This week I’m sharing some of my favourite play ideas for babies that are 8 months of age! This is such a fun age – many babies are sitting, rolling or even crawling by this age. It opens up so many more opportunities for play!
The following ideas are activities we have enjoyed around this developmental stage.
As always, I want to start by saying that you don’t need to entertain your baby all day long! Babies are simple creatures and really just love being close by you. So try to involve your baby in your day to day tasks as much as you can!
I also understand that sometimes the days can feel so long – so my hope is that you’ll find some inspiration for some new and fun activities to try with your baby! The focus for me is always on the bonding and memory making!
This week my husband set up a gorgeous little rainbow invitation for Audrey! He searched through all our toys and supplies looking for things he could hang from our Nester and Cub baby gym! Yep! We’re still using our baby gym even though Audrey is sitting.
Audrey loved reaching and grabbing all of the interesting toys and materials hanging from her gym! This one has been a very supervised activity because the ribbons on some of the toys are quite long so always be sure to supervise all play activities very closely just in case.
Next is one of my all-time favourite baby play activities – mess free painting! I grabbed a cheap canvas from our local dollar shop and put it inside a heavy duty bag from Ikea. Next I added a few squirts of similar colours to the bag.
Audrey used her fingers and hands to smoosh the paint around on the canvas. Not only was this a really fun sensory experience for her, we also have a beautiful artwork which I’m proudly displaying in my home office!
Another favourite activity for babies that have started solids is rainbow spaghetti! I just add some pasta to a pot of boiling water and add some food dye to the water. You don’t actually need to use a lot of dye – I used a little too much and it did make her hands a little blue!
Once it’s cooked to perfection, I rinse it under some cold water so that it’s nice and cool and ready for Audrey to explore. This particular tub is made with curly fettuccine and blue dye – it reminds me of octopus tentacles!
The next simple play idea is so quick and easy to set up! This is Audrey’s kitchen basket and it’s full of utensils and things from our kitchen drawers.
Audrey absolutely LOVED the baster – it’s silicone and must have felt funny when she explored with her mouth. She kept pulling the funniest face every single time she had a little chew.
You might notice that your baby puts everything in their mouth at this age and I want to reassure you that this is totally normal. Babies make sense of the world by exploring with their mouths, exploring different tastes and textures and gaining a heap of sensory input! This all helps build strong neural connections.
As always, I hope you’ve found some inspiration for playing with your 8 month old this month! If you try the kitchen exploration basket, please do tag me on Instagram @littlelifelonglearners and use the #littlelifelonglearners hashtag so I can see!
Please Note: Supervision is an absolute must with all baby play. Do not leave your baby unattended and always be watching if your baby is exploring something you have created or isn’t originally intended as a baby toy.