MONTESSORI AT HOME: Activities for Babies 6-9 Months

Hey guys, my name is Ashley and I'm a mom of two little girls. I have a two and a half year old toddler named Kylie and I also have an eight month old baby named Mia. Now I know that many of you guys out there are constantly on the lookout for new activity ideas that are age appropriate for your little ones at home. And I've actually already put out videos that have activity ideas specifically for newborns and also for ages three to six months. I've kind of been filming these as my baby Mia has been growing the past year so that you guys can see some of the activity ideas in action with an actual baby of that age group. And as it just so happens, my baby Mia turned eight months old the other day and I have been busy following her around kind of catching little videos of all the things that she's been up to lately. So from one busy parent to another, today I'd like to share with you some ideas for Montessori activities for babies between the ages of six and nine months old. All right, so the following activities are in no particular order, they're just kind of how I have them listed out as I was thinking of them. So we're going to go ahead and start actually with the little spinning drum that you guys can see in the shelf behind me that is actually a toy for Mia. Once they start getting closer to sitting up, they're kind of pushing themselves up off the floor and they're able to lift their arms up high enough to roll the drum. That's a good time to start introducing it. And then of course, once they are actually sitting up, it's even easier for them to use this toy for its intended purpose. And the purpose of that is basically just to roll the drum. It provides a purposeful reason for moving their hand and wrist in that particular motion. And there is a marble inside. So as the drum is rolled, it makes a really delightful loud sound that most children find really attractive and want to keep repeating. The one that I have in this video is actually a glitter drum. So all the little panels have a glittery color on them except for one, which has a mirror. And the mirror has been a constant source of entertainment and motivation for Mia to keep spinning the drum repeatedly because we all know babies love mirrors and she loves to look at herself every time it happens to stop on the mirror panel. So this toy has been a really fun one for her. And it's one that if you've been looking at some of my previous videos, you may have seen it sitting there already for a while. And I anticipate that it's going to stay out for quite a bit longer as well because it's a toy that she comes to every single day. The enjoyment factor is not quite letting up just yet. The next activity is something called a pop-up toy. Now before I purchased this one, I actually thought it was similar to one of the little pounding benches where the little pieces pop up depending on which ones you hit. But it's actually not quite how it works. I was pleasantly surprised myself once we received it and opened it up. Each of the little pegs that's inside of the holes, if you push down on it and let go, it actually springs up very high and suddenly because there is a spring on the inside at the bottom of each peg. So it definitely has a little bit of that surprise factor for a baby who is just learning about cause and effect. If you're introducing this toy between the ages of six and nine months, it's important to realize that your baby is likely not going to fully understand the point of the toy quite yet. That's something that they're going to work up to. But what they can do with the toy is kind of observe and see what's happening as you show them. And they also get to work on their hand-eye coordination and learning how to grab the little pegs accurately out of the holes, probably chew on them a whole bunch. And then eventually as time goes on, they're going to learn how to replace the pegs into the holes. As they get even older, you can work on color recognition and color matching as they learn how to put each of the pegs in the corresponding holes. So this is kind of like a toy that grows with your child if you're introducing it during this age bracket. Another great activity is a wooden ring stacker. Now I've actually repurposed the wooden pole that comes in the middle of the Melissa and Doug stacker for this activity. And as your baby does get a little bit older, they will kind of graduate, if you will, to the little colored rings that come with the toy. But right now at this age, their hand-eye coordination is just developing. So there is absolutely no way they're going to be able to accurately get those little colored donut things onto the pole. So what you can do, and this is what I've done here, is purchase a set of just little wooden craft rings. Usually you'll find them in the macrame department of a craft store. You can also order them online in a pack of 10, which is what I did. But I just pulled the little donuts off of the original toy. I put the wooden rings on only about five of them. And that's basically it. Their first task is, again, not to learn how to stack them up. That comes later. The first thing they need to learn is that they're able to grab the rings and pull them up off of the little peg all by themselves. As you can see in this video, Mia is still very much in her experimentation phase with picking up the entire toy and turning it over and causing the rings to just fall off all at once. She is starting to get the hang of actually grabbing individual rings, or sometimes even two at a time, and she'll pull them off of the pole. And again, it's not very accurate at this stage, but I have literally just introduced this activity to her. So this is something that, again, like the other toy, is going to grow with her as she learns just kind of how to manipulate her hands in just the right way to pull all the rings off and then eventually begin putting them back on. So it's something to continually leave out as long as your child looks like they're interested in it, and you will see their skills start to develop over time. At six to nine months, believe it or not, your baby is ready for their very first introduction to simple puzzles. So there are two types of puzzles that right now I have Mia working on, and the first one is called Egg in Cup. So this is a three-dimensional puzzle. It's just a little wooden egg shape, ovoid, and then a little cup that is perfectly sized for it. And there's really not much to it. The baby just learns that they can pick up the cup and pull the little egg out of it with their hands, and eventually they learn that they can also replace the egg back into the cup accurately without it falling over. Another very simple puzzle that you can introduce at this age is their very first chunky peg puzzle. There are actually single-shape puzzles that are literally just one little piece of wood with one shape with a peg attached to it in it, and you can offer one shape at a time, kind of beginning with the easiest and moving toward the hardest. So you would want to start with a circle. But you could also purchase a puzzle like this one that Mia is working with that just has three circles on it. So the circles are the easiest shape for a baby to learn how to replace in a puzzle when they're first starting out. This one actually has three different sizes, so small, medium, and large. And each of them has the little chunky knobs on it that make it really easy for a baby to grasp. So when you're first introducing this puzzle, again, you're not expecting them to master the puzzle between six and nine months. They are not going to understand how to replace the pieces right away. That's something that they learn over time. But what you do want them working on is understanding that they can reach out, grab ahold of that little chunky knob, and pull it out of the puzzle. And eventually they will learn, like I said, with you modeling and kind of showing them that they can replace the pieces, eventually they pick up on it and they'll learn how to replace the pieces themselves. This puzzle kind of offers a little bit of extra challenge because there are three different sizes that they will have to work out. So this is a puzzle that I am anticipating leaving out for a much longer time as she not only works on putting the pieces back in, but also putting them in the correctly sized hole, as opposed to just a single shape all by itself. Another great and very simple activity for a baby of this age is to introduce their very first musical instruments. Babies at this age are fascinated with cause and effect. So if you give them a simple shaker toy, like a little shaker egg or a small maraca that they can hold, they are very quickly going to figure out all by themselves that if they shake it, it makes noises. And that is exciting to them. And you'll see them doing it over and over and over again, just for the simple act of hearing what happens. And as you guys are aware, I do have both a baby and a toddler who are using these materials. So I do kind of have like a mixed collection of musical instruments in the basket. But that doesn't stop Mia from at least exploring them. She pulls them out. She manipulates them with her hands. She puts them in her mouth and that's great exploration for her. She's learning all about these different instruments, even though she can't quite use them the way that they're supposed to be used yet. But again, modeling is so important. So she sees me using them. She sees her sister using them and eventually she will pick up on how to use them as well. So musical instruments are really fun for babies and this is a perfect time to introduce them. The next toy is one that I've actually already mentioned in one of my previous videos. I think it was my three to six month video. It's called a bell cylinder. And this toy is definitely still very relevant between six and nine months because it actually has a dual purpose. So the first is that it serves kind of like a musical instrument, like we were just saying, it shakes, it makes noises. But once a baby starts crawling, they can start using the bell cylinder for its other intended purpose, which is the fact that it rolls very easily across the floor and it provides a little bit of motivation for them to crawl after it and practice those crawling gross motor skills. Along similar lines is a toy called interlocking discs that I have shown in a previous video as well. And again, these were really good when a baby first starts sitting up for learning about hand to hand transfer, just because of the way that they're shaped. They're perfect for that. So babies can hold it in one hand and then very purposefully switch the toy to the other hand without dropping it. This particular toy moves across the floor in a very interesting kind of wobbly pattern that babies find really interesting. And because it does move a little bit slower than say a ball would, it makes it easier for them to crawl after it and successfully get to the toy. The last activity on my list for six to nine month old babies is a treasure basket. And there are a lot of variations on the types of treasure baskets that you can offer to your baby. Hands down, the simplest one that you can put together is just a little basket of balls. They can be a set of sensory balls, like I've mentioned in my three to six month video. They can just be a simple set of soft fabric balls that maybe you happen to have as part of another toy, or maybe it was gifted to you just by itself as a baby toy. Any type of small, interesting ball that a baby can grab a hold of easily that's not too heavy is perfect for a treasure basket. As they tip the basket over, they may begin crawling after the balls if they are crawling already, or they might just kind of reach out for it if they're on the floor and grab it and mouth it and just, again, it's like a little sensory experience for them. Another really fun type of treasure basket is to offer categories of items from around the house. And one of my personal favorites is to offer kitchen utensils. Of course, ones that are safe for babies to handle that they're not going to hurt themselves on, but a little small basket of just like a whisk, a spatula, a little vegetable scrubber, things that they would find interesting that have different shapes and textures. And if you can find utensils that are smaller in size that are meant for kids to use, that's even better because it makes them just a little bit easier for your baby to handle. Another type of treasure basket that you can offer is one that has a couple of little animal figurines in it, maybe like all farm animals or all jungle animals, kind of just in the same category. And not many of them, no more than four or five, I would say, especially for a young baby. And the great thing about it is that not only with the animal figurines, but also with things like the kitchen utensils or other baskets of things from around the house, these also double not only as like an exploratory sensory experience for them, but it also serves as an introduction to language for them because as they're exploring these objects and they pick something up, you can simply say, that's a wooden spoon or that's a cow. Or you can even just say, spoon or cow, and it gives them the language to describe what it is that they're holding in their own two hands. And even though your baby cannot say these words back to you yet, and likely won't for quite a few more months at least, they are absorbing everything and they're listening to everything that you're saying and kind of storing it away, and it's going to pop out later once they start talking. So the earlier that you can introduce language and proper language at that, not baby names for things, the earlier you can introduce that type of vocabulary to them, the better off their vocabulary development later on is going to be. I have included all of the activities and toys that I showed you in today's video in my Amazon storefront. So if you go into the description box down below, you'll find a link to that storefront and you can find all of the things that you just saw. If you guys have any questions about some of the toys or activities, then please feel free to leave me a comment down below and I'd love to chat with you guys about it. And just in case you are new to my channel, I did want to let you know that this video is part of a larger series called Montessori at Home, which is aimed at providing practical tips and advice for busy parents like you and I, for implementing Montessori philosophies at home with your children. So if that sounds like something that you're interested in learning more about, then you might consider subscribing to my channel. This way you don't miss a new video, because I do upload a new one just like this one every single week. Thanks so much for watching today and I'll see you next time. Bye!