Activity Center

Babies change more in the first year of life than at any other time. Use the following activities to help develop your baby's motor skills, muscle strength, social and emotional growth, and more.

Sensational Scarves
About
Movement and bright colors fascinate babies. And that's especially true when they see scarves or ribbons twirling in the air. You'll know your child's having fun when those legs start kicking in excitement!
How To
What You'll Need:
- Scarves in all colors and textures
- Brightly colored ribbons
- Wooden, plastic, or metal spoon
Gather your scarves, toss them in the air one by one in front of your child and let her watch the scarf swirl and float to the ground. Pick up the scarf, bring it to your child, and let her touch the fabric. You can also take several brightly colored ribbons, tie them securely to a spoon, and then slowly wave the spoon in front of your child's face and hands.
Benefits
This Activity Helps Your Child's Brain Develop:
- Hand-Eye Coordination
- Visual Tracking Skills
- Sense of Touch
A Bit Beyond Reach
About
Before babies start walking, they're building core muscle strength by stretching, rolling, and crawling. That's the perfect time for this activity. By placing a favorite object just outside of your child's reach, you'll encourage him to get to it any way he can!
How To
What You'll Need:
- Brightly colored balls
- Board books
- Stuffed animals
- Favorite toy, or yourself
Lay your child on his stomach and place the object just beyond his reach. As your child stretches out his hands, rolls on his side, or crawls on his tummy toward the object, encourage him by smiling and clapping your hands. If your child gets frustrated, move the object closer.
Benefits
This Activity Helps Your Child's Brain Develop:
- Gross Motor Skills
- Sense of Touch
- Social Skills
Make Your Own Music
About
Music opens a whole new world for your baby - one where sights and sounds blend together in a rhythm of its own. Introduce your child to the wonders of music by singing or striking up the band with homemade instruments.
How To
What You'll Need:
- Small plastic containers and jars with secure lids
- Paper plates
- Staples or tape
- Rice, buttons, coins, dried beans, dry pasta
Fill a plastic container or jar one-third to halfway with rice, buttons, or other small objects. Close the lid tightly and wrap with tape to avoid any spills. You can also place some items in the center of a paper plate, cover with a second plate and staple or tape the sides down to make a tambourine shaker.

Give your child an instrument and show her how to shake it. Pick up one of your own and make some music together!
Benefits
This Activity Helps Your Child's Brain Develop:
- Gross Motor Skills
- Fine Motor Skills
- Rhythm
- Listening and Visual Tracking Skills
LIttle-Bitty Obstacle Course
About
Before your baby's first birthday, crawling and even walking will be the next big milestones to conquer. Help your child learn how to crawl around or step over things by creating a mini-obstacle course.
How To
What You'll Need:
- Small blocks, cardboard boxes
- Small round or square plastic containers, pails
- Stuffed toys, pillows
- Blanket
Place a large blanket on the ground and scatter the items on it. Make sure each item is far enough apart so you and your child can step or crawl around it. If your child is crawling, show her how to crawl around the objects. If your child is learning to walk, hold her hands and help her step over each item.
Benefits
This Activity Helps Your Child's Brain Develop:
- Balance
- Gross Motor Skills
- Lower-Body Strength
- Eye-Foot Coordination
Build Up and Topple Down
About
Ever wonder why babies are always knocking things over? They are learning! Playing with and knocking over blocks is a great way for kids to learn about gravity, and cause and effect. Plus, they can learn colors and patterns too!
How To
What You'll Need:
- Blocks of all shapes, sizes, weights, and colors
Place one block on the floor or a low table and stack more on top one at a time. Count the blocks as you add them to the tower. Build the tower as high as you can and then let your child knock it down with his hands or feet.
Benefits
This Activity Helps Your Child's Brain Develop:
- Hand-Eye Coordination
- Cause and Effect
- Gross Motor Skills
- Visual Tracking Skills

Toddlers enjoy using their senses and enhanced motor skills to explore the world around them. Use the following activities to help your toddler express his creativity, develop language skills, learn how to problem solve, and more.

Play Make Believe
About
At this age, toddlers are starting to explore their imaginations and understand the idea of make- believe. Providing a variety of hats, scarves, dress-up clothes, and toys will help your toddler express his creativity, while having fun and staying active.
How To
What You'll Need:
- Different style hats
- Colorful scarves
- Toys
- Costumes (clothes from mom or dad’s closet will work great!)
Place the different clothes and toys in a bin. Let your toddler rummage through it and let her imagination fly. Encourage your child to tell the story of who she is and what she’s doing. Join the fun and dress up and play along too!
Benefits
This Activity Helps Your Child's Brain Develop:
- Concept Development
- Language
- Social Skills
- Creative Expression
- Imagination
A Basketful of Fun
About
Push it, pull it, climb it, load it...There are lots of creative activities your child can do with a laundry basket that helps develop brain and muscle power. Who knew a simple basket could be so much fun?
How To
What You'll Need:
- Empty laundry basket
- Toys, books, stuffed animals
- Imagination
Place an empty laundry basket in an open space like the living room. Turn it upside down to let your child climb over it. Let your child push and pull it across the floor, or toss some favorite toys into it and encourage your child to pick them out one by one. Give both of your imaginations a whirl by pretending the basket is a car or fire truck. Place your child in the basket and push it around while making the sound of a car or siren.
Benefits
This Activity Helps Your Child's Brain Develop:
- Balance
- Gross Motor Skills
- Lower-Body Strength
- Imagination
Dance Time
About
Dancing with a toddler in your arms is an excellent way to get some exercise, build a stronger bond between the two of you, and teach your child about rhythm and music, as you dip and sway together. So get swinging to that beat!
How To
What You'll Need:
- Upbeat music - nursey rhymes, toddler songs, instrumental
Hold your child securely in your arms and start singing or playing the music. Exaggerate your dance moves with side-to-side sways and some surprising dips and turns. When the song or music ends, freeze in your position. Start dancing when the music starts again.
Benefits
This Activity Helps Your Child's Brain Develop:
- Balance
- Rhythm
- Listening Skills
- Social Skills
Sponge Painting
About
Move over Picasso – there’s a new artist in town! Painting is a creative form of expression for your toddler and hey, who can resist those bright colors and the mess it’ll make? This activity is guaranteed to delight your child.
How To
What You'll Need:
- Sponge
- Child-safe scissors
- Child-safe paints or food coloring
- Paper plates or shallow plastic containers
- Plastic sheet, plastic wrap, or aluminum foil
- Tape
- Piece of 8-½ x 11 paper or construction paper
Tape a plastic sheet, plastic wrap, or aluminum foil on a low table or the floor. Pour a small amount of paint or food coloring into paper plate or shallow plastic container. Cut the sponge in pieces and dip one side in paint or food coloring. Show your child how to press the sponge pieces on paper to create a colorful masterpiece.

Neat Tip – To make this a clean activity, place a sheet of paper and the paint-dipped sponge pieces in a plastic bag. Seal the bag and let your child press her hands on it. Pull out the paper and dry.
Benefits
This Activity Helps Your Child's Brain Develop:
- Creativity
- Fine Motor Skills
Music and Motion
About
Nursery rhymes get kids moving with actions and combine two great loves of toddlers everywhere – music and motion! Your child will certainly get the giggles imitating you as you twist and turn to these cherished songs.
How To
What You'll Need:
- Nursery rhymes that include actions
I’m a Little Teapot
I’m a little teapot, short and stout.
Here is my handle (one hand on hip),
here is my spout (other arm out straight to side).
When I get all steamed up, hear me shout.
Just tip me over and pour me out! (As song ends, lean over and tip arm out like a spout)

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
Touch your hands to the body part as you sing them:
Head, shoulders, knees and toes,
Knees and toes.
Head, shoulders, knees and toes,
Knees and toes.
Eyes and ears and mouth and nose.
Head, shoulders, knees and toes,
Knees and toes.

Ask your child to stand in front of you. As you sing the song, add the actions and encourage your child to follow your movements.
Benefits
This Activity Helps Your Child's Brain Develop:
- Rhythm
- Balance
- Fine Motor Skills
- Listening Skills

Preschoolers can better control their physical abilities to achieve more challenging tasks, like cutting paper. Use the following activities to further nurture your child's motor skills, improve memory and communication skills, and more.

Match It Up
About
Preschoolers love challenges - and this memory game is guaranteed to work that brain! By building memory skills one letter or picture at a time, you're helping prepare your child for success in school.
How To
What You'll Need:
- 4 sheets of 8-½ x 11 paper or construction paper
- Crayons, markers, pens
- Pair of child-safe scissors
Divide two of the sheets of paper into 4 or 6 squares. On the first piece of paper, draw a different picture in each box, such as an animal, flower, tree, cloud, letter, or number. Draw the same pictures - but in different boxes - on the second sheet of paper. Cut the last two sheets of paper into squares that can be used to cover each picture.

Ask your child to uncover one of the pictures. Look at the picture closely, remember what it is, and then cover it again with the square. Now try to find the same picture on the second piece of paper and remember where it is!
Benefits
This Activity Helps Your Child's Brain Develop:
- Memory
- Fine Motor Skills
- Social Skills
Homemade Bubbles
About
Remember how much fun you had with bubbles? Well, your child will love them just as much as you did! From blowing to popping and chasing, bubbles offer a great way to get some physical activity - and bragging rights to whoever blows the biggest one!
How To
What You'll Need:
- 12 cups water
- 1 cup dish soap
- 1 cup cornstarch
- 2 tbsp baking powder
- Bubble wands, wire coat hangers, paper towl tube, plastic rings
Mix ingredients together in order in a clean pail. Stir occasionally in a gentle pattern so there isn't too much foam. Take away any foam as it forms. Add another cup of water when the pail is half empty.

If you don't have any bubble wands, use a paper towel tube and plastic rings, or bend a coat hanger into a loop. Store extra solution in a tightly sealed container. Solution that has been sitting for a few days makes the biggest bubbles!
Benefits
This Activity Helps Your Child's Brain Develop:
- Fine Motor Skills
- Gross Motor Skills
- Visual Tracking Skills
My Alphabet House
About
Learning the ABCs takes a new twist with this letter game that gets your child scrambling off the chair and on a mission! Best of all, it helps develop many skills in your child's brain all at once.
How To
What You'll Need:
- 8-½ x 11 piece of paper or construction paper
- Child-safe scissors
- Pen, marker, or pencil
Draw the outline of a letter on the paper and cut it out. Give the letter to your child and walk around the house and yard together. Ask your child to find objects that start with the letter. Each time he finds an object, write it down on a list. Place the list and the letter on the fridge or bulletin board when you're done.

You can add some music to make it even more fun. Find as many objects as you can before the music stops!
Benefits
This Activity Helps Your Child's Brain Develop:
- Gross Motor Skills
- Analytical Thinking Skills
- Memory
The Guessing Game
About
A preschooler's brain thrives on imagination - and that's what makes this activity so much fun. By hiding an object in a bag or sock, kids need to think creatively when figuring out what's inside!
How To
What You'll Need:
- Sock
- Cloth or soft plastic bag
- Items such as:
Tell your child to look away and place an item in the sock or bag. Let your child touch and feel the sock or bag, and guess the object inside. Reverse roles and try to figure out what your child hides inside for you!
Benefits
This Activity Helps Your Child's Brain Develop:
- Fine Motor Skills
- Sense of Touch
- Creativity
Playdough Time!
About
Squeezing, pulling, rolling, and molding dough into all sorts of shapes and sizes provides a hands-on learning activity full of fun and creativity. From dragons and slithery snakes to flowers and snowmen, what you make is only limited by your imagination.
How To
What You'll Need:
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup warm water
- 1/3 cup salt
- 1 tsp oil
- 2 tsp cream of tartar (optional for better elasticity)
- Food coloring in two colors
- 2 mixing bowls
- 2 saucepans
- Mixing spoon
Combine all ingredients except the food coloring in a mixing bowl. Blend the dough smooth and place half in the second bowl. Add a few drops of food coloring in the second bowl. Add a few drops of food coloring to each bowl and mix with a spoon. Pour each bowl of dough into its own saucepan. Stir over medium heat for a couple minutes until dough becomes thick. Remove from heat. When dough is cool, pick it up, place it on the table, and knead until smooth.
Benefits
This Activity Helps Your Child's Brain Develop:
- Creativity
- Sense of Touch
- Fine Motor Skills

Babies change more in the first year of life than at any other time. Use the following activities to help develop your baby's motor skills, muscle strength, social and emotional growth, and more.

Sensational Scarves