8 simple ways to make everyday jobs into precious learning moments for your baby’s development.
What is it about being a new parent that just eats time?! It seems that babies are BRILLIANT at making the day super long and super short all at the same time. And for a tiny thing that can’t move, boy do they make a mess - and you only ever seem to have one hand free to sort it out!
I get it! So, I’m here to help take one thing away from you: the need to have designated playtime with your baby. Don’t worry - you can make those special moments part of the everyday things that you do, you just need to know how!
Turn a cooking moment into a chance to introduce maths, language and fine motor development.
Below are my 8 simple ways to make those everyday moments into precious learning moments.
1. Use the jobs around the house as learning moments.
Your baby has no idea if they are playing with a super expensive toy or a bit of kitchen equipment. There’s a huge number of things you can do with your baby using the things you have around that can easily be used to create learning moments when you know how! So, as you cook, why not give your baby a pot and spoon to play with? Ask them about their cooking. As you do the laundry, let them play with the clothes and feel the fabric.
When you are in the garden, let them have the hose and water the plants (you might want to make sure that only a small amount of water is coming out so you don’t get too wet when they point the hose at you!). When you are cleaning the house, give your baby a duster and get them to clean the floor. Chat as you do; you’ll be building your baby’s language skills and building their brain in so many other ways too!
2. Make each moment matter.
Even if you are just changing a nappy, it can be an amazing time for connection and development.
Your baby is seeking you out to connect, so make sure you take the time to connect with them. Watch their eyes, see where they are focused and talk about what they are interested in. As you change their nappy, tell them what you are doing and why. The more you chat, the better your baby will learn. Don’t forget to leave space in the conversation for their response - responding to them appropriately is how you build their brain and make these tiny moments matter.
3. Get into a routine to check the Oliiki app each day and plan one focused activity with your baby.
Really focus on them during that time. You’ll find it so rewarding and you’ll learn so much, like Shubhi, who, when she really started to look, realised quite how much her baby was wanting to watch, observe, focus and learn. This discovery made her feel so much more confident about what she was doing. She realised with the help of the Oliiki app, she was able to give her baby age-specific activities and she was able to really support her development through the way she played and talked to her baby. “The activities from the Oliiki app are something to look forward to, because there is a task every day, and they are easy things to do. After each task, the reactions my little one showed is AMAZING, she loves it! The Oliiki app keeps me busy and happy as well; it brings me sunshine!”
Another Oliiki parent, Sophie, found that because the Oliiki app showed her what her baby was learning in each activity she was more focused in on that learning even after the activity had finished. She brought the learning into other things she was doing throughout the day which helped her baby develop more!
“If an Oliiki activity is about the senses, when we play, I am more attuned to the senses for the rest of the day. So the learning doesn’t stop when the activity stops, I‘m more aware of it for the rest of the day, there’s also a growing general awareness that kind of carries on afterwards! I can see I am learning as my baby learns”
4. Use craft time to make homemade gifts and cards with your toddler.
Keep creations and drawings stashed in a drawer, and bring them out when you need an unexpected or forgotten card or gift. Grandparents will love it, godparents will be delighted and you will have saved a fortune and not have had to do that last-minute panic buy!
5. Make walking to the shops a chance to count, collect, chat and comment for your toddler.
Count your steps, count the ducks, count the cars, count the windows in a shop, count the busses, count the streetlights, count the cats that you see along the way. If you find them losing interest, change what you count.
See if you can remember the things that you were counting along the way and make a book when you get home. Get your child to draw simple pictures of the things you counted (or cut the pictures out of a magazine) and stick them on paper. Now, write on the page, ‘4 ducks’ (or however many things you happened to see) in clear, bold, writing. Add 4 dots, and write the number 4.
Do the same for the other things you found along the way. Staple the book together, make a cup of tea and settle down in your story corner and enjoy the book you wrote together! Celebrate being authors!
6. Questions, questions, questions!
Comment on what you see, smell and hear. ‘Look at all the red cars! Look at the catkins, leaves or flowers - they’re coming out on the trees, can you see them? What colour are they? Have you noticed all the cats we’ve seen today are black?! What a noise the car horns are making! Can you smell the bread in the bakery? Questions are a brilliant way to initiate conversation, but also a fabulous way for you to notice what your child is interested in.
7. If you have a cat or a dog, or you encounter one while on a walk, chat about it.
What does the cat say? How do they feel when you touch them? What do you think they want when they rub up against you? Ask your child what he thinks the cat is saying as they meow. ‘I wonder where the cat is going now? Do you think he is going home for his tea too? What do you think he will have for his tea? Think senses here, what do they sound like, feel like, look like (probably not taste like though you could taste a blackberry and talk about them instead!) smell like etc.
8. Collect things you find along the way.
Collect the little shiny stones, the acorns, the leaves that you find. Put them in a bag and make them into a collage of your walk when you come home. Talk about your walk as you stick them on.
Or, make a crayon rubbing of the things that you found. Talk about the textures and the shapes that they make. Discuss where you found them and what you saw. See if you can recall the whole walk together. Can your toddler tell you which you saw first and where you found it? This is helping your baby’s development in so many ways - sequencing, recall, language development, creativity, gross and fine motor control, etc. It’s not just a way to fill half an hour. When you understand why you are doing each activity you see the learning that it’s providing your child. This means you do more of it, which helps your baby have more experience in doing things which helps to strengthen their brain connections and helps them to develop to their full potential. Clever, isn’t it?!
The Oliiki app helps you with a programme of everyday activities like the ones above. It shows you what to do, WHY you’re doing it, how to do it and the research behind the activity. It gives you daily age-appropriate activities for your bump, baby or toddler right from the first day of conception right through until your baby is two.
The more you understand what your baby is gaining from the activities the more confident you become and the more you know you’re doing the very best for your baby and that’s an amazing feeling!
Download the Oliiki app from the app store and give our 7-day free trial a go!
