Look at You!
Prep: None / Activity Time: 5 Minutes
Use a baby-safe mirror or even your bathroom mirror to provide a fun time for your baby to see, hear and feel the coos that are coming out of his cute little mouth!
At-Home Activities for Birth to 5 Months
Tummy to Play
Prep: None / Activity Time: 3-5 Minutes
When your infant is able to lift her chest when placed on her stomach and starts to hold her head up steadily, you can provide supervised tummy time each day. This will help to develop the neck and shoulder muscle strength she will need to roll over, sit up and crawl, and helps to develop her hands through weight bearing.
“Releasing” for Fun
Prep: None / Activity Time: 2-3 Minutes
By around the fifth month, infants are learning to voluntarily grasp and release objects. Give your baby lots of opportunities to practice improving the fine motor and eye-hand coordination she will need later for drawing and writing.
“Reaching” for Fun
Prep: None / Activity Time: 2-3 Minutes
A fine motor skill milestone for a baby at this age includes working on and developing better muscle strength and control. You can help with this developmental milestone by promoting reaching for and releasing objects.
“Grasping” for Fun
Prep: None / Activity Time: 2-3 Minutes
Reaching, grasping, shaking and dropping a toy aids your child in learning to grasp with all of her fingers at the same time an important fine motor skill needed for eye-hand coordination and eventually for controlling and holding writing tools.
Sing, Sing, Sing. Talk, Talk, Talk.
Prep: None / Activity Time: 1-3 Minutes
Babies love the sound of their mother’s voice. It is soothing and comforting and is their favorite sound. Why not use the voice your baby loves to play games that involve tracking movement from left to right?
Look!
Prep: None / Activity Time: 1-3 Minutes
Within the first few months, your baby will develop the ability to focus on an object and track the motion of the object from left to right. As your baby grows, this awareness to details will help your baby focus on pictures, letters and words in books.
Do What I Do
Prep: None / Activity Time: 1-3 Minutes
Infants enjoy looking at faces. Very young babies see faces best when they are about 8 to 12 inches away. Use your facial expressions to help your baby begin to notice changes in the things he sees.
Baby Talk
Prep: None / Activity Time: 1-3 Minutes
As soon as your baby begins to "coo," you can respond to these early attempts at communication by "cooing" right back. These back- and-forth baby talk conversations let your infant know that what she has to say is important to you!
Syllables and Songs
Prep: None / Activity Time: 3-5 Minutes
Songs are a perfect way to introduce even the youngest babies to syllables, because in music, each syllable gets one beat. Being aware that words can be broken into smaller parts is a critical pre-reading skill – and this can be introduced just by singing to your infant.
HOW You Read to a Child Is Important
Top 10 Things You Can Give Your Child to Build Pre-Reading Skills
What's On My Head?
White on Black
The DOs and DON’Ts of Developing Your Young Child’s Pre-Reading Skills
Baby’s My First ABC Cloth Book – Black, White, Red
