It Is Fun to Play Together

Materials You Need: Nothing special — anything you are using to play with your baby.

What You Can Do Together: Play is something that you can do with your baby almost any time.  The activities in this resource have many great ideas for what to do.  Whatever your game is, encourage your child to be eager and excited to play. For example, you might pick up your baby and say in an excited way, “Look!  We are going to look at these things together!” while showing your baby what you will play. Or you might see that your baby’s face already shows eagerness and you could say “I see that you are awake from your nap. Are you ready to play? I am ready! Let’s go!”  You don’t need to make your child extremely excited, but create a warm, pleasant feeling for this time together.  And of course, if you see that your baby is becoming fussy or tired during the play, bring it to an end or introduce something a bit different.

What Your Child is Learning: At this age and every age from now on, play becomes the most important way that your child will learn. However, learning will happen best if your child is eager to play. By making playtime enjoyable, you are doing one more thing to build the foundation for early learning, every day.