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cooking Don't cook twice. Experiment with giving baby the same meal you eat but...puree it in the food processor. I found that you can puree many meals and use them as sauces over small alphabet pasta or orzo noodles. It may seem gross but it tastes a lot better than baby food in a jar. Safety Tip: Make certain there are no bones or anything spicy in these shared meals.

play & learn 6-9 months

These recommended activities can be done daily with your baby. Make sure to be sensitive to your baby’s cues. At this age, baby still has a short attention span. If they aren’t enjoying the activity, or if they are crying, it is important to attend to his or her needs. Once baby is calm, you can try again later!

1. make a book
Developmental benefits: Visual stimulation; Social bonding; Language

or

click on image to print (PDF)

Instructions: Babies at this age are engaged by bold, colorful images. Print these adorable story images on your color printer and place them in a photo album. This one has been developed for a night-night story. Some of the pages have been created to place next to family photos, so baby gets a special book with her own family members. Two sizes are available: 8.5x11 and 4x6. Baby will love to share time reading this special book with you.

Safety Tip: Cards should be handled by adults only. Print-outs from your computer are not baby-proof!

2. finger puppets
Developmental benefits: Bonding

click on image to print (PDF)

Instructions: Print out the finger puppets provided. Cut along the dotted lines and wrap them around your fingers with a piece of tape. Use them to make up stories or sing songs. This set features farm animals, great for singing the classic "Old MacDonald had a Farm."

Safety Tip: Puppets should be handled by adults only. Print-outs from your computer are not baby-proof!

3. food painting
Developmental benefits: Tactile stimulation

Instructions: Let baby make a mess... Plan a food painting session where baby can really get dirty and feel those textures. Use jarred baby food--prunes and carrots are great. Place a dollop of each on baby's high chair tray and let her “go to town.” It’s finger-painting that baby can eat!

4. music time
Developmental benefits: Rhythm; Cause and effect

Instructions: Fill a small Tupperware container with dried beans. Close and seal securely with strong tape such as duct tape. Let baby use this as a special shaking toy. If the Tupperware is clear, baby can see the beans making the sound and understand the cause and effect relationship. Get creative with items to put in the container to make different sounds.

Safety Tip: Never allow baby to play with this unsupervised.

5. rhythm time
Developmental benefits: Language acquisition

Instructions: Babies are fascinated with rhymes at this age. Here are a few. Sit with baby on your knees facing you and recite:

To market to market to buy a fat pig;
Home again, home again, jiggity jig;
To market to market, to buy a fat hog;
Home again, home again, jiggity jog.
To market to market to buy a new gown;
Home again, home again—
Whoops! The horse fell down! (here, let baby slide down your legs)

Here’s another one:
Father, Mother and Uncle John;
Rode to the doctor, one by one;
Father fell off; (slide baby to the side)
Mother fell off; (slide baby to the other side)
And Uncle John rode on and on,
And on and on and on!

Safety Tip: Remember to hold on to baby and be gentle! Never shake baby.