6 month old activities

Early Learning Early Learning General Discussions
1

Hi all,

I was wondering what type of activities or classes are good for a 6 month old?

Many thanks :smiley:

2

My daughter was on her tummy all day long at 6 months to encourage her crawling. Well actually her time was divided between sitting and crawling. When your baby starts crawling, make the house interesting, put toys everywhere, cardboard boxes to go in; when he/she is sitting, you can put a little basket in front with big balls inside.
And try teach her/him to climb stairs as soon as crawling. My daughter adored this!
Aside from this, at 6 months she was still Ok to take a peek at books and flashcards. Soon after that, she totally lost interest as she was so into moving around.

3

Hello tree,
this is what I was doing with my son when he was 6 months old, hopefully you will get ideas:

  1. Physical: Swimming, baby circuit (creeping in a race for a good 45min twice a day), he was standing up for the first time (holding to a big foam cube)
  2. Language: talking to him in Spanish and English, word and phrases bits
    3.Math: Quantity bits
  3. Hands on activities: Logical-Mathematical, Self-environment, Artistic-sensorial, Language, Nature
    5.Music: music appreciation
    6.Motricity: fine motor skills

The day was divided into directed activities and free activities. In the free ones sometimes I would suggest materials for him to use, for instance an empty shampoo bottle and he would exercise his concentration for quite long trying to screwwand unscrew the top part.

4

Thanks for sharing all your ideas, each one is really good. I have added few more here.

  1. take him out, show him plants, trees. Touch them, he should also touch and feel the leaves. teach him nature…

  2. Put some sugar in a small bowl and keep in backyard. After sometime, you will see a line on ants. Show him with a binocular, talk to him about organizing oneself and equipping for best survival…

  3. if he already know colors, or may be at a later month, say 7 or so, but after colors knowledge - you can give me colored toys and ask him to sort out toys based on colors.

  4. start potty training - it is better to start around 6 mo.

  5. play music

  6. keep on talking positive… and be cheerful always.

  7. take him to his aunts house/ grand parents house/friends place so he shall learn to be friendly faster than others.

5

Thank you all for your great ideas.

I have a few questions about some of the activities that you have suggested.

Mirra, How do I start to teach her to go to the toilet!

Andrea, - Are you able to provide some examples of the activities you have listed within ‘Hands on activities’, ‘Music’ and ‘Motricity’?

Thanks a million!

6

Hi Tree,

Check this link for infant potty training:

http://www.parents.com/toddlers/development/potty-training/can-a-6-month-old-be-potty-trained/?page=2

7

Tree,
Hands on Activities (including Motricity): this link, in spanish, is what I used for activities, it´s wonderful, (Chilean Dept. of Education)
http://www.umce.cl/~cipumce/educacion/preescolar/dad/bases_curriculares_preescolar.pdf
this link is for Montessori activities
http://www.montessorimaterials.org/math.htm
Music: IAHP curriculum The Initial Music Program and IAHP guide to music composers
Good luck!

8

Thanks for those links - Im sure they will be very helpful.

Do you know if the link to the Chilean Dept. of Education is available in English?!

9

No it´s not, but I insist that you try to translate it, maybe via internet software, because even though when they apply these to the schools they fail to reach their goal, this document and intention plan really gives you a general well described overview of every aspect the young human encounters when starting to relate to the world.

10

Will do. WIll try and look for some online software as getting it professionally translated is reallyl expensive for a document that size. Apparently some places charge 30c per word!!

Thanks for all of your help.

Are there any good music cd’s,toys and books to show a baby that you would recommend?

11

The DVD “The letter factory” was wonderful, and The only baby einstein video I found worth the time was the one called “My First Signs” my son learned so much from those two discs and they were educational breathers for me to get other things done.
I would also suggest a textile diet. Offer your child a basket of stuff for her to explore, and change it every week. Things that are safe for her to touch, that offer different textures, smells, make different noises.
Also try and get out to free mommy and me groups. They are great to expose your child to other kids her age, also some adult conversation for you. My son loved going at that age.

12

Thanks to all of you who have replied - I hope one day I will be able to provide the suggestions instead of asking the questions!!

I have found that alot of the things around the house and outside are more interesting for my daughter than her toys!

Are there any Montessori books that people have read that they can recommend?