Another month has just flown by here in our home! Our beautiful little Audrey is almost 6 months old now! I have absolutely loved sharing our baby play ideas as each month passes. Today I’m going to share some of our play ideas for the 5 month age bracket!
As always, I want to start by saying that you are enough! What you’re doing with your baby is enough. All your baby needs is a carer that loves them, some milk and a warm place to sleep. Anything else is just a bonus
This month we did a lot of tummy time play! Audrey rolls condidently from her back to belly and belly to back. She rolls around the floor very quickly now! So this month we enjoyed lots of tummy time play!
Audrey absolutely loved this tracking activity! I added a few centimetres of water to this shallow tray and added a few of our lighter plastic balls. Audrey was able to track the balls floating across the water, but she was also able to grab them with her hands! You could also try some of these fun sensory balls* that they can easily grab with their fingers as well.
We did a similar activity to this with some rubber ducks and blue water when Audrey was 3 months old which was very popular
Now that the weather is finally starting to cool down here in Brisbane, we have enjoyed some quality time outside playing! With two older siblings, Audrey often just hangs out on her tummy observing her big brother and sister!
This week, we headed out into the garden where the big kids played soccer. I put Audrey down on a blanket where she investigated the grass and dirt. She loved grasping the blades of grass with her fingers and digging in the dirt!
While we have been playing outside this month, we’ve also gotten out our bubble machine! Bubbles have always been a favourite in our house, especially with our toddler and preschooler! So we were pretty excited to get the machine out for Audrey!
This is a wonderful activity for developing the muscles in the eyes! Tracking movement is a skill that can take some time to develop in infants, so anything I can do to help with this is a bonus
One of my very favourite sensory play ideas for babies are sensory frames! All you need is an old picture frame with the glass removed. Hot glue some different textures onto the frame backing and you’ve got yourself a gorgeous, DIY sensory toy!
I made a set for Lilly when she was a baby so we decided to make a few for Audrey too. The bigger kids helped to choose some different textures and we got to work! Audrey thought they were very interesting and loved exploring the textures with her mouth. You can read more about these sensory frames here.
Many years ago, I created some simple rainbow sensory bottles for baby Lilly. I used some empty mini softdrink bottles and filled them with all kinds of crafty loose parts – one for each colour!
I used things like pom poms, paddle pop sticks, matchsticks, beads, glitter and feathers! Lilly absolutely loved them as a baby so I was so excited to introduce them to Audrey this month!
If you try any of these baby play ideas with your baby, I’d love for you to use the #LittleLifelongLearners hashtag and tag me in your stories on Instagram so I can see what you get up to!
Please remember that all baby play should be supervised. Use your best judgement and only attempt play activities that YOU consider safe for your little learners.