Baby toys for development and learning need to be simple! Infants learn really quickly about the new environment around them, but their motor skill and sensory skills are still not fully developed, and that’s the reason why parents’ guidance is so important in this stage.
By offering them different fine motor and sensory activities, parents can help their little ones to explore and discover the new world around them and develop so many new skills on their own. In order to develop these skills babies can get practice through toys first. There are plenty of baby toys and activities that you can choose to encourage the learning process and stimulate all of their sensory systems.
According to the American Montessori Society, “children have a chance to enjoy what they have when there is less of it around. When you tuck away 30%–50% of most children’s toys (in a closet, garage, or other storage system), you may find they actually become more interested in what is on their shelves. This leads to longer periods of concentration, easier cleanup, greater independence, and less tension among family members about messy spaces. Think about quality rather than quantity.”
3 Classic Baby Toys From hahaland® For Development And Learning
Sensory Balls For 3-4 month olds
Emphasis of development at this stage: Ability to grab and chew, cognition of color
Grabbing, although it is a simple action, can help your little one to practice their small muscles and build up their fine motor skill. These sensory balls are perfect for 3-4 month old babies once they can start to grab things using their hands.
In this way, their grip strength can be developed and improved. This process can help develop their hand-eye coordination when the baby brings a ball to their mouth.
These balls are made of silicone, which is soft and easy to hold for babies. As we all know, babies of this age can’t control their muscles completely and they may knock themselves with anything in their hands. Toys made of wood or hard plastic will hurt more than these silicone ones.
Additionally, toys with different textures on them can heighten your baby’s interest and make them focus on what they feel with their fingertips.
Mouthing, actuated by the need of teething, or in other words, oral sensory seeking, is an action that basically every baby will do.
A proper toy at this stage is essential for the health of their gums. As they mouth the hahaland® sensory balls, they will make squeaky noises that attract your baby’s attention. Parents can take a ball and squeeze it to see if the baby can follow the sound and turn their head.
Colors can be recognized by babies when they are around 3 months old. During this stage, parents support this development by giving their child colorful toys to help them develop their perception of color and shape. Bright, happy and cheerful colors can provide more fun to the process of concentration and observation.
You can also use the sensory balls to gently rub your baby’s muscles to help them relax. It’s really must have baby toy!
Cloth Books For 5-6 Month Olds
Emphasis of development at this stage: fine motor skills, touching and listening, cognition
Playing with these books will help with the development of the small muscles of babies hands such as turning pages, rubbing pages, moving the little objects in the book, etc. At the same time, your little one can concentrate on what they’re playing with.
Each book has 20 different textured animal tails perfect for sensory exploration. At this age, babies will still bring toys into their mouths and chew on them. Toys without small loose parts can make their play time safer and prevent any possibility of choking. Taking hygiene into consideration, parents can wash these books before and after babies use them. Because this toy is basically made of cloth, it makes the cleaning much easier.
Toys that only make sounds when babies play with them are much better than those that play music by themselves. It is an opinion agreed by Dr. Maria Montessori. Continuous sound or music may distract your baby and make them pay less attention when they hear something.
These books include squeaky balls embedded in the cloth that your baby can play with. And the pages also make rustling sounds when they ares rubbed. This touch and listen process will be great for auditory stimulation.
It’s never too early to start learning, and 5-6 months can be a perfect time. These book contain many colorful and cute animals.
Parents and babies can enjoy the play time together teaching and learning the animals in the book. Babies can try to find favorite animals by recognizing the animal tails.
Joint book activities can strengthen the family bonding and make learning fun!
Stacking Cups For 7-8 Month Olds
Emphasis of development at this stage: hand coordination, hand-eye coordination
Babies at 7-8 months should have a concept of object and space. This is the time when parents can give them some toys like stacking cups, from which they can learn these things. By holding and stacking the cups according to their size, infants can improve both hands coordination and hand-eye coordination. These two skills will make a solid foundation in their next stages of learning that eventually will be used throughout their lives!
And these hahaland® toys that we’ve mentioned above can have even more uses!
For example, you can use a blanket to cover some of the sensory balls and let your baby try to find them. Or you can put some small toys under the stacking cups and see how excited your baby will be when they find their “treasure”! A little combination can make a magical change! Just give it a try!
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