Do you have a baby that wiggles during diaper changes to the point that you break into a sweat while trying to wrestle him/her into a clean diaper? Or perhaps you have a wee one who enjoy screeching incredibly loud during car rides making it near impossible to focus on driving? My friend Amanda has an awesome solution to occupy baby during the difficult times/activities. Her idea engages baby’s brain, provides visual stimulation, and best of all is FREE! With each of her three kidlets she has made collage boards for them when they are around a year old. She uses them to keep baby happy during challenging times/tasks. What a wonderful idea!
The materials and tools needed to create a collage for your baby are simple:
- sturdy piece of cardboard
- contact paper
- old magazines
- scissors
- glue
Cut and paste pictures from the magazine onto the cardboard and cover with contact paper. Voila! Now you have a fun collage board to entertain your baby during those wiggly diaper changes or restless car rides. One important recommendation is to group pictures in categories. For example one side of the collage could be pictures of babies (babies like looking at babies!) and the other side could be pictures of animals. By grouping pictures in categories you are actually helping baby develop fundamental math concepts such as categorizing and sorting. When you look at collage with baby and label the various pictures you are supporting his/her language and vocabulary development.
If you have older children you can have them join in the fun by encouraging them to create the collage. They can sift through magazines looking for interesting pictures to cut and paste. In fact the collage that Izzy is playing with in the picture above was made by Amanda’s six year old daughter for Izzy’s first birthday. What a special handmade gift to receive! Izzy enjoys looking at his collage…as well as stomping on it, banging on it and smashing things with it so the sturdy cardboard and contact paper are important elements to keep the collage intact. 🙂
Hope you and your baby have fun with this idea!
-Sarah
PS. Be sure to check back tomorrow to learn about the Top 10 Signs Your Baby has Transitioned to a Toddler!
Tags: collage, cut and paste, first birthday, handmade gift, math concepts, old magazines, pictures of animals, visual stimulation, vocabulary development
