Lockdown Activities for Babies 0-12 months

When is the best time to start reading to your baby?

It’s never too early to start reading to your baby. In-fact research has shown that the sooner you start reading the better! Reading to your little one during lockdown is a great activity for both mums and dads, and will not only help with bonding, but this attention will help him feel safe and secure. This is particularly important for his social and emotional development. 

Research has also shown that reading to your baby will help with his language skills further on. Baby might not understand every word you say, but he recognises your voice and rhythm, stimulating his hearing development. When babies are born they can only see black, white and grey, so if you would like to show pictures there are plenty of books with black and white images to help develop their eyesight . The older they get the more fascinated they will be with pictures, and they will love those colourful images.

 

Looking in the mirror

The most simple of lockdown activities for babies are often the most fun!

During lockdown I let my baby look in a small mirror all the time. Whether on the bed or on the floor during tummy time to help her neck get stronger, she absolutely loved it. She would smile and smile to herself! This makes it into our list of lockdown activities for babies because it’s a great way for them to explore and recognise themselves. I would also make faces to see if she would copy me, sometimes she did whilst other times she would just laugh. You can also use a big mirror, sit behind and play peek-a-boo which every baby loves.

 

Picture circle

This is an activity I did for tummy time. I would just pick some hard cover books and put them in a semi circle and she would turn her head around to look at all the colourful pictures. Many babies do not like tummy time at all, but this activity might help to distract them. Another great idea is doing the same activity but with pictures. Baby will be able to recognise pictures of mummy, daddy and siblings.

 

Lockdown activities for babies involving water play

So many things for babies to learn with water. First of all it’s so much fun, but also babies learn cause and effect, what happens when I splash? Does this toy float or sink? Also baby learns to pick up water in a cup and pour it back in. This is a very simple activity to do.

For this lockdown activity you will need:

• Any container. I used one that isn’t very high because she wasn’t able to sit un-aided yet. This way she could play while on her tummy
• Water
• Toys and cups
• A large waterproof playmat
• Adult supervision. Never leave a child while playing with water, even if its a small quantity.

Enjoy watching your little one playing with all the objects, splashing and pouring water, but be prepared for a bit of mess. A good alternative is using the toys and cups directly in the bath, but if you want to help baby doing tummy time the playmat water play is a great idea.

When i play with water, i also like to add a treasure box after with colours and objects related to water, like the one you see in the picture, i always speak to her while she plays naming all the objects and colours she sees.

 

Lockdown activities for babies using paints

This no-mess paint time activity is perfect as soon as baby can sit un-aided. They will love moving the paint around and learning that mixing two colours creates a third. The best thing is, they won’t get dirty and you will not have to clean anything at all.

All you need for no-mess paint time is :

• Small or large zip-lock bag
• Cardboard paper
• Paint
• Tape

Get your ziplock bag, insert the cardboard paper and squeeze a generous amount of paint on the paper , close the bag , put tape around the bag so baby can’t move the bag and there is no risk that the paint will spill out . Your little one will start touching the paint and moving it around mixing all the colours. the first time i did this with my little girl i let the paint dry and framed it, a perfect piece of art for my home.

There is also an alternative of this activity when your baby learns to crawl. Use the same materials and technique, but this time put more than one zip-lock bag on the floor to make a trail (see above). This way baby will crawl on them, moving and playing with the paint. In the picture i used only 3, but you can use as many as you like. This is one of our favourite lockdown baby activities, and I recommend using the large bags and big paper.

 

Rubber band box

This activity is great to help your baby develop hand-eye coordination. It also requires lots of concentration to be able to get the objects out of the box and manoeuvre his hands around the rubber bands. My baby girl loved playing with the bands because of the sound they made when she pulled and released them.

For this lockdown activity you will need:

• Rubber bands – I used around 8
• Roasting pan or box
• Any objects you like as long as they are child safe.

Put your objects in the box, cover it with the rubber bands, and let your baby explore all the objects. Your little one might find this difficult at first, as it might be challenging to take out the objects, but as soon as he figures out how to do it you will be very surprised!

 

Lockdown activities for babies – Treasure and mystery baskets

During lockdown there weren’t many things we were able to do outside, so we had to rely on our daily walk. We did love them and so did the dogs. Luckily we live in the countryside next to small woodlands where we were able to explore many flowers and plants. This helped develop my baby’s sensory skills like feeling the different size and shape leaves and branches, and smelling all the lovely flowers. Sometimes we were even lucky enough to see squirrels and muntjacs. Even when restrictions were eased we continued doing our walks, and i thought ‘why not bring Autumn home with us today?’ So I grabbed my basket and went to the woodland to pick up some leaves, chestnuts, branches and anything that my little girl would love to feel, smell and explore with.

For this activity you will need:

• Basket or box
• Any natural object – in this case Leaves, flowers branches etc… or you can use fruits and vegetables, whatever happens to be in season.

An alternative to this sensory basket is a mystery box , this helps develop your babies hand-eye coordination, he will love to put his hands in the hole to discover what’s inside the box

To make a mystery box you will need:

• Box – we used an old shoe box
• Scissors to cut a small hole in the top of the box
• Toys or any natural materials. If you do the treasure basket in the morning you can use the same objects in the afternoon and do the mystery box. We added some of our teething toys inside ours.

 

Lockdown activities using colourful balls

I just love these two games and so does my little girl. She is now crawling all over the place and always playing with the dog gate trying to get to them. While i was pregnant i saw this activity on Pinterest and thought how amazing is this idea? Both activities help keep her distracted while i’m in the kitchen cooking, and i can keep an eye are her. She will push the balls through the door or pull them out, it’s very funny trying to see her putting them back between the bars.

 

To end our list of lockdown activities for babies, we saved you the best of all!

Get out in nature!

The best way to teach our babies about our 5 senses is definitely walking in nature. There is nothing better than the smell of the countryside, the taste of fruits and vegetables, how trees and flowers smell and feel, and all the sounds birds, wind and water make. Best of all, its free!

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