Your baby is halfway through their first year, so you might be wondering what activities for 6 month olds are most beneficial to their development. Parent-child interactions at this stage of life are paramount. Care, love, attention, and touch from parents are of utmost importance but there are some other things you can be doing with your baby for them to really get ahead.
At this stage of life, your baby should have already accomplished some “firsts.” Your baby should be able to roll on their back, slide on their tummy, sit up without support, and rock to and fro on their knees. Your baby also might know their name, have started eating pureed food, and even recognize their reflection! These are all good signs, but you might be wondering what other activities for 6 month old are most beneficial! Let’s take a look!
These Activities for 6 Month Old Will Help Further Their Development!
Do Those Kicks
As you’ve likely noticed, your baby loves physical activities at this stage. You can set up a game to encourage even more of it! Kicking can help integrate the sensory and physical developmental skills of 6-month-old babies. Get your baby to do some kicks by grabbing a colorful piece of cloth (think a burpee or small blanket) and hang it over your child as they lay on their back. Make sure your baby’s legs can reach the cloth and watch as they begin to kick it.
This activity encourages chin-tucking, fosters body awareness, and helps them to understand cause and effect.
Peek-a-Boo!
One of the most beloved activities for 6 month old is a classic: Peek-a-boo! This fun game for babies is a blast because your baby will giggle a ton. Who does not love that? Hide your face with a blanket or even your hands and then pop out to show your face to the baby while saying “peek-a-boo!”
This seemingly silly game actually benefits fine motor skills and helps babies understand the concept of object permanence (which simply means, your baby will learn that objects and people still exist even when they’re not visible).
Blow Bubbles
Another one of the activities for 6 month old babies that will result in giggles is blowing bubbles! When your baby is in the bath, you can blow bubbles for them. Or, if you’d prefer to take things outside, blow bubbles for your little one in the yard. This game helps with sensory development and eyesight!
Clap-a-Long
If your baby is not already clapping, you can teach them by gently clapping their hands together inside your own. Once your little one gets the hang of it, encourage your child to clap along with you. You can do this to a simple beat or even while singing a nursery rhyme. Clapping is great for teaching your baby about sound, patterns, and imitation.
Put Them on the Tum Tum
Tummy time is one of the really important activities for 6 month old babies because it encourages movement and independence. No matter how loudly your child might protest, lay them on a soft blanket or towel on their stomach. If the baby is upset, you can lay next to them and look into their eyes to let them know they’re not alone.
Once your baby is acclimated to the position, you can gently lift one side of the towel or blanket to roll them from one side to the other.
Sing Those Lullabies
There’s a reason parents have been singing to their infants forever, it teaches your child auditory discrimination, which means that they can begin to differentiate between different sounds. To further foster this, sing to your baby in all sorts of places. In the car, in the bath, in bed, on the playground, everywhere!
Singing is one of the activities for 6 month old that really does a lot without seeming to. You know you want to make up songs for your little one!
Stacking Cups
This is one of the activities for 6 month old babies that requires some props. Most parents find that plastic measuring cups work well for this. Simply bust out your cups and stack them for your baby to see. Then, encourage the baby to create their own measuring cup tower. Feel free to “race” your baby to see who can stack the fastest.
This game helps tune fine motor skills and helps your little one understand cause and effect.
Better Read
You likely already read to your baby but one of the best activities for 6 month old is interactive reading. Simply put, you want to choose picture books that are very short and very colorful. Board books are an excellent option as most babies will want to taste the pages.
When reading, be as expressive as possible. Act surprised, happy, scared, sad, and relieved as you read both with your voice and with your hand gestures. Encourage your baby to react to the story as well. For babies this age, reading helps with listening and developing language skills.
Imposter Bottle
Babies are generally very familiar with bottles at this stage which means using one for development is one of the best activities for 6 month old babies. Simply take a bottle (like a 16 oz water or soda bottle)and fill it with rice or lentils or pasta. Then, glue the lid onto the bottle so that your child can safely play with it.
Your baby will notice that the bottle looks, feels, and sounds much different. This might even surprise your baby! This activity is great for auditory discrimination and teaching cause and effect.
Keep Scrolling for More Beneficial Activities for 6 Month Old Babies!
Take Flight
Here is one of the activities for 6 month old that doubles as great exercise for your little one. Put your baby on your lap with their tummy down. Hold onto your child with both hands and make sure to support their middle as you lift. Life baby up and down, forward and back as if they’re a flying superhero. Make noises as you change direction to keep things super fun!
This activity is super entertaining for your child but it also does help build and strengthen their midsection.
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Where’s the Cheerio?
For this activity, you will need a few opaque cups and a baby-safe object like a cheerio for play. Simply place the cheerio underneath on cup and see if your baby can find the cheerio. If your baby catches on quickly, you can move the cups around, rearranging them to see if your baby can identify the vessel the cereal is inside.
This is one of the activities for 6 month old babies that builds attention skills and memory development as well as reinforces object permanence.
Baby Poetry
Believe it or not, rhyming is one of the best activities for 6 month old babies as it develops auditory discrimination and builds language skills. You will feel ridiculous as you do this, but rhyming words in a sequence for your baby to hear is a great practice! You can do this almost any way that pleases you but a great way is to repeat a word three times and then switch to a rhyming word that you also say three times and then continuing. For example: “back, back, back, jack, jack, jack, tack, tack, tack, black, black, black…”
Splish Splash
In general, 6 month old babies should be able to sit on their own without any support. Strengthen those back muscles by some bathtime fun with one of our favorite activities for 6 month old babies. Simply plop your baby in the tub and allow them to sit and balance their bodies in the water. Place floating toys around your baby to encourage play. Show them how to splash the toy in the water and even guide their hand if needed.
They should start splashing in no time and having a ball. Of course, this, like most of the activities on this list, should be done with complete supervision.
Baby Hide & Seek
No, we’re not about to tell you to hide your baby! This is one of the activities for 6 month old babies that requires three people so enlist a partner, sibling, or another member of your family for help. Sit with your baby in your lap. Then, ask the other player to hide. Once hidden, allow your baby to observe the space you are in. After a beat, the hidden person should say the baby’s name.
If your baby recognizes the voice, they will likely be visually alert and interested. Encourage your baby to find the source of the sound while the hidden person repeats the baby’s name every so often. You can point in the direction of where the player is hidden and much more to keep your little one engaged. This activity will help with the development of auditory sense skills.
Baby Bounce
While your baby is far from being able to stand and support their own weight, you can help make that transition easier. One of the best activities for 6 month old babies is to let them bounce. On a soft, padded surface like a mattress, hold your baby between the arms vertically so that their feet lightly touch the top of the surface. Carefully lower and lift your baby and they will start to bounce on their legs! This helps strengthen those leg muscles and you can also dance while you’re doing it for even more fun.
Playing with Food
This is one of the messiest activities for 6 month old babies but we promise you they will love it. The game is a cross between finger painting and dinner… Your baby is likely eating solid food now. Get three different food purees with each one being a different color (we suggest fruit ones as they are less disgusting). Put each puree in a different plastic bowl.
Now, using a plastic sheet or other “canvas” for your baby, allow them to dip their hands into the purees and apply handprints and more to the “canvas.” Yes, the baby will likely need a bath and you can play splish splash next!
Making Moves with Toys
There already are pre-made baby toys like cars with a string attached that allows you to pull the toy across the floor. You can fashion your very own too but the important thing is that the toy can move away from your baby. Start by placing your baby on their stomach as you did for tummy time. Place the toy in your child’s field of vision and move it about to get their interest. Once your baby tries to grab the toy, move it so that it’s harder to touch.
Babies can roll on the floor at this age making this one of the best activities for 6 month old babies who need a touch of exercise. Your baby will then need to use their skills to move on the floor to try and grab the toy. It’s fun and healthy!
Beach Ball at Home
You could play this game at the beach but it’s one of the activities for 6 month old babies that’s also enjoyable at home. Essentially, you’re playing a game of catch with your baby but instead of a heavy ball that is thrown, you roll a beach ball. Your little one will need to be able to sit up on their own.
Sit a short distance away from the baby and nudge the beach ball towards them. Once they “catch” it, encourage the baby to interact with the ball. They might push it back (intentionally or not, it’s fine) or try and lift it or simply put their mouth on it. The point of this activity is for your baby to move and interact with a new object.
Baby Tug of War
You might have noticed that your baby’s grip is not so great and it likely won’t be until they are 4. However, you can help make your baby’s grip more nimble with one of the activities for 6 month old babies that only requires a soft string (the more color the better). Hand one end of the string to your baby and once they hold it, give it a gentle tug. Your baby will likely let go the first several times but over time they will learn to tug back.
This exercise helps to strengthen your baby’s grip and will teach them resistance to force. Don’t tug too hard now!
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Baby See, Baby Do
Babies love playing the imitation game, meaning that they love copying the things people they love do. And, honestly, this is one of the most rewarding activities for 6 month old babies because they are mirroring you! Start with something you think your baby could imitate rather easily. You could have to your baby and ask them to wave back. or move their hand, or blink, etc. This game builds memory and fine motor skills as well as strengthens the bond you share!
There you go! Did you find some activities for 6 month old that you want to try out with your baby? We sure hope you did find some new and exciting things to do that will ultimately benefit your child in a myriad of ways. Our babies’ brains are little sponges and the more parents can do, the more our babies will soak up!
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