Let’s Play Together: Your One-Year Old

Once your baby has hit twelve months the possibilities can be endless to what you can do with them. Twelve-month old babies are a bundle of joy to have around because they are simply delighted by everything around them. Twelve-month old babies are always ready to explore new things, but they are also always ready to play and experiment with things. One thing that you might start noticing with your twelve-month old is that they are becoming more independent, so when playing with your baby what you can do is allow them to explore by themselves. Just because they are becoming independent doesn’t mean that you should no longer play with them; you will still need to take the time out of your day to sit down and play old and new games with your baby.

Something new that you can teach your baby is how to roll toys down hills. Of course, if you do not have a hill inside your house or your yard you are going to need to make one. To make a hill inside the house you can fold a piece of cardboard to make the hill or you can set a piece of cardboard up against the house. Once you have created the hill place the toy on the top of the hill and let it roll down.

Another great toy that you and your baby can play with together is blocks. Blocks are a great toy because they have so many different uses. You can use blocks to build towers; you can take turns building them, but the fun part of block towers is knocking them over. Once you have built the tower, allow your baby to knock it over and have your baby build the next one. You can also use blocks as a stacking toy; if you have different sized blocks, allow your baby to explore with them to see what blocks will stack on top of others and what ones won’t work that way.

Sand play is also fun for twelve-month olds. You can build a sandbox in the backyard and allow her to use some of your kitchen gadgets to play in the sand with. One of the best sandbox toys is a soup strainer because of how easy it is for your baby to manipulate; your baby can also experiment with it and watch the sand pour out from different heights. Another great outdoor activity for you and your twelve-month old baby to do is play with your shadows. You will need to show your baby what their shadow is; once you have done that, show your baby how your shadow mimics what you do and how you can’t catch your own shadow.

One thing that you need to remember is that your twelve-month old is going to learn a lot from older children. If your child does not have any older siblings, try to make time for her to spend time with older cousins or neighbor children. Playing with older children will help her develop the social skills that she needs in life, but it can also help her to expand her vocabulary. When playing with the older children she will learn by mimicking what they do, such as climbing steps or jumping rope. You can also give her and the older kids the items that they need to play pretend, such as house or store. By playing pretend, your baby will learn about different roles people in families have, but they will also be able to work on their language development because they will begin babbling as they play or talk on the phone.