of a lot of rapid development. Generally, I found this to be a fun time with all of the activities I could do with her and just watching her learn and grow. It was amazing to see her learn a new skill such as rolling over! And with these activities that I have suggested, I think the same thing will happen for you too! I hope this post helped!
Here’s a Free Printable of These Activities:
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