Selecting Activities…
If you are looking to enrich your young child and have fun at the same time, you are in the exact right place. Here you will find a wide variety of activities for birth to three-years-old in all five areas of development:
1. Cognitive (learning)
2. Motor (action)
3. Social (personality & character)
4. Language (speaking & listening)
5. Self-esteem (belief in oneself)
The whole book has 200 activities arranged as a unique play-and-learn system.
Our on-line version will give you an activity a week. Each one will be from a specific part of the birth to three-years-old age range, enhance a particular area of development, and reference the milestones it fosters. The activities will begin with a few from the birth to three months grouping and then go up gradually from there.
The Play Begins…
Newborn babies love to look at faces, and your face is the most interesting of all. The cradle position brings about this connection naturally.
Activity 1
Rock-a-Bye-Baby
Age Range: Birth to Three Months
Area Being Developed: Cognitive (Learning)
Get in a comfortable cradle position with your baby. Make eye contact. Then have fun as you rock your baby to the following words. As you sing and rock, move your baby with the motions as marked.
Rock-a-bye-baby in the tree top. (Gently rock your baby.)
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock. (Gently rock your baby.)
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall, (Gently lower your baby.)
And down will come baby, cradle and all. (Gently lower your baby and bring back.)
RELATED MILESTONES OF DEVELOPMENT
* Responds to sound and touch
* Looks at faces, patterns, and objects
* Explores surroundings
* Follows objects or people with eyes
* Cuddles when held
* Responds to voices
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Alternative viewpoint from Shara (Mommy Perks):
My own children found this song to be a little upsetting. We modified the ending: “When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall, and we’ll catch the baby, cradle and all.” If you find some nursery rhymes to be upsetting for your kids, simply change the lyrics! They will continue to enjoy the rhyming format, singing and bonding.
Example: My eldest son (now age 12) cried when I recited Humpty Dumpty. I had to modify the ending: “All the kings horses and all the kings men worked to put Humpty together again!” He then loved the rhyme and enjoyed reciting it with me.
Do what works best for your family and children!
I was never much of a nursery rhyme person when my boys were infants. We sang a lot of songs, made up – silly songs that were nonsensical (?) but with many actions. To this day, they still get a kick out of making up songs and actions!
I think engaging an infants with your face and gentle actions are always the best way to go, even if you have to make up your own music!
For my children I sang mostly songs in French as they are the ones I had learned as a child. I discovered how different they were from English ones when my children started singing songs they learned in school. Some nursery rhymes are somewhat disturbing if you understand their meaning (even in French) and I do think it is up to the parent to make them fun. We started making up songs when we couldn’t decide whether to sing in French or in English and to this day we still make up silly songs 🙂
I’ve done nursery rhymes both ways, sung rock a bye baby both the original way and the other way just to see if Amber would care or notice the difference, nope she doesn’t! I think a lot of it has to do with your reaction to it and how you say/approach it. If you think about it the nursery rhymes are all a little strange. My brother and I were just discussing that “Ring around the rosies” was derived from the time of the bubonic plague and the children dancing around the bonfires of the dead…..LOL! All just a matter of perspective I suppose!!!!
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About the rhymes, your own way is the right way. Connecting is it! Here is a great tip: the R, S & T of parenting… Read, sing, and talk to your child as much as you can. Enjoy!
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