Week 1 – Hello, Hands!
This month, we’re saying, “Hello, Hands!” Together, we will explore how we use our hands! It’s exciting when a baby discovers what their hands can do. You can follow their learning at home by offering your child objects to grasp with each hand. Dropping, transferring, or reaching for items is all part of the learning process. These subtle but important skills prepare little hands for more complex actions like eating, cutting, and writing!
As you interact with your child, notice what captures their attention. Do they reach for your face, your hair, or the toy in your hand? As you play, you might say:
You are holding the yellow ball! Can you hold the red block with the other hand?
Why It’s Important
Your baby’s best tools for learning about the world are the senses: touch, smell, taste, sight, and hearing. These senses help your baby take in information and make discoveries about people and objects. When multiple senses are used to explore something new, your baby is able to learn a great deal more than if just one sense was being used.
Not Ready Yet
You can help your baby discover how fun it is to explore the way toys feel and sound with some gentle prompting. Softly rub a stuffed animal on the baby’s arm or leg and talk about how soft it is, or shake a toy to hear how it sounds!
Need a Challenge
Encourage your baby to shake, squeeze, push, or pull on toys to see what will happen. Use lots of descriptive words to talk about the toys as you explore them together.
Journal/Talk
Over time you will notice that the way your baby plays with toys will change. At first, your baby will enjoy simply exploring how a toy feels, tastes, and sounds. But soon, your baby will try banging, dropping, or swinging the toy just to see how it responds. Take a video of your baby playing with a favorite toy now and set a reminder to take another video in three months time to see the difference!
Book Recommendations
“Fuzzy Fuzzy Fuzzy!” by Sandra Boynton
Extend the Learning
Give your child an opportunity to explore different temperatures as well as textures. Place a toy in the freezer for a little while to get it cold, but not frozen, before playing with it. You can also pop a stuffed animal in the dryer for a couple of minutes so your baby can explore with a warm toy. Just be sure there are no metal or plastic parts that can get too hot! Your baby won’t know to drop a toy that is too warm or cold, so stay nearby and take it away if there’s an uncomfortable reaction.
Mighty Minute
Chant or rap the following rhyme:This is how I roll. This is how I roll.
From side to side and left to right,
I can roll with all my might.
From my back to my belly I can roll to play.
Now, I can look around and greet the day.
If your child is an infant, gently help her roll to both sides and then onto her tummy as you recite the rhyme.
For toddlers and 2-year-olds, invite your child to act out the rhyme and then continue rolling and having fun.
