Author: halverd

Materials
Pretend campfire
Small picnic basket with fabric for a table cloth and small plastic plates
Recycled squares of corrugated cardboard for graham crackers
Dark brown felt for chocolate
Cotton balls for marshmallows
Stick for roasting marshmallows

Directions
Create a pretend campfire using sticks, colored tissue or construction.  Place rocks around the campfire. Invite your child to roast a marshmallow over the pretend fire, blowing on it when it gets too hot! Set the fabric table cloth out and invite your child to assemble her s’more – graham cracker, chocolate, roasted marshmallow, and another graham cracker on top. Enjoy pretending to eat the s’more. 

Materials
Construction paper to make a pretend campfire (red, orange, yellow, brown) or fabric to sew a pretend campfire
Rocks to place around the campfire
Large Campfire Marshmallows
Bamboo Marshmallow Roasting Sticks

Directions
Invite your child to place a large marshmallow on a bamboo stick and pretend to roast it over the campfire.  Allow your child to eat the marshmallow once she feels it’s roasted.

Materials
Kinetic Sand
Toy frogs, turtle, lizards
Small logs
Leaves

Directions
Place kinetic sand in a large plastic container and invite your child to explore. It’s moldable and has a very different feel and texture than play sand. Add fun toys animals like frogs, lizards, turtles, and logs and leaves to create habitats.

From day one, tummy time should be a regular part of your baby’s routine. This important time helps strengthen the baby’s neck, back, and core, which is essential for learning to roll over, crawl, and walk. Tummy time provides your baby with a different perspective, and encourages your baby to reach for and focus on objects.

It is recommended that babies have 15–30 minutes of tummy time each day.  Start with 5 minutes, three times per day and gradually work up to 10 minutes each time. 

To help keep tummy time interesting for your little one, try propping your baby up by using a Boppy pillow, rolled up beach towel, or tummy-time activity pillow. Get down on the floor with your little one or lie them on your chest or over your leg.  Make faces, sing, and talk to her.  Place colorful, interesting objects within reach. Provide toys that have various textures or make different sounds, like a crinkly book or squeak toys.

Try placing lightweight objects that are easy to grab in shallow baskets (e.g. bath scrubbies, plastic rings, teethers). 

Fingerpainting is another fun tummy time activity. 

Materials
Crayola Washable Fingerpaint
Gallon Ziploc baggie
White construction paper or card stock
Clear duct tape

Directions
Place a few drops of fingerpaint onto white construction paper or card stock. Carefully slide it into the Ziploc bag and seal it. Tape all edges of the bag to the floor. Place your baby on a Boppy and invite him to mix the colors with his fingers and hands. Remove from the baggie and allow it to dry before displaying.

Materials:
Hula-Hoop
Various materials with texture, small toys, ribbons to tie onto the hula hoop

Directions:
Collect a variety of materials, ribbons, scarves, rattles, small baby toys that can be tied to a hula hoop. Include things such as felt, silk, burlap, corduroy, velvet, etc.  Lay the hoop on a baby blanket and place your baby on her tummy in the center of hoop.  You baby will enjoy exploring all the different colors and textures.  Supervise closely. 

This is a wonderful activity to support tummy time for your baby and will bring hours of exploration. 

Materials
Teddy Bear Counters
Ice Cube Tray

Directions
Place several teddy bear counters in a small basket or container. If you are just introducing repeating patterns to your toddler, create a simple pattern using the teddy counters on the top row of the ice cube tray.  Then invite your child to copy what you did by placing the same colors of teddy bear counters in the bottom row of the tray.  Say the pattern together.  Are they both the same?  Continue to repeat this lesson until your child can easily copy patterns. 

Next, you may want to start a pattern with the counters and invite your child to extend your pattern, filling the ice cube tray with a teddy bear in each section.  Check the pattern by pointing and saying it out loud.

The last step is to encourage your child to generate his or her own patterns. Find other materials around the house that can be used to create patterns (e.g. buttons, silverware, old keys, cereal, etc.) 

Have fun looking for patterns in the environment and discovering patterns on clothing, and in books, songs, and poems.

Materials
Play gym
Blanket

Directions
On warm days, take the play gym outside and place it on a larger blanket or quilt in the shade. Encourage your baby to reach for items on the play gym.  Moving activities outdoors adds novelty to the experience. 

Materials
Shaving cream
Tempera paints
Straws
Glitter (optional) 

Directions
Cover the bottom of the tray or shallow dish with shaving cream. For a more even surface, spread shaving cream with a rubber spatula.  Add various colors of tempera paint to the shaving cream. Invite your child to help choose the colors.  You can even make simple patterns with the paint.  Encourage your child to use her fingers to swirl and mix the paints. Observe what happens to the colors. If you child doesn’t care to place her hands in the cream, invite her to explore color mixing by using straws, silverware, twigs, etc. Try adding a sprinkle of glitter for a sparkly effect.

Sensory shaving-cream painting was so much fun! The children created interesting patterns that were intriguing and kept them engaged.

For the courageous, you might try having your child paint with their feet!

Materials
Large popsicle sticks
Dot stickers
Pompoms

Directions
Place dot stickers that match the colors of the pompoms on large popsicle sticks in simple patterns. Place pompoms in a small container. Invite your child to place the pompoms on top of the dot stickers to copy the patterns.

Materials

• Clean blanket

Directions

Playing from the tummy position allows for a different view of the world. Although it is recommended that babies sleep on their backs, your baby can still benefit from exercise in the tummy position while awake. Lay your baby on his tummy and get down on that level, making faces and noises to encourage raising his head.  Tummy time strengthens the neck and builds upper body strength.

Extensions

• Lay out some brightly colored toys so your baby can see them from this position.
• Get your baby’s attention with any object and move it back and forth slowly so it is tracked with the eyes.
• Roll your baby to his side and then gently back to the tummy, saying, “Wheeeeeeee.”
• Stand directly over your baby at your full height, and then move slowly down to a squatting position so you are very close.