Another month has come and gone and our little Audrey is 1 year old. I can hardly believe we are about to enter the toddler years with her!
This week I’d like to share some of our favourite play activities from her 12th month. Audrey has been enjoying lots of transferring during her play. She loves helping to pack up by putting things away in baskets or trays. In fact, this morning she helped pack up the puzzles with her big brother and sister and it was very cute!
One of my absolute favourite activities this month was our DIY family puzzles. In fact, I added them to my Family Theme Play Pack over in the Little Play Club because they’ve been so well loved!
We had these gorgeous individual shape puzzles from Educating Kids so I just measured the shape pieces and inserted images cropped to size in a Powerpoint Document. Then I printed them out, laminated them and attached them to the base of the puzzles with tiny little pieces of blutac. I wanted to be able to take them out and swap them for other images down the track!
It was so sweet when I presented these to Audrey. When she pulled the pieces out, she leaned in really close to get a good look at the photos inside.
Another favourite activity this month was our little plastic bottle with paddle pop sticks inside. This one was perfect for getting Audrey to practise her transferring skills while also developing her fine motor skills.
I grabbed a handful of paddle pop sticks from our craft stash and invited her to ‘post’ them into the bottle. This was a bit tricky for her at first but it was really sweet watching her pass the paddle pop sticks from hand to hand so that she could post them into the bottle. I actually added some pom poms as well but she kept trying to put them in her mouth so I’ve taken them away for the moment.
Following on with the transferring and posting activities, we also had a lot of fun with a container of little beanbags this month! A few months ago, I got a set of small beanbags in the Educational Experience sale and I’d been waiting for an opportunity to use them with the kids.
I added the small beanbags to a bowl with another small container ready for Audrey to explore. The container I added was quite small so it required her to manipulate the beanbags a lot to get them inside. It was a really fun way to work her hand-eye coordination as she explored!
The last activity I’d like to share with you this month is a really simple transferring activity that I saw on Can Do Kiddo. I wanted a quick and easy activity that would get Audrey working those fine motor skills and grasping skills. So I just popped a few of our sensory balls in a basket alongside a muffin tray from the kitchen and left it out for her to explore.
She loved transferring the balls from the basket and into the holes in the muffin tin…but she also loved manipulating the balls to try and remove them from the muffin tray and back to the basket. This one was lots of fun for her!
I hope you’ve found some simple play ideas to inspire playtime with your baby this month! If you’d like some more simple play ideas, I’d love for you to join my email list! At the beginning of every month, I sent out a free play prompt planner with ideas for babies, toddlers and preschoolers.