Lesson Plans for Older Infants

Gross Motor Skill Games

• You may have noticed that your child is interested in being mobile now that she is older. Use that never-ending energy to focus on perfecting gross motor skills. Engage in a game of walking, running, hopping and crawling with your little one, depending on her mobility level. Say the name of each motion as you play a session of Follow the Leader. Create an obstacle course using materials from home to practice these important physical milestones. For example, draw a line with chalk on the driveway to walk along; hop in and out of a hula hoop; or crawl through a large box with both flaps open.

Emotions

• Older infants are just beginning to understand their emotions, but sometimes communicating feelings can be a struggle. Create emotion puppets using paper plates and craft sticks. Draw faces on the plates that represent basic feelings, such as happy, sad, mad and sleepy. Glue the craft sticks to the back of the paper plates. Each morning and evening, take a few minutes going over each puppet. Announce the name of the puppet and copy the facial expression in a mirror, encouraging your baby to follow. It is also a good idea to keep the puppets handy throughout the day. When your baby seems frustrated, have her choose one from among the puppets and give it to you to make communication easier.

Literacy and Language

• Introducing reading at a young age is the perfect way to build a lifelong love of literacy. Reading books to your baby teaches vocabulary, memory, emotion, listening, colors, numbers and sequencing. Each night, sit your baby on your lap and open a board book. Read the title out loud in a slow voice. Take the time to describe the cover pictures, focusing on characters, letters, colors and setting. Show your baby how to turn the page and continue with the story. As you read along, be sure to use your voice like an instrument. Play with the pitch and volume of your tone, and make up voices to go along with different characters. Check in with your baby as you read, asking questions and responding to her vocal cues. Encourage her to mimic your sounds, and repeat simple words back to you.

Mathematical Activities

• There are a variety of ways to teach math to an infant that reach beyond counting fingers and toes. For example, building blocks have always been a staple object in a toy box. They can be used to teach not only counting, but shapes, colors and measurement. Name the shapes of each block, along with the color, as you play together. You can build high towers to demonstrate height, or long and short roads to compare lengths. Or you can fill a bucket with blocks and pick it up to teach about weight. You can also deepen your child's mathematical lesson by alternating the colors of the blocks to teach sequencing.