Ten ways to entertain your one year old

Minnie is at such a lovely age now. At one she is suddenly interested in a lot more things and really likes to interact. Her little personality is coming out and it’s so lovely to see. This does however mean that some of my tried and tested techniques to occupy her are getting old. So, I've packed away the baby toys and started a whole new set of activities with her.

I’ve grouped these more into activities and put some examples of how you can carry them out within the description for each. I am also conscious that many of us Mum’s need our spare pennies to dress our little bears up to the nines and to save for the future, so I have tried to be as cost effective as possible with my suggestions here.

Please do try some out and let me know what else you use to entertain your one year old

1. Messy play

Now, this is pretty easy to do at home. I fill up a small paddling pool or bowl with flour and give her some spoons and sieves and she's content for hours (mind to keep the flour for next time). You can use lots of different things, and if you do it in the kitchen you can clean up pretty easily. Other suggestions are:

Water

Jelly

Shredded paper

Pasta and rice

Salt dough to squidge

If you've decided messy play at home isn't fr you, head down to your local family centre. Many of them have 'Play and learn' sessions which include messy play. Plus you're socialising your little one at the same time.

2. Role play

Minnie loves nothing more than copying me at the moment. We're very lucky and for her birthday she was bought a little tea set and pretend biscuits. She loves sitting down with her dolls and stuffed toys pretending to drink a cup of tea, or feeding it to them on a spoon (and sometimes Mummy gets to share some too :-S).

However, if you've not got the specific toys it really doesn't matter. They will just as happily play with normal spoons from the kitchen, pretend their stacking cups are mugs and so forth. Just give them a chance to imitate your behaviours.

3. Reading

We have a bedtime story as part of our routine, but I can sometimes get stuck in confining it to bedtime. It's great to read in the day too so that your baby can interact with the book. Take the time to explain the different elements of the pictures to them and see how quickly they pick up certain words.

4. Drawing and painting

I won't lie to you here, painting is a bit messy just now, but you might be braver than I am! However Minnie does love a pen so when we have some free time I either get out her blackboard and chalks, or a big roll of paper that I got from Wilkos, and give her her crayons to scribble away. She really prefers to have one of my pen's so if I'm able to watch her very closely I'll let her have a good old doodle with that too.

5. Swimming

You're probably aware that babies are only born with a fear of loud noises and falling. Everything else is learned. I therefore think it's important to expose your baby to as many different situations as possible. I go to weekly swimming classes, but you can just take a ball down to your local pool, or even the sea when it's warm enough, to ensure your baby doesn't develop any water related anxiety. 

At our lessons we learn a lot about safety, so teaching the baby to hold on to the edge of the pool. We also practice submersions.

6. The park

This is a pretty obvious one, but we're almost all pretty close to a park and perhaps we don't make the most of it. There's so much to be done at the park, flower picking, playing on the playground, having a little picnic, crawling/toddling about getting grass stained and so much more. Being outdoors is so good for our little ones, let's make the most of it.

7. Singing and dancing

Your baby has probably started to show a little bit of rhythm by now so encourage them to have a boogie by having music about whenever you can. We try to have to radio on instead of the television whenever we can. 

You can also spend time doing interactive songs with your baby, think 'heads, shoulders knees and toes' or 'row, row, row your boat'. If this is a little embarrassing or not up your street head along to a rhyme time session. They probably have them at your local library for free.

8. People

Your baby will be engaged with other people now. They probably have their favourites, but it does them good to see lots of different people of lots of different ages. This enables them to develop their social side, which will be useful later in life.

9. Chasing/rough and tumble

Little moo bag is a bit of a tomboy. She loves to be thrown on the sofa or chucked up in the air. The only way to really make her laugh is to pretend she's a gun and 'shoot' her brother with her (I'm wondering if I'm a bad parent now!). 

She also loves to be chased around the house, she'll crawl a little bit , stop to check you're following her, then shoot off squealing with delight.

You can even take them along to a soft play centre, as they're likely to get lots more out of that now.

10.  Animals

I'm convinced My daughter is going to be a vet. Her first proper word was woof, and she also says Cat very clearly. Basically she loves animals and wants to stroke and touch them all the time. Now, you can go to a farm or local country centre and pay a small fee to get in if you want, but my friend and I often take the girls to the local garden centre and they can simply have a look at the rabbits, mice, birds and fish that they sell there - plus it's free, which leaves you enough change to stop for a hot chocolate.

(Bonus) Eating

I've got a sneaky bonus for you. Eating can actually be fun with your little one. Don't get stressed about what they're eating or how much, but fill some different pots with lots of different bite sized food. They love picking through what they like and what they're still getting used to. And remember, just because your baby doesn't like something this time, don't take it off their menu. Some things you have to present to your baby numerous times before they will try it, and some things they have to try at least 17 times before they will like it. Perseverance is key.

As I mentioned, please let me know if you have any other nifty ideas for me to try with my little bear.

Love Lucy x