What Activities To Do With Your Child At 13 Months?

Your baby may or may not have started to walk on her own but certainly she is on her way to become a confident walker.  Today I am going to help you with some Montessori inspired / play-way activities that you can give to your child to enhance her skills & development.

Posting  Activities – It is natural at this age for the baby to drop things. Give it some meaning by creating this simple DIY posting activity. Take any bottle with a narrow head or a trash cardboard box with a slit cut into it. Give popsicle sticks or straws or any such thing to your child to drop/post into the bottle/box. It is a fine motor activity  & builds concentration.

Knobbed Cylinders – It is a good time to improve the pincer grip of your child. I gave my son these mini Montessori knobbed cylinders to explore. He had to put the cylinder in the right socket according to the size. It is a simple self correcting puzzle. You can also give simple knobbed puzzle boards with simple shapes at this age & graduate to complex boards based on how your child progresses. Holding the knob improves their pincer grip.

Yellow Treasure Basket – I have talked about the benefits of treasure basket in month 8 & month 9 articles. This month, let us create a yellow treasure basket. Just gather all yellow colored safe objects from the house & present them in a basket/tray to your child. Name them & its color as he picks up one item in his hands to explore. For example, this is a banana, it is yellow in color. This feeds their language curiosity as they are in sensitive period of language at this age as per Montessori. This also gives stimulus to their sense of touch.

Edible Sensory Bin – Sensory bin is a form of heuristic play which is very important for babies. Since they are mouthing everything in their reach at this age, here is an edible sensory bin idea – sand animals sensory bin. Just crush some biscuits in a mixer to make a brown powder that looks like sand. Put some sand animals in it (I put plastic figurines of turtle & crab) & present it to your child. Casually talk about what sand feels like, and the animals that live there. They can still mouth the figurines but we can stop them & they are not choking hazards.

Also read: How To Develop Your Child’s Brain: 12 Months

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