Ball is fun toy for young babies and also provide great activities for toddlers. Small ball provides wonderful means for baby to become aware of movement.
Every ball game you choose to play with your kid will provide lots of fun. Besides that, ball activities for kids are improving gross motor and hand-eye coordination. Waldorf inspired felt ball is wonderful soft toddler toy to learn and experience that movement of rolling.
There are plenty of games to play with ball as your baby grows and here are some ideas.
Reaching the ball is fun baby activity, especially for tummy time. Place a colourful ball in front of the baby and encourage them to reach for the ball.
When your baby begins to crawl it will provide endless game of rolling. Roll the ball slowly within her reach.When she will try to reach ball touching it so it will role a little further, and crawl after again.
As baby gets older sit on the floor facing your baby and roll or throw a soft ball towards him. Holding your baby’s hands, show him how to roll the ball back to you. If you sit knee to knee, or with baby in your lap, he will imitate your actions and learn rhythmic repetition of them. With a little encouragement, soon he will grab the ball and try to roll it back to you.
This is also one of the best toddler activities to start with. Both of you can sit on the ground facing each other with your legs apart and toes touching so the ball can not go out-of-bounds. Roll the ball back and forth to each other.
Involve more children in the game rolling the ball round in a circle. It is a great way to enliven your baby’s awareness of others. It’s not easy to give away the toy, it requires baby’s effort and will. But when he sees the ball coming back to him again he will be satisfied and continue the game.
Sorting game is also one of the games. If you make several balls in different sizes and colours your toddler will get opportunity to learn new skills, like sorting balls by colour, size and counting.
As always I’ll encourage you to full fill playing with a rhyme which will enhanced rhythmic element. The tune of “Row, row, row your boat” is perfect for rolling ball:
Roll, roll, roll your ball
Gently on the ground
Slowly, slowly of you go,
Round, round, round and round.
Happy rolling!
Waldorf inspired felt ball is natural toy made of wool and will ensure hours of fun baby activities. If you missed my last post How to Make Felt Ball you will see how is easy to make one.
Let me know in the comments how did it go and what games did your baby liked the most.
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