Clapping Games and Finger Plays

Now, when your baby is 12 months old, he/she understands many things and can do simple actions like clap hands and playing finder games.

To play this kind of games, you should use easy memorized rhymes and perform simple actions like finger counting, clapping hands, sit-stand, jump up and down.

As a starter, you can use such favorite nursery and counting-out rhymes as :

* Five little ducks
* Heads, shoulders knees and toes
* The wheels on the bus
* I'm a little teapot
* Incy wincy spider
* Jelly on a plate
* Old MacDonald
* Two little dicky birds

and many others gathered on the Nursery Rhymes, Tongue Twisters and Conting-out Rhymes site

In and Out

In this game babies lean about objects’ size and volume. Do you remember how the donkey Eeyore put the remainder of his balloon in the pot and told “It goes in and out”.

Select boxes, cans and toys of different size. Not all toys must have the size that is proper for each of the boxes.

Now let’s set a play task to the baby – find a home for each toy. Of course, the child will have to test each toy and see if it fits the box or not. While playing tell something like this: “The toy doesn’t fit this home because it’s big and the box is small, let’s find a bigger home for it.”

It often turns out that the kid doesn’t know how to play with toys. Show him/her different actions that can be done with these toys. The games like these develop fine motor skills and diligence.

Open - Shut

Let’s learn shapes and forms. Small children like all possible cans, bottles, boxes that can be opened and shut. Use this with an educational view. Put several boxes of different shape and form in front of the baby. Now ask him/her to open these boxes, and shut them correctly selecting the covers. If a cover turns, let the kid turn it and but not pull it.

Pour This, Pour That!

You’ll need several shatterproof cups, bowls, kettles or watering-pots for this game. First of all, put an oilcloth apron on the baby. Now, fill a cup with water from a bowl, then pour water into a kettle (or a watering-pot), and then pour it out to the cups. You can also pour water from a basin into small bowls with a spoon.

There’s another variant of the gameplay. Put two bowls in front of the kid; fill with water one of the bowls. Show the baby how you can pour water from one bowl to another with the help of an ordinary medical clyster or a sponge. Pay attention to the gurgling and sucking sound, and to dripping water and drops. The child’s delight is guaranteed!!!

If you do not grudge wasting some foodstuffs, you can pour different bulk material from one plate to another with a spoon or a small cup. You can pour semolina, rice, buckwheat, pea, etc.
Show the baby how he/she can pour peas from one plate to another with a spoon. Pay attention to the sound that makes the dropping pea or rice: “rattles”, “rustles”, “quiet”, “loud”.
Note: you must keep an eye on the young explorer so that he doesn’t put a pea into his nose or ear.

For children of about 1,5 – 2 years old you can play such a variant of the play:
Cut small pieces out of foam-rubber and give tweezers to the kid. It’s not an easy task to grasp rubber pieces with tweezers, but it’s very absorbing!
You can use other small objects for the game: corks, meccano details, etc.
This exercise develops movement coordination, special imagination and tactile sensations.

Floats or Sinks?

Fill a big bowl or a basin with water. Take several objects done from different materials: cork pieces, twigs, metal spoon, plastic cup and so on (take no more than 3-4 objects for one lesson). Now let the baby to guess which object will float and which one will sink. Then give the child the opportunity to throw all the objects into water and play with them. During the play, say some words about each of the objects, e.g. "This doll is made from plastic. Plastic is very light and this is why it doesn’t sink." or "This spoon is made from metal. Metal is heavy and this is why it sinks."
After the baby has played, let him/her take all the objects from water and wipe each of them with a napkin or towel.

After 2-3 exercises with objects in water, you can play such a game. Name some object (rubber ball, plastic cup, wooden brick, etc.) and let the baby guess if the object sinks or floats. Movements can be used as answers. For instance, if the object sinks – squat, if the toy floats – imitate swimmer’s movements.

100 Hot Baby Books

Magic Sack (for one or more players)

Take a non-transparent sack and several big objects that are well-known to the baby. The objects should be of a clearly defined shape and texture (e.g. clew of wool, keys). When the baby dives his/her hand in the sack, he/she defines by touch what object has he touched (at the first stage you can help by prompting). If several kids are playing, they puts their hands in the sack by turn – and pulls a “prize”. Babies like this game, where magic element is so strong. The only difficulty here is to select really different objects and not to forget about safety – the things mustn’t be sharp or prickly.

In the course of time the game is made more complicated. You can add smaller objects or toys that have slightly different texture. Or you can follow an easier variant and offer the baby to find definite objects in the sack (e.g. find a button or a key).

The game trains memory, imagination, develops tactile sensation.

Mini-Puzzle

Cut one or two big pictures from a magazine. When the baby remembered a picture, cut it by two pieces. The task for your baby is to gather the picture together. As time goes by the game becomes more complicated: there are two or more pictures that are cut by two and are mixed. Thanks to this puzzle-game the baby trains memory, attention and diligence.

My Box

A box or a case fill with different things, not necessarily with toys. The kid will throw things out of this box and you’ll have to put them back. Later on you can use cases and boxes with lids, covers sections, and slits for figures of different shape.

Learning to throw

Find a bucket or a box, choose toys that sound attractively when they’re thrown into a bucket.

Place the box so that the child can easily throw toys in there. Put the box on the other kid’s hand some time later. The kid will have to stretch itself to reach the box or put toys in another hand. Give the child a bigger toy so that he starts operating with both hands.

Toys manipulation is developed in this game.

Parcel with Surprise

Wrap a rattle/toy/tiny box in several paper layers. Give the baby the possibility to unwrap it. If he/she hesitates, show on your example how the paper can be unwrapped. Be sure that the baby will find this game very exciting and will be taken with the game for at least 10 minutes!

You can also play another variant of this game. Take a plastic bag and put a toy in it. Now give the bag to the baby and let it reach the toy. You can also take your beautician and let the kid open it and throw things away.
This game when the child throws things out of boxes, parcels, bags, etc. can be played anywhere and at any time. It can occupy the baby up to 30 - 40 minutes! Just give the game a try!

For your note: baby's visual and touching perception is developed. The baby learns about the consistency of things, learns to manipulate the movements of hands and fingers.

Grasp it

Hold out to the baby a rattle and hold it vertically. Before giving it, look if the child prepared its hand to take it. Repeat this movement several times and help the kid to prepare its palm to catch it. Repeat the movements and hold the rattle horizontally, and then in other directions.

Important manipulation skills are developed.

Magic Box

This game can be played with kids from 1 year old.

• Take a plastic or paperboard box and cut with scissors several shapes of different types, e.g. round, rectangle, oval, square, cross, etc.
• Now cover the shapes’ edges with colorful paper or scotch tape so that they are distinctly visible.
• Drop the shapes you’ve cut from the box into the appropriate holes.

It is also very useful when a child has his own box or a bucket where he can drop his toys or other things. When he/she grows, he’ll be able to clean the play room by himself.

You can also let the baby sit in a box and that will make it feel happy :)