Beach Ball Fun for your Baby

As we have been using beach balls at class this week, and
inspired by a mum’s at one session who told us that the beach ball was the best
play thing she had bought for her daughter, I thought I would share with you
some of the ways this simple, inexpensive item can be used to help boost your
baby’s development, as well as providing hours of entertainment!

Tummy Time Fun on the Beach Ball

I’m sure it goes without saying but do take care to always hold your baby securely when doing any of the following activities on the ball.

Massage and Relaxation

• Lie baby on his or her back over the ball with
  it partially deflated.
• Bring baby’s arms above the head and stretch out
  the spine.
• Gently bounce baby on the ball, move the arms
  and legs up and down, and side to side.
• Hold baby’s hands and pull up a few centimetres,
  then release. Do this slowly and gently, supporting the head if needed.
• Gently massage baby’s hands, feet and face if
  they enjoy it. You can also place baby over the ball on his or her tummy and
  massage the back.

Tummy Time

• Lie baby over the ball on his or her tummy.
• Encourage baby to keep their head lifted as you
  rock the ball forwards and back, and side to side. This helps to strengthen the
  neck and back muscles and improve head control.
• Rock baby all the way forward until his or her
  hands touch the floor. Place a toy in front for baby to reach out for and pick
  up.
• For older babies, encourage them to put weight
  on their hands, and build up to forwards hand walking, letting the body roll
  forwards on the ball.

Balance

• Sit baby on top of the ball, and holding them
  securely, rock the ball in different directions. This will help to strengthen
  baby’s core muscles as they naturally move to regain balance.
• Hold baby’s hands and gently move them forwards
  and back a few times, then pull further forwards until their feet touch the
  floor. Let them take their weight on their legs as you pull them up to
  standing.
• Sit with your baby and give them the ball to
  play with as they wish. You may want to show them how to roll the ball, and how
  to shake it or bounce it, and if it is made from clear plastic like the ones we
  use at the play sessions, how to look through it to see you on the other side.

For more activities like these to stimulate the development of your baby’s body,
brain and all their senses, sign up for our free weekly Tots Play Bulletin at www.totsplay.co.uk, or even better, come
and join us at a class very soon.

A New Routine

I love the holidays, waking when I want to not when the
alarm says and having the freedom to just see what the day brings. Often
though, I find that if I don’t have a plan for the day it can just slip away
with a feeling of not having done very much at all, which for me is not such a
great feeling.

So now September is here and I am back into my “work”
routine, which as well as my lovely classes includes school runs, taxi service
to various after school activities and all those other numerous things needed
to keep the family running, I find myself feeling more settled, more focused
and more relaxed because I know better what to expect each day.

It’s well documented that our little ones too benefit from
familiar routines and activities.  They
help them to feel secure in their world, giving them the confidence to explore
and discover new things, because they know the familiar things, like mummy and
their favourite teddy, are there if they need them. But what about parents and
particularly new parents?

When I was at home with my daughter when she was small I
always liked to have something planned for each day. I disliked facing each
morning with that “what shall we do today” feeling (once in a while is fine, but
not every day!). It can be quite a transition from working full time and having
the day planned out for you to having numerous empty hours stretching ahead with
just a newborn for company, so I needed some routine.

Sometimes our plan was simply a coffee with a friend, but I
also liked to have something planned for my daughter too, and we did a whole
range of regular activities and outings together. Not only was it nice to get
out and meet people do different things, but I also feel that we both benefitted
from having that focused time for and with each other and that things that we
did were also helping to boost her development.

Even at a very young age she would recognize a familiar place
where we did a regular class, and I am sure that the recognition and familiarity
of some of our routines helped her to enjoy and get more out of the activity
than she would otherwise have done.

Running Tots Play now, I love to see that same look of
recognition and excitement on the faces of many of the children who come along
each week. I am always amazed at how quickly the older babies and toddlers
start to join in with the warm up activities that they come to know because we
do them the same way at each class, and love the pride they have in themselves
at what they are accomplishing.

But the benefits are not just for the children. At the start
of each of our Baby Development courses, when asked to tell the group why they
have come along to the classes, getting out of the house is always one of the
answers that our new mums give, and even those parents with slightly older ones
tell me that one of the reasons they look forward to their weekly class is that
they know it will get them out and enjoying time with their child.

So leaving aside the benefits gained from the activities
themselves, I hope that Tots Play, and other classes like it can help those who,
like me, need a bit of routine when their world has, in all other ways, just
been turned upside down with the arrival of a new little one. See you same time
next week!