Even during ‘normal’ times, it can be difficult to know what to do to entertain your baby at home, especially if they are in a grisly mood! With many of our social opportunities such as playgroups still closed and an increase in lockdown measures again, what can you do with your baby at home? Here are six ways that you can enjoy time together AND develop your baby at the same time.

Play music

Babies love music and it can also be very good for you, the parent, to have some favourite songs on in the background too. Whatever your chosen musical genre, pop on some tunes and why not grab some shakers, bells or even baby-safe pots and pans to make some noise together! Open the Kindermusik App and chose some favourite children’s songs to play long with – if you are a regular Kindermusik family, you will have albums and albums of music to choose from at Kindermusik Online. For tiny babies, you can tap all over their body with a shaker or just your hand. For older babies, why not encourage some turn taking by swapping instruments or toys

Dance together

As well as playing instruments, why not get up and dance? Dancing releases those feel good hormones and has many benefits for your baby. Moving them up, down, left, right and round and round can stimulate our baby’s vestibular system, a sensory system that wakes up the brain and provides it with information about motion and our orientation in the space around us. Located in the inner ear, the vestibular system also helps your baby to balance, stabilise their head and maintain posture; all necessary skills for sitting, crawling and, eventually walking!

Lap bounce

All babies (and toddlers!) love a lap bounce! Pop your baby on your knee facing you and sing a favourite song together, bouncing to the rhythm as you go. After a few simple renditions, why not add some variations. Maybe you could sing it slowly – watch their reaction as they make sense of the new tempo. Then sing it quickly to get some giggles and smiles. Here are some other ideas:

• Sway left and right instead of bouncing
• Row forwards and backwards
• Match the ups and down of the melody with physical ups and downs e.g. Hot (up), Cross (down), Buns (up).
• Add an element of surprise e.g. Humpty Dumpty fall over at the end.

Challenge the senses

Find some interesting materials and create a treasure box for your baby to explore. Hunt around your home to find different fabrics or materials (wooden spoons, large stones or ribbons) for your baby to enjoy. Assume that they will naturally mouth everything they touch so do make sure items are big enough not to choke on and always stay with them while they explore, name what they are playing with and boosting their receptive language. For small items such as beads or sand, why not create some simple sensory bottles for them to shake and look at safely. Check out our previous blog post for more ideas.

Peekaboo is an age-old favourite! You can do it simply with your hands or find a scarf or piece of fabric to hide you or your baby under. Take turns to find each other or hide a favourite toy. You can even Peekaboo (and many of the other activities listed here) on Zoom or Skype with a grandparent! Explore more peekaboo ideas and a FREE song download here.

Read to your baby

Whatever their age, your child will benefit hugely from being read to. In the early days, babies will develop their vision by focusing on bold pictures whilst also learning to discriminate your voice from the other sounds around them. As they get older, they will develop fine motor control to turn pages and start to make sounds that will later try to speak. Find out more about literacy and reading with you baby in our blog post.

We do all of the above, and more, during our Kindermusik sessions so why not join us on Zoom to gain even more ideas, listen to a variety of music and enjoy some online socialisation!

How important is music for a newborn’s brain development?

When we first become parents to a newborn the early weeks and months can sometimes feel a bit challenging. After those initial days when visitors have been and gone you are often faced with the prospect of entertaining your newborn baby. They may stare at you, look away and, just when you think they are responding, you find out it is just wind! Your precious newborn is, however, a tiny human being with a lot going on inside their heads!

Brain development for newborns

You may be surprised to find that when a baby is born, they are equipped with all the brain cells they will need for life! These cells however need to be connected by neural connections or pathways to work properly together (First things first, 2020).

Early brain development in a newborn could be likened to a dot to dot drawing: on their own brain cells look like dots on a page but when linked together the true picture appears. So like a dot to dot picture, for the brain cells in a baby to join together the neural connections need to be formed so that the brain can function properly – that is where we can help in a newborn’s brain development.

How can you help your newborn’s brain development?

This can feel like a huge responsibility, but you have already been doing this without even realising it. From the moment your baby is born you have been helping their brain development. When your little one cried and you picked him/her up in your arms, speaking in a gentle voice, you helped your baby’s brain make a pathway to connect their brain cells. When they lay on their baby mat and you chat to your newborn you are helping their brain to strengthen that brain development. Whenever you interact with your little one and respond to their needs you are helping them to quite literally build their brain!

Our baby music classes also help with brain development in your child – through specific learning focus designed to develop your baby’s physical and mental abilities through music.

Newborn music classes

Kindermusik baby classes offer a unique change for bonding and communicating with your newborn. Through instrument play, dance, exploration time, and together time our music classes help your child’s brain development.

In the scientific world the first 5 years of a child’s life are considered a crucial period for this brain development to happen (Harvard University, 2020). We are only too aware of this as Kindermusik educators and know that the more interactions we have with our little ones the more brain cell connections will be formed.

Brain development through music

Our instrument play alongs are designed to develop fine motor skills in your newborn. We might observe your little one banging their egg shakers on their knees and say something like “Look at how Bobby is playing the egg shakers on his knees shall we see how that feels?”. This interaction strengthens your child’s brain development and the brain cell connections already being formed by giving him positive encouragement in a nurturing environment.

Our baby music classes can also encourage the development of new brain connections. The home activities available through Kindermusik Online help encourage the different areas of the brain to develop through music. To find out more about our newborn music classes click here.

Enjoy music with your baby and next time you are singing a lullaby remember that by sharing a musical connection with your newborn you are helping your baby’s brain development. How amazing is that?!

References

First things first accessed on 27/07/20

Harvard University Centre on the developing child accessed on 02/08/20