Homemade baby entertainment ideas

Make your own baby mobile:

Hang interesting objects from a coat hangar and hang this with a rope, outside of baby's reach, above your baby's cot.

Things you can use:

Tinsel
A Christmas tree decoration
Interesting shapes cut out of colourful card or pictures cut from a birthday card or postcard
Colourful bottle tops, sea shells or pretty beads strung together
Balloons - draw a happy face with a permanent marker

WARNING: Make sure this mobile is well outside baby's reach as it may pose a serious choking risk.

You

You are your baby's best "toy". Babies love to study facial expressions and listening to your voice.

Talk to him,
Gently sway to music,
Sing to your baby,
and introduce him to the world around him by pointing to things as you walk together. For example - "look at the bird" or "that is a dog".
Look at picture books together.
Make your own picture books using:
- A small photo album,
- Scrap book or
- Several A5-size sheets of construction paper threaded together with wool.
Find pictures in magazines you know baby will recognise or objects you would like to introduce him to - you can even include a photo of each member of the family.

Rattles

For a slightly older baby, make your own rattle by filling an old plastic spice bottle or small juice bottle with either:

rice, lentils, pasta, seeds or paper clips.

Glue the lid closed and then seal the bottle really well by securing heavy duty tape (duct tape) firmly around it.

WARNING: You should never leave your baby alone with a potentially dangerous toy.

Banging Toys

Your kitchen cupboards are full of little "treasures".

Once your baby can sit, give him a wooden spoon and some of your pots and pans to bang on.

Your baby will also enjoy your plastic food container cupboard and will spend ages unpacking the cupboard and fitting the different plastic containers into each other.

Filling and emptying

Babies from about 10 months love taking things out and then putting it right back in again.

You can give him your clothes peg bag to empty - babies and toddlers love that!

Another idea: use an empty coffee tin with a plastic lid and collect plastic milk bottle caps/lids - ask your friends to keep their old jar or milk bottle lids but make sure it is not too small as this could then become a choking hazard.

You can also use wooden blocks or clothes pegs.

Cut an opening in the lid large enough for the object to fit through comfortably.

This kept my boys occupied for ages.

In the beginning when they were still little I would leave the lid off and then they would empty the tin and fill it up again. Even with the lid on, they loved the noise the bottle caps made as they rattled inside the tin.

Once they were a bit older, my boys loved pushing the bottle caps through the opening in the tin.