Friday, April 26, 2013

Science Project for a Baby

1. Learn about handling water and small objects in/out of water with a hand or a spoon.
2. Fine motor skills
3. Language development
4. Attention
5. Happy baby!

Learn about handling water and small objects in/ out of water with a hand or a spoon. I found the biggest buttons I had, and placed them in a bowl filled with warm water in half. The idea is to move buttons from water to another empty bowl with a spoon. Then I changed her empty bowl to a bottle, then to 4 small jars. I covered one of the jars half full with water and bottons with a lead: it was an unusual shaker (still made some noise, and splash). Camilla was very interested to shake it and watch what happens.

Fine motor skills. Camilla is 17 months old now. It's not an easy task to fish out a button from water with the spoon. She tried that, then put it aside, then tried again: so cool!

Language development. This activity requires constant supervision for safety. She was so busy that she didn't even try to put anything in her mouth, but still... So I was sitting there, watching her and taking pictures, and talking - having fun. Because it is a repetition of the same things, it's a great opportunity to use the same words again and again to promote learning new words and understanding. Water, bowl, bottle, spoon, jar, button. Using small tricky words: out, into, splash! Or big (bowl) - small (button, or jar). Wet - dry. Encouraging talking: ba-ba-ba-bottle-bowl. Lots of free time to talk, LOL

Attention. She is NOT a quiet baby. I am very happy that she got so envolved with this activity that she had been sitting and playing for a long time: 30 minutes maybe? And when she finally was done, she looked very proud of herself and happy. So great! We'll do it again!