All around the mulberry bush…
I am the youngest of six kids. And I can count on two hands the number of baby-sitting jobs I ever had (for some reason people never asked me to baby-sit). So here I am, with a 9 month old baby and absolutely no idea how to play with him. I know how to take care of him, but I have no idea what songs to sing to him, hand games to play, and what sorts of things might be fun to him.
So I’m asking all of the expert baby players out there what are fun things to do with my baby?
[Developmentally he’s starting to feed himself regularly (without a spoon). He’s a master crawler, and is working on cruising the furniture. He’s also grabby-grabby-grabby!]
April 19th, 2006 12:14
Here are a few tips based on my experience with a child with a language disorder and all the research I did about engaging children.
Get down to his level. Sit on the floor with him. FOllow his lead. If he is interesting in something, go with that. Don’t keep trying to show him the cow when he’s looking at something else.
Kids learn through language. Through conversation. Its not just words, it is also action. Think of it as “turns.” Try imitating what he is doing. You should notice that he sometimes looks at you, pay attention to him and what he is saying to you nonverbally. If he picks up a toy, tell him what it is, help him learn what fun things he can do with it. If he is playing with a toy horse, make the noise it makes.
Play ball. As soon as he can sit, you can start rolling the ball to him, and get him to push it back to you.
Songs - Eensy spider, popcorn, Old McDonald, make up songs with words about him, songs with actions, my kids even loved me counting to ten with my fingers because it was fun to watch, one song I always dip in towards them at a certain point which they thought was funny
Chase - “I’m going to get you” and crawl after him, tickle him
Read books
Bubbles
Kids develop very very differently. So, one of the main things is to figure out what he enjoys and expand on that.
April 19th, 2006 15:15
as an uncle I find that the chase “i’m going to get you” is almost unversally liked once the kids get to where they can master crawling. There seems to be renewed interest in the game when they can master running.
the thought of having to constantly figure these things out is exauhsting and makes me question my ability (and desire) to raise kids. Being able to play with them for a bit, to show up with gifts, to tell funny stories and then hand them back over to their parents seems to be all I can handle right now.
April 19th, 2006 15:56
Mike A, don’t worry! Once you have a child of your own, your attitude will change. I had very little interest in playing with small children before I got married, and I felt they didn’t usually like me, perhaps because they could sense that I was not completely captivated with their cuteness.
That changed once my first baby arrived, and fortunately, my interest in my own carried over into increased interest in everyone else’s children.
Seeing the developmental process unfold on a continuing basis usually becomes a fascinating occupation for parents. It really is a miracle, and one in which the mother and father get to participate.
April 19th, 2006 19:05
I’ve been trying to remember more specific ideas for 9 month olds.
Peek-a-boo! Endless peek-a-boo. Cover your face with your hands. Use a blanket. “Where’s Kate?”
This little piggy.
April 19th, 2006 19:15
I’ll second “I’m going to get you” as a great favorite. Also, peek-a-boo works with almost every kid, and it’s something you can get creative with. Tickling/wrestling/snuggling is also usually good, and can make a great outcome of “I’m going to get you.”
I’ll also second the getting down at his level and following his lead. Very good stuff. Building rapport by following him and then doing things he can mimic back is also cool. My oldest and I had a great game of screaming when he was about that age — he’d scream (not angry screaming, more of a squeal, really) and I’d scream back. Then he’d giggle for a minute and scream again so I could do it back.
When he gets a little older, you can switch from “i’m going to get you” to “Don’t get me” and then practice evading him. At older yet, this can get to be a more interesting game — I still play it with my daughters in the grocery store from time to time, and they are teens. They will call me a dork, but they enjoy it.
There are also “here comes the bee” or “I’m going to tickle you” or “i’m going to get your tummy/nose/toes/whatever” which works better when they’re a little more stationary, and you can make big spirally patterns down to them. And floobers — blowing on the tummy/neck to make a rude noise — is popular at this age, and an effective way to encourage covered midriffs in adolescent girls as well.
And then there’s swinging them upside down by their ankles and throwing them up in the air to catch them. They love this, but don’t try it if you’re not good at catching, because missing is a terrible thing (not that I ever missed, mind you). Or just throwing them up in the air and catching them — great upper-body workout for you as well. And airplanes/superman complete with strafing runs on family members.
There are about a million little games you can play at this age, and this is the time to do it — when they’re small enough you can pick them up and put them where they need to be, when they think the sun rises and sets over you, and they’re light enough you can throw them around more without getting immediately exhausted.
This is also a time when you can establish games and fun relationships that you can build on and come back to from now on.
April 19th, 2006 19:52
Sounds like you are doing a good job already… and everyone gave good suggestions. I just always talked to my babies. Whatever I was/am doing, I tell them about it- it doesn’t matter if they don’t understand the words- they get the cadence and rhythm of language. And now, I have two fabulous, incredible talkers that I can’t get to be quiet… hmmm, on second thought, maybe you shouldn’t listen to me.
Read to him. Every day, read to him. And sing….
You’re doing just fine!
April 20th, 2006 01:20
He’s a cutie, Starfoxy, I think you’re doing great =)
April 20th, 2006 06:16
I know how you feel. I was the youngest too and I really struggle with the playing part of having kids. I think we youngest must work really hard being older all the time to fit in with the older siblings that we loose a little of that goofy side that seems to come naturally to those who had younger siblings in their family.
my favorite song is itsy bitsy spider. you can tickle with your spider fingers and have them put there hands above there head when the sun comes out. i think its so cute that there hands barely make it above their head proportionately. its never to early for a,b,c songs whatever your version. also try the little duck song. — five little ducks went out to play….over the hills and far away…when the mama duck said quack quack quack….four little ucks came a waddling back….(repeat with four ducks, three ducks, two ducks, one duck, until no little ducks came a waddling back) but when the DADDY duck says QUACK QUACK QUACK! five little ducks came waddling back. a little sexist i know
even just rythmically saying the words counts as singing.
April 20th, 2006 06:27
1, 2, buckle me shoe
Take right hand and tap it to left foot to the rhythm of the words
3, 4, shut the door
switch to left hand/right foot
back and forth on through the rhyme
having activities that involve crossing that central axis of your baby’s body actually promotes activity between the two hemispheres of the brain, building up the corpus callosum, and, of all things, building a good foundation for reading! (Who’d-a thunk it?)
I second the suggestion of endless varieties of peek-a-boo.
I can’t shill for the Baby Bjorn enough. Katy (now 7) loved to ride face-forward in it, and just watch the world go by as I went through my day. Rinsing dishes and loading them into the dishwasher was endlessly fascinating to her. Getting baby up on to you, and not just resting on the floor, etc, is HUGE in regards to stimulation (& fascination!). Bobby was more of a snuggle bug, and preferred a baby slling instead of the Bjorn, but same idea. I tucked him in there facing forward, and he got all kinds of interesting stuff to look at.
When they’re in that ‘quiet alert’ stage I used to love to read to them–and not just children’s books–poetry, academia, whatever you happen to be reading. It won’t sink in as concepts and the like just yet, but every time they hear a word as a baby, it makes that word that much easier to pick up when they get to the right stage. Go little neurons, go!
I also did (and to this day do) a lot of rhythmic speaking as I ‘jiggle’ various body parts of theirs. Like I hold Bobbie’s hands out in front of him and tug on them lightly, alternately and say:
)
“Jippa jippa jum
Jippa jum jippa jum
Jum Jum Jippa Jippa
Jippa jum
Jippa Jum”
just kind of wiggling him to the beat. (I might need to vlog that one for you
Or like
“Who’s a baby dude, Baby Dude, Baby dude yeah
Who’s a baby Bobbie Baby dude
He’s a little baby, little baby Bobbie Dude, yeah
He’s a little Bobbie, Baby dude.”
but, then again, that’s just my goofiness. I’m sure you’ll find your own.
April 20th, 2006 21:55
Thank you for the suggestions everyone! I’m looking forward to trying all of these. I already the “I’m gonna get you!” game, but he just stared at me, and kicked his legs. Didn’t budge an inch. I’ll have to try again when he’s in a different mood.
I have another question too, many of you mentioned reading to him. How/Where can I find books to read to him for cheap? I know our library has a bunch, but it would be nice to buy some. Thrift stores? DI? Book clubs? Any books you would recommend, or specifically not recommend?
April 20th, 2006 22:26
SF — The “I’m gonna get you” works better if you show him what happens when he gets got — some tickling, lots of kisses, picking him up and blowing on his tummy, or whatever. He gets the idea that something big will happen if he gets got, he’ll have a reason to avoid it for a while, and then to get caught.
I also used to do 1-2-3 with little kids that works up to 6 or 7 if you ham it up a bit — this is the 1-2-3 where you take something physical with them (lifting them up and spinning around with them, for instance) and say “one” while starting the movement, but stopping and returning to the start, then “two” and starting and stopping again, and only going through the whole thing on “three.” This gives them anticipation (which is more fun than the realization) and means you don’t have to do the thing all the way as many times. It also helps them learn to count, which isn’t a bad thing.
April 20th, 2006 23:03
10 Little Ladybugs
Old Hat, New Hat
Spooky Old Tree
Bears in the Night
The Very Hungry Catepillar
The Very Busy Spider
Time for Bed by Mem Fox
Try thrift stores and used book stores. Maybe you’ll only find simple board book types of books with animals, or other things, and that’s fine. You baby will enjoy them, looking at the pictures and hearing your voice. Maybe you’ll find lots of good ones.
I was lucky, my mother started buying books for my kids as gifts. I really appreciated it! It takes a while to build up a library. Most books you can read (like the ones I listed above) for a good four years, so they are worth the money to buy.
Definitely do the library. It will help you know which books your baby loves, and which books you enjoy reading. Bears in the Night was my daughters favorite from the library, so we finally bought it because she loved it so much.
Also, try ebay or other online places. Sometimes you can buy a “bunch” of children’s books. Either by a certain author or something like that. Or if you buy several different books from the same vendor, you can save on shipping.
April 21st, 2006 09:17
We love our local used bookstore. Aside from being affordable, it has the big plus of having a lot of books from a generation or two ago. It’s amazing how much more dense, how much more real the prose is. In recent decades, we’ve had a definite trend of watering down, more and more, in children’s ‘literature.’
I read Katy a lot of Beatrix Potter stories when she was a babe. Also, just whatever I happened to be reading. For poetry, my favorite anthology is “A Treasury of the World’s Best Loved Poems,” and I’d just read whatever I felt like from there, be it ‘Anabel Lee’ or the “Highwayman’ or ‘Little Lamb.’ Her Dad even read to her form his law textbooks. (He was in law school when she was born.) It’s not so much what you’re reading to them at this stage, as it is just modeling the flow of the language. Because her dad is a big Tolkein nut, she’s had the entire Lord of The Rings read out to her multiple times by the time she was three. (this is in the pre Peter Jackson days…;) )
So, really, whatever you’d like to be reading yourself totally works.
For picture books, of course there’s Dr. Seuss. I’d really just head to the library and see which ones jump out at you. Or even peruse the shelves at B&N or Borders. There’s always ‘used & new’ on amazon.com, as well as thrift stores and used book stores. Come to think of it, I just pulled all the board books off of my kiddos’ shelves. I could send you a box for free. (in a few days, though; I’m down with a wicked fever right now–This comment brought to you by a fresh dose of Tylenol
)
When I’m more on the well side, I’ll go over the shelves and type up a list of favorites. Off the top of my fevered head, all I can come up with is “Bear Snores on” “Counting Crocodiles” “Goodnight Gorilla” (no words, just pictures, but super-fun) “Caterpillar Dance” ok, that’s it time to lie down again.