Developmental Milestones: Grasping

Developmental Milestones: Grasping

This is an exciting developmental milestone because it allows babies to grasp their toys and so take part in their own play!

 

Grasping at 0-2 Months

Reflex grasping…. cute! Babies at this age usually have their fists usually clenched or gripping onto your finger!

 

 

Grasping at 3-4 months

Hand to eye coordination and muscles are developing

Babies will begin to reach for things or bat at dangling objects

 

Grasping 4-8 months

Babies will pick up large objects but won’t let them go. They will start passing objects from one hand to another or shaking items for cause and effect.

Babies will enjoy using their raking grip and will now be trying to put objects into their mouth!

 

Grasping at 9-12 months

Baby will enjoy dropping and giving objects to people now. They will develop pincer grip for small objects and will enjoy banging objects together loudly!

 

 

Once this developmental milestone of grasping is nailed…. What comes next? Well, stacking and sorting, and then next thing your baby will want to do is throwing!

 

At Adventure Babies we encourage this developmental milestone, grasping, through using lots of different exciting high quality sensory objects.  We use items that are easy for babies to hold on to and provide an interesting mix of textures to stimulate a sense of vision & touch. We encourage parents to move items so you’re your baby uses their eyes to track objects developing their vision, and work on their hand to eye coordination to calculate how to actually get hold of things.

 

Of course, all babies develop at their own rate so if your baby is not sticking to this timeline is not a problem!

 

Book here! 

 

Stay in touch here!

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Five Great Sensory Activities for Home

Five Great Sensory Activities for Home

During the pandemic we moved all of our classes online and it was amazing how many brilliant Sensory Activities for Home Adventure Babies came up with and you parents joined in with at home. It is always helpful to have an activitiy on hand for when you need to change the mood or when you are fed up of your babies regular toys.

Here is a list of our top 5 easy peasy sensory fun at home activities

  1. Sensory Bottles

This is a great one for babies and also means that you are reusing plastic bottles. Fill a small plastic bottle with water and add in other interesting items. This could be glitter, food colouring, beads, small plastic animals, plastic confetti etc. Encourage your baby to roll the bottle, shake the bottle and talk about the colours and the items inside with them. A drop of gorilla glue to secure the lid will mean that even bigger babies cannot get the tops off.

 

  1. Squishy Pat Mats

These mats are brilliant for encouraging tummy time! Find a sandwich bag, Polly pocket or plastic zip lock bag. Strengthen the seams with duct tape, fill the bag with cheap hair gel or shaving foam, add some small brightly coloured items such as buttons or glitter (nothing that will poke a hole in the bag!) duct tape the top entrance several times and let your baby use their hands, feet or fingers to squish the contents.

  1. Sensory Bins

Sensory bins are good things to make at home. Fill a shallow box or tray (shoebox or baking tray are fab) with a thin layer of rice and find several interesting household objects that your baby will enjoy exploring. Natural objects are lovely to use so anything wooden, metal or cotton. Just make sure that these are big enough that a baby would not be able to fit them inside their mouth. Talk to your baby about what they can feel and see inside the box.

  1. Potion

Great for a sunny day. We always love making a potion in our house. A shallow tray or dish is perfect. Add some water but you only really need enough for baby to make a splash. Add some brightly coloured flower heads, strands of long grass or leaves that your baby will enjoy trying to pick up from the water. You can help them to smell the flowers, talk about the colours and tickle them with the grass.

  1. Rice Shakers

Add a few spoons of dry rice, dried pasta, longer dried spaghetti to a small empty plastic bottle. Show your baby how to play with this shaking it and rolling it to make a sound. Babies will love the cause and effect that they create.

 

These sensory activities for home are quick ways to have a few minutes of fun with your baby and support their development at the same time. You don’t need any special equipment just use what you have at home. Use the play time as a chance to talk to your baby introducing new words for colours, sounds, textures etc. Follow their lead and please always make sure that your baby is playing with these home-made sensory toys under grown up supervision. You can then pop these safely away and your baby will look forward to playing with them again soon!

 

Come and join us on one of our Sensory Storytelling Adventures 

 

Or follow us for more Sensory Activitiy for Home ideas

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Motor Skill Activities for your Toddler

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Activities for your busy toddler

 

It is so useful to have a few activities up your sleeve to keep your busy toddler practicing their motor skill development on days when its bucketing down outside. We love a bit of puddle jumping and a wet walk in the woods is one of our go to activities but indoor activities are useful too. Keeping toddlers moving is important for their physical development. By developing their gross and fine motor skills (the coordination of small or large muscle groups) you are improving cognitive development and language & communication skills. You are also building the blocks towards more complex activities such as early writing, mark making or playing team sports. It’s also the best way to wear your toddler out!

 

  1. Laundry basket target: Give your toddler a marker to stand on and a bunch of rolled up socks. Start close and show them how to throw the socks into the basket. When they can do it move the basket further away for them.

 

  1. Masking tape: You can use this to turn your living room floor into a major road network. Get the cars out and your toddler will be happy for ages following the tracks with different vehicles. Try to encourage them to create a narrative by modelling this for them for added speech & language opportunities ‘Oh look the green car is turning the corner’ etc If you wanted to add another layer of learning mark out parking spaces and stick tape with a number, letter or colour on the top of each car . Show your toddler how to match the car to the parking space to help them with number, letter or colour recognition.

 

  1. Scavenger hunt: My children have always LOVED this! You can make is as simple or tricky as you like. Theme is around a colour or a number for example, find as many red things as you can. Or make groups of 3! 3 teddies, 3 cars, 3 pieces of paper, 3 red things, 3 things from the garden or themed such as things you might find at a farm or zoo or for an even harder one based on the initial sound of objects such as anything beginning with ‘s’

 

  1. Balloons: As long as your child isn’t terrified of balloons bursting like my eldest was these are a cheap and easy way to keep a toddler occupied for hours. I’m sure some of you will remember these from childhood parties… Balloon volleyball, tennis, hockey with a cardboard tube or fishing net, basketball using a carrier bag on a door handle…the list is endless.

 

  1. Last but not least bubble wrap and boxes. If you haven’t had any deliveries recently you could always ask on local fb groups or at your local shop. Bubble wrap can be used for painting then printing on to paper to get a brilliant pattern, stomping on or making a sensory runway for children and toy planes and who doesn’t love to make a box tower to crash down or turn a big box into a spaceship or den?

 

Toddlers develop gross motor skills at different rates. If your toddler’s gross motor skills need a little extra help, keep practicing these fun activities. Or come along to one of our toddler sensory storytelling classes for even more great activities and ideas for home

Stay in touch for more activities for your toddler over on our facebook page 

 

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How do I choose a baby class?

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What makes a great baby class?

 

As a new parent with a new baby how do you know which baby class is the best one to go for? With so much choice, what factors should you consider important when making this important decision? As a baby class franchisor, class leader and parent I have made a list of my top 5 to help you.

 

  1. Logistics

Is the class in a place that you can easily attend each week? Does the venue have a carpark or will you be walking? Is there a café nearby to meet up with your new mum friends before or afterwards? The best places have easy access in venues with parking and cafes nearby. Having a baby is tricky at the best of times. Why add a complicated journey or difficult timings to your life when you don’t have to?

  1. Safety

In a world of Covid this is even more important than usual. Your baby is infinitely precious to you. This may be one of the first places that you take them, and it can feel daunting to start with. Check that the venue being used is Covid secure and that your baby class leader has a robust risk assessment updated to include Covid secure rules in place to keep themselves, parents and babies safe.  As you will most likely be sitting on the floor with your baby venues need to be spotless, particularly the floor and toilets. Do the class providers have the correct insurance?

  1. Quality

Are the classes run by a reputable provider who has taken part in baby development training and teaching or coaching training? This will mean that your classes will be taught by a professional and experienced teacher following lesson plans designed to meet the needs of your baby at each stage of their development. It also means that all resources and activities are safe for your baby to explore at their stage of development and therefore you can relax and enjoy the experience.

  1. Variety

Does the baby class you are thinking of attending include many different elements or is it one session of the same thing? Do they focus on language and communication development, physical development, sensory stimulation or all of these things? The best classes to begin with will include a mixture of all of the above aimed for the specific age of your baby.

  1. Communication

In order to find out all of the information that I mentioned you will need to be able to communicate well with the person or group running your classes. If you are going to be paying for a baby class, you may understandably have some questions before you sign up. Do they have an informative website? Do they have a facebook or Instagram page? Can you email or message the person running your classes directly and do they respond to you? A friendly and caring class leader will make sure that you have the best time at the class and also support you as a new parent to make mum and dad friends who can support you on your parenting journey.

 

So as you can see there is a lot more to picking a baby class than you might have thought but by making a considered decision you will have amazing fun and bonding times with your baby, meet loads of new mum friends, gain support in the development of your baby and make countless memories.

 

Check out our classes here 

Stay in touch with us at Adventure Babies Facebook  or Adventure Babies Mailing List  

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Baby Buddy…..

Adventure awaits in 2019!
Welcome to the new Adventure Babies E-Bulletin!

 

Recommend a friend and get a free story book!

Most parents find our classes through recommendations so let us say ‘Thanks’, every time you introduce a new friend you will both get a free storybook to enjoy with your little ones at home!

Enter the code ‘babybuddy’ in the coupon section when booking your new block of classes and we’ll post the books out to you and your friend.

Announcing our charity partnership with Beanstalk.

We are proud to announce Adventure Babies will be donating 1% of all the bookings made to the charity Beanstalk.

Beanstalk provide 1 to 1 literacy support to children aged between 3 and 13, working with schools and training volunteers across the U.K

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