Social-Emotional Development
Little Helpers
Encourage your infants to use helping hands by using a cloth to clean a table or a sponge to wipe a cabinet. Use a small cup to water plants. Older infants can help to load or empty the dishwasher.
Cognitive Development
Drop It
Using a cookie tray or serving tray, gather some items that can be safely dropped such as crayon, block, spoon, tissue, small stuffed toy. Drop the items one at a time onto the tray to create a sound. Comment on which make the loud sounds, and which make the quiet sounds. Let your infant investigate the materials and try for themselves.
Language Development
It’s for you!
Create a ring tone using a play phone or toy block. Answer the phone as you sit next to your child. Say “Hello. Yes, [your child’s name] is here.” Hand the phone to your child and say “It’s for you.” After a few seconds ask your child for a turn. Pretend to converse with the phone. Continue to trade off the phone until your child is no longer interested.
Physical Literacy
Pick and Poke
Place several strips of masking tape on a tabletop, a tray or the floor. Encourage your child to remove the tape. As they work, they will be developing fine motor skills in their hands and fingers. Increase the challenge in this activity by adding taped down string and playing cards.
Creative Activity
Playdough in a Bag
Playdough can be a choking hazard for babies, so here is a solution for our babies to enjoy this wonderful manipulative. Seal play dough in a plastic zip lock bag. Offer variations of this activity by cooling the playdough first in the fridge for a more challenging manipulative or leaving it at room temperate for a softer sensory experience.
Article: Follow the link below for a Homemade Playdough Recipe:
https://domesticsuperhero.com/best-homemade-playdough-recipe/
Additional Resources
https://www.weareteachers.com/best-virtual-field-trips/ – Live web cams in zoo animal enclosure, feeding of a giant octopus at the Seattle Aquarium, trip to the farm, exploring a coastal rainforest in a canoe, just to name a few.
https://www.gonoodle.com/good-energy-at-home-kids-games-and-videos/ – check out these movement, yoga and mindfulness videos. You can also find off-screen home and curricular activities.