A New Year Brings New Learning Opportunities for Baby!

A new year brings a wealth of learning opportunities and experiences. Focus on finding learning opportunities in everyday objects and everyday activities. You can play a gentle game of tug-of-war with a blanket, look and talk about colors in a photo, or dance to music. You can play hide and seek with Baby's stuffed animals, or take Baby on a nature walk. There are so many simple activities you can do!

As always, look to Infant and Toddler QuickSource® for a plethora of fun, simple and FREE activities that you can do from the comfort of your own home!

Try the following activity today! This will help Baby with motor skills.

Experience: Watching for Smiles

Let's Get Started:

1. Grinning will usually turn into smiles after a short period of time. The caregiver should engage the child so that the smiling response becomes more frequent.

2. The smiling reflex may begin to exhibit itself when the child is sleeping. It is not uncommon to see an infant smiling in her sleep. Although this may be a reflex or the result of a pleasant dream, the child is beginning to have this physical response.

3. When an infant begins to have eye contact and engages the person talking to her, the caregiver will begin to see slight grins.

This experience correlates to Developmental Guideline: EP2: Smiles.

Have fun with the everyday, and create learning opportunities out of the simple things!