Summary Giving babies everyday items to help them gather good sensory and motor skills is the best way to help them develop. Looking to do some sensory time with your little one but not sure of what to do? Here is a list of easy ideas you can do for your baby during the first year….
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Giving babies everyday items to help them gather good sensory and motor skills is the best way to help them develop. Looking to do some sensory time with your little one but not sure of what to do? Here is a list of easy ideas you can do for your baby during the first year.

  1. Easter Eggs and Water Play by Happy Toddler Playtime

Grab a pillow to prop your little one up with and on the floor, put some easter eggs in a dish with a little water. This lets them explore water and they will spend a ton of time trying to catch those eggs!

  1. Kitchen Dump

Grab a bunch of kitchen items that are safe for babies and put them in a tupperware container or bin and let them play! I mean, it’s always items that aren’t toys that they try to play with anyways (ahem remote controls, cell phones etc.) so give them common household items that they can mess with. 

  1. Rice in a Bottle

This one is easy enough to make without making a trip to the store. All you need is a water bottle and some rice to make a DIY maraca. To add some color, throw in some food coloring into the bottle and let them shake it up!

  1. Post-It Pull

If you’ve got some post-it notes lying around, put them on the wall and let your baby pull them down. 

  1. Baby Busy Board

Creating a board with common household items like light switches, door bolts, door knobs, zippers, velcro etc will help your baby develop fine motor skills and keeps them busy trying to figure it out. Mine was given as a gift but you can make your own sensory board with a trip to Home Depot.

  1. Colored Water Bag

Take a ziploc bag and add some water and food coloring so your little one can hang out in their highchair and play. You could also add a little oil in the bag and make it even more interesting. Quick tip: If your baby is aggressive like mine is right now, use two ziploc bags and duct tape the seal so you don’t end up with colored water everywhere! You can also duct tape it to their highchair so they don’t throw it. 

  1. Edible Painting

This one can get messy so you might want to do this in the bathtub. Mix food coloring with plain yogurt in a few plastic bowls and let them play and eat as much as they want. For quick clean up, just rinse out the tub and then it’s bath time!

 I hope these activities helped get your little one playing and giving you a few minutes to finish that cup of coffee. Some of these games seem very simple, but with babies, the simpler, the better. Which ones are your little ones’ favorite? Let me know in the comments.