Quarantine fun ideas for babies

My baby girl, Summer has just turned 10 months old, an age where exploring new things is fascinating and her curious nature yearns for new fun ideas. Before the lock down began we were enjoying our trips to baby groups, visiting petting farms, soft plays, parks and finding new coffee shops (ok that last one’s mainly for Mummy’s sanity) and all of a sudden we are isolated in our house and garden very much like when she was a newborn.

Ways to entertain your 6-12 month old at home

In this strange time I have put together a list of fun ideas which are keeping my 10 month old active, occupied and stimulated;

Sensory Box

Summer loves her sensory boxes, so much so we have one in three of our rooms, they are great to pull out at any point of the day. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, we use these Ikea felt boxes and add everyday items from around the house and a couple of her toys which offer different textures.

I’m constantly changing the items inside to keep her interested. What we have inside our sensory boxes at the minute;

• Clothes pegs
• Wooden spoon
• An unused glasses case
• Small snack containers with nothing in (she loves taking the lid off)
• Pasta, googly eyes & small pom-poms in a sealed plastic bottle- great for shaking
• Small cardboard packaging- outer chocolate orange boxes are her favourite
• Plastic stacking rings

Garden Fun

Sensory play can also extend into the garden, there’s so many new textures to discover. I always take Summer’s socks off so she gets to experience the feel of new things, just sitting pulling out grass can be such fun! Experiencing different textures from pebbles, leaves, flowers and soil plus the smells of the outdoors is an easy way to spend an afternoon or two.

Plant some Seeds

We are lucky enough to have a greenhouse in our garden and for the last few years I have planted some seeds to add pops of bright colours to our garden. This year I decided to get Summer involved and I’m surprised with how much she has enjoyed it.

We planted some pansies in pots which was great fun getting messy then every morning after our breakfast we go to water them. It’s been a couple of weeks and now Summer grabs towards the watering can & peers over to the pots to see how much they have grown. Even a couple of small pots in your house would spark this interest.

Splish Splash

So with swimming pools closed I wanted to keep Summer having fun with water. An easy solution is to fill a bowl with warm water, sit outside and splash away. I added her bubble bath to create some bubbles and used a few different sized bowls with smaller pots along with some toys and plastic balls from her ball pit. Literally hours of fun, she had such a confused face when she covered herself in water but there was nothing left in the bowl!

An outdoor paddling pool and a bubble machine would also be lots of fun.

Get Creative

Potato printing is easy and lots of fun, we did some Easter themed printing, I carved some simple patterns and let Summer play with the paint and potatoes. She loved playing with the texture of the potato and making marks on different cards and paper, it did merge into some finger painting aswell!

Watching creative tasks can also be stimulating for little ones at this age, so continue with all those DIY tasks you need to do round the house and try to keep them involved. To keep my mind active I decided to do an Ikea hack of the LATT kids table and chairs by painting the wood and adding fabric cushions (pictures on my Instagram). Although Summer was playing with her toys, I was talking her through what I was doing and she watched the project unfold.

Make Food Fun

Try some; interesting finger foods, new recipes, bake some muffins and have a picnic in the garden. Food time can be made really fun for little one’s, we recently purchased a bamboo bamboo elephant and fox plate which we love!

Make Music

Get out your pots and pans, wooden spoons, steel spoons and get making some noise. Grab a rattle, clap your hands or whistle along and try some backing music. If you’re sick of nursery rhymes, put your favourite tracks on and don’t forget to singalong. A good one to try is the Cadbury gorilla track.

Facetime

It’s vital to keep in touch with family and friends and your little one will love the interaction. Summer usually grabs the Ipad thinking the person is hiding behind it and always reaches out to touch the face of people she knows.

Screen time

Let’s be honest, screen time equals 5 minutes for Mummy to do one of the hundred things on her do to do list. YouTube is brilliant for quick distractions, Little Baby Bum is both fun and educational and has Summer hooked.

Get snapping

We all love to take pictures of our little ones and now there’s even more time to capture those moments. Take milestone photos, get dressed up, in fact all of you get dressed up and try to get some family shots. I’ve missed a few milestone photos from having plans, in a rush to get out the house but now there’s no excuse- I’m determind to capture them all.

Peek-a-boo

Peek-a-boo never grows old, use your hands, use a muslin or hide behind kitchen counters and jump out. We are having fun at the minute as we have 2 doors into the kitchen and I can run from one door to the other door without Summer seeing me, so the suspense of seeing which one I pop out from makes her giggle. Adding a hand puppet into the mix adds more fun.

If you have any more ideas and fun activities I would love to hear from you!