Crafts for babies might seem unusual, but here’s the secret, trust me babies are more intelligent than we think. Baby’s brains develop much faster during the first year of life. They can learn and develop new skills from a very young age.
During their first year, babies learn to recognize familiar faces, respond to and understand the world around them and learn to explore through their senses. They learn to differentiate between shapes, colors, and sizes and can even recognize their name. Babies are keen observers, constantly learning and growing from the world around them, which is truly incredible.
Mother’s Love: Providing the Best Start in Life for Babies
Mothers are eager to provide their babies with the best beginning in life to support them in learning and developing new skills. The desire to help a baby learn can be challenging and rewarding, as it requires a lot of hard work, patience, consistency, and willingness to adapt to each child’s unique needs and abilities.
Mothers recognize the importance of early education, and as soon as their babies are old enough, they often introduce them to basic concepts like colors, shapes, numbers, and letters. They often find creative ways to engage babies in learning activities, like making simple crafts and singing nursery rhymes.
Bonding Through Creative Projects
It is best to spend time with your baby in the early years, play with them, talk to them, and read to them. This can take many forms, such as making crafts together, letting them explore different textures and sounds, and providing them with age-appropriate toys and activities that can stimulate their minds and encourage learning.
Crafts for Babies: Ideas to Support Learning and Development
Let me share some crafts for babies ideas and online resources to support the learning and development of your little ones.
- Finger Painting – Mix some non-toxic paint (e.g., it could be a food color) with a bit of water, and let your baby create paintings with their fingers on a sheet of paper.
- Playdough Fun – Create homemade play dough with some flour, salt, water, and food coloring, and provide your baby with cookie cutters to create their own sculptures.
- Sensory Bin Play – Fill a large bin with various materials like rice, beans, pasta, or even water, and let your baby explore and play with the different textures.
- Sensory Bottle – Fill a clear plastic bottle with objects and liquid for your baby to shake and explore. For a stimulating art activity, you can also fill the plastic bottle with water, food coloring, and glitter.
- Stamping – Use household items like potatoes, sponges, or fruit to create stamps, and provide your baby with non-toxic stamp pads to let your baby make their own print on paper.
- Sticker Art – Provide your baby with stickers and a piece of paper, and let them play and place the stickers wherever they like.
- Textured collages – Use materials and textures such as felt, cotton balls, and tissue paper for your baby to feel and explore.
- Non-Toxic Honey Crayons – Honey Crayons are a safe, natural, and non-toxic alternative to traditional crayons. They are especially suitable for babies and young children, as they are made with food-grade ingredients that are safe to digest if accidentally swallowed. They are easy to hold and draw. These crayons are a great choice for young children developing their fine motor skills and learning to color.
- Color Sorting – With colored cereal, you can make them learn color sorting. You can find free cereal color sorting mat in my printable.
- High Chair Activities – High chairs are an excellent place for babies to play, eat and learn. Let them have some messy fun on the high chair, and give your baby some soft foods they can pick up and explore with their hands, such as mashed avocado or cooked peas. It can encourage your baby to explore the different items with hands and mouth.
- Colored Ice Cubes – Colored ice cube activities are a fun and educational way for babies to learn about colors and textures. Place a sheet of paper on a flat surface and give your baby some ice cubes dyed with food coloring.
Encourage them to use the ice cubes to paint on the paper. The colors will mix and blend as the ice cube melts, keeping your baby entertained and engaged.
- Mess-free paints in a plastic bag – Mess-free paints in a zip lock bag are an excellent way for babies and toddlers to explore and create with paints without mess and cleanup.
You can pour different colored paints, seal the zip lock bag, and encourage your child to squish and mix the paint inside the bag to create different effects.
- Mess-free coloring books – There are watercolor mess-free books in the market, which I loved for my kids. I really like The Melissa & Doug On The Go Water Wow. It is a reusable coloring activity pad designed especially for little children.
They are available in different themes like animals, letters, dinosaurs, vehicles, etc. It is excellent for babies and toddlers for their fine motor skills. The pages can be used repeatedly, as the ink disappears once it dries. Click Here for a more idea.
Always supervise your baby during art and craft activities and use non-toxic materials to ensure their safety.
“Babies are quite clever,” says Hirsh-Pasek, the author of almost a dozen books on child development, including the award-winning Einstein Never Used Flash Cards.
Indeed, this is a crucial time when babies are developing motor skills, learning to crawl, and starting to stand up. Raise smart and intelligent babies by providing love, support, and a secure environment in which they can learn and explore every day.
Click below to Grab your Free Crafts for Babies: Cereal Color Sorting Sheet
Have fun and be creative!