Hi prodigies, playfull miracles 🙂
Play is the chief way that infants learn how to move, communicate, socialize, and understand their surroundings. And during the first month of life, your baby will learn by interacting with you. One of the first things your baby will learn is to associate the feel of your touch, the sound of your voice, and the sight of your face with getting his or her needs for comfort and food met. You can encourage your newborn to learn by stimulating your newborn’s senses in positive ways — with smiles, smoothing sounds, and gentle caresses.
I bet that most of you my dear friends when playing with your kids were thinking which game is suitable for my little one. Do I do right things? Is this or that game accurate for this age?
I have heard from my mum when playing with my 1-2 month old son that thing I try to do is too much, that I should let him sleep and let him entertain by himself…………..but it did not work out. My son is not that kind of baby who sleeps 20 hours per day………..no way…………He wants to play, he wants to have fun, he wants to explore.
Due the fact that my baby is asking for attention nearly all the time, except nursing time 🙂 I was curious about different ways of entertainment for him and which kind of games and toys are accurate for his age…………and actually we should not limit our babies by age but we should more observe how they are behaving and what they are asking for. So I am trying to play with my little angel not only regarding to his age but also with practices for older babies. And it is curious that he likes that also.
I would like to share with you now some links as inspiration what to consider when playing with your infants.
Vision Games
A newborn baby can only focus about 8 to 10 inches from his face and many newborn babies are also cross-eyed. Don’t worry, in most cases this will pass naturally.You can help your baby to use his eyes by moving a finger or object slowly from side to side in front of his eyes. A black and white patterned object may also be interesting to look at and follow. Newborn babies have a hard time distinguishing other colors. But go slowly, if you move the object too fast, your baby will not be able to follow it.To practice the combination of seeing and hearing, you can pick or make up a small rhyme or song that you use every time you play this vision game with your baby. Since babies are routine lovers, he may soon recognize the situation and appreciate it even more. The ability of your baby to read, learn how to concentrate and enjoy is hidden in the everyday practice and proper tool to use. We started to practice with Edie flash card show with black and white pictures specially designed for infant. And we can really see how much he is enjoying………. he is smiling on the pictures, his eyes are widely open and he calms down always when he is getting impatience. He simply enjoys. In this way I can recommend you a lot all the products which are advertised on BrillKids.com there are not just products for sale but also free softwares to be used for you and your baby to enjoy playing and learning at once.
Imitation
Something fascinating about newborn babies is that they can imitate. Pick a moment when your baby is alert and content. Lift him or her up close to your face (since a newborn baby’s vision is poor) slowly stick your tongue out. Keep it out for a while and then start all over. If you give your baby enough time, chances are he’ll stick his tongue out as well. He might first look away, as if concentrating on the task, then look back at you and start imitating. You can do different faces also in the position he or she prefer. You will see that the infant will start to smile. We tried that with Carlos and Edie was laughing on him and me. It is a magical moment when you can see your baby smile and laugh and feeling happy.
Hearing Games
Your baby is likely to at least recognize mom’s voice from the time before being born. If dad and siblings spoke a lot and close to mom’s belly, you child might also recognize their voices. Hearing any of you talk or sing and at the same time look into your eyes is fun for a newborn baby. Within a month or two, he’ll start showing his appreciation by smiling back and even start “talking” to you. Talking to your baby will also make him feel safe despite his new, strange surroundings outside the uterus. What we proved as beneficial is also listening different kind of music, from soothing one when Edie is tired (we have classical music such as Mozart or Vivaldi for kids CD……….. you can actually download also some free classical music from Munchking download)
Bonding Games
Rock your baby and sing a gentle lullaby. Even take your top off to allow skin contact. Newborn infants have a well developed smell and a sensitive skin, so being close to you, hearing your voice and smell MOM (or dad!), is heaven! And it can ended up like this 🙂 The most important is that you will find his position. Our son Edie loves the most position on his belly. Maybe because this position prevent him from gas pain and because in his 2 month age he started to produce lot of salivas he is not choking.
Exercising
Your baby will love also moving as itself and practicing his muscles will become his daily joy. I try to encourage Edie to crawl as soon as possible to be able to explore he world around him on his own, so I do simply exercising with him on daily basis always few minutes after each nursing. In this early age you can exercise your baby mostly by placing him on his belly and letting him crawl with your help. Since they have still imprinted the kicking reflex he will try to kick into your hands and he will slide on his belly forward. Try to keep his hands aside of his body so that he can lift his head. Another good exercise is on the gym ball, place your baby on his belly (never on his back in this age!) and hold his hands and let him lift his head. You can also swing a little the ball from side to side.
Baby-Pushups: Place the infant on his stomach across your legs while in a sitting position. With his knees on one of your legs and his hands on the other, this builds balance and strength, and teaches him to hold his weight with his hands. This is a new and interesting vantage point for him and encourages him to move his head and neck.
Good luck with your playing………I will be really happy if you have any other games to share here with me please let me know…….I am playfull prodigy also but also my imagination has its limits…….so more brains know more 🙂
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Young always smiling mom of 2 boys . Finished her master degree at the Economical University in Brno (Czech Republic) country in the heart of Europe. Heading new life stage with a brand new role in my future life career. I have been working for student NGO AIESEC, playing accordion for 11 years, swimming as a competitive mono flip swimmer, singing in a teenage choir and joining different hobbies when any opportunity appeared. I love traveling and exploring new countries so that's why I have been studying abroad (Finland, Thailand), working abroad (Estonia) and daddy of my kids is from Venezuela :). I am a passionate dancer too. Now working for various projects, passionate about a vegan diet.
Practical mum is sharing 
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