Little Pals Preschool and Child Care

These 3 months are very exciting - it's during this time when most babies are compelled by their natural curiousity to go from scooting to crawling to wanting to stand. What they can see, that's out of their reach, is definitely what they want! Baby proofing your home is important, especailly now. Babies will fearlessly explore their environment. While accidents can happen at any time, it is absolutely imperative that you keep your little one under constant supervision, or in a protected space, such as a play pen.

At this time in their development, babies are more active participants with the games they play.  Try these, with your own variations.

Pat-A-Cake

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man, bake me a cake as fast as you can.

You can simply clap your baby's hands together during this verse.

Roll it and pat it and mark it with a B.

With these words, take your baby's hands and roll them over each other, then make a patting motion and finally, with one hand, make the capital letter B.

Put it in the oven for baby and me.

Pretend, using your baby's hands, that you're putting a cake pan in an oven.

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man. Bake me a cake as fast as you can!

During this last line I usually clap and exclaim YES!

The Itsy-Bitsy Spider

The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.

While saying this line, use your fingers to make a connected motion of climbing a tall pole.

Down came the rain and washed the spider out.

Make the motion of rain falling with your arms up and fingers wiggling as your arms move downward; then move your arms back and forth, in front of you, to signal the spider was washed out.

Up came the sun and dried up all the rain.

With a smile on your face, use your arms to make a large half circle motion, as the sun coming up; then make the reverse motion of the falling rain, by starting with your arms low, fingers wiggling, and move your arms upward, showing the rain drying up.

And the itsy bitsy spider came out to play again.

Move your fingers in a continued motion, as you did during the first line.

Remember to talk to your baby, about everyday things. If your child is in a high chair and you're preparing her/his meal, tell her/him what you're doing, such as opening the refrigerator, taking out a bowl and spoon, mixing oatmeal with fruit juice, etc. Keep up the chatter, pausing to allow your baby time to "respond" to what they hear by babbling at you.  Watch for the ways babies pause for your reply to what they "tell" you.

After the meal, when your little one seems to be wearing almost as much on her/his face as s/he ate, and you want to wash her/his face, you can sing a song, such as Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, but changing the words to something like, Here we clean up the messy face, messy face, messy face. Here we clean up the messy face, after eating lunch (or breakfast or dinner, or use different words such as food, peas, or whatever works!

Babies are learning at an incredible speed during their first 3 years of life. Make each opportunity count.  It pains me when I notice a parent with a little one, and the parent says nothing. Even when the child initiates the babbling or talking, I've seen parents who are too preoccupied to respond.

I know it's difficult to always tune into your child. However, if you only respond to your child when they are noisy or when they do things you don't want them to do, you are teaching them something you may not want them to be taught.  That is, the way to get attention is by doing what gets them yelled at. I've shared this truth with many parents: a child's need for attention and interaction with her/his parent(s) is so strong, they will deliberately do what they know will illecit a negative response, in order to get any response at all.

When a parent understands this, they can then change their previous habits and begin paying attention when their baby is doing what they want. For example, I asked one parent if her 7 month old daughter ever had any quiet time,  playing by herself (watching her hands or feet, babbling to herself, etc.).  She said yes.  I asked if she or her husband ever paid attention to the little one at those times. (Keep in mind this young couple lived with the husband's parents.) She said NO, because her mother-in-law told both mom and dad to leave the baby alone during those times. Her reasoning went this way: she wasn't bothering anyone, so they should pay no attention to her. The mother-in-law also was the first one to pick up this child every single time she cried, or even hinted at crying.

I gently explained to the mom that the adults in the family had successfully trained this little one to expect to be picked up each and every time she cried. Their behavior also taught her something else: when she played quietly, by herself, she would never get any attention. This parent "got it" almost immediately. She told me it made complete sense but she hadn't read about this approach in any magazines.