Activities to do with my 12 month old baby?

Question

I've got a 12 month old boy who is very active but I don't feel I'm doing enough with him. This is what I usually do:

Monday - Go to the park

Tuesday - He goes nursery

Wednesday - Do nothing wednesdays

Thursday - He goes nursery

Friday - Take him to my friends for tea who also has a 15 month old baby to play with

Saturday - Take him swimming

Sunday - Take him to his nans

And occasionally I'll take him to the zoo or something, but, I feel that he Isn't doing enough as he goes through the same routine, go nursery, swimming, park, friends and nans, what else could i do with him AND is it enough?

Answer 1

I seriously doubt he has any complaints at 12 month old;) Seems like a decent activity schedule to me...not that I'm an expert or anything. But there's only so many things you can do with a young child isn't there?

Answer 2

My son is 13 month's and all we do is play. We look at pictures of our families, and we go outside and look at tree's and just everything outside, we also have building blocks we count, and stack up...

We turn on music and dance...We get out his ABC's, 123's books and read those..we cook.(I put him in his high chair,,and let him taste, and give him a bowl and spoon and let him make noise) Or put in a animal/farm/fish/whatever video and discover together.

Answer 3

thoses are great...i guess you can fitthe excersie tape in on wednesday This is as easy as it gets http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKCGe2Ezr...  

Answer 4

He also needs to have you (and other family members) engaged in one-on-one activities with him to help promote cognitive and fine motor skills.  Having you on the floor with him (they also love and need people down on their level) building with blocks, playing with his toys, sorting objects, and so on.  Play with his toys yourself, making voices for the animals or characters, moving them around, and so on.  This helps kids learn creative play, which they don't necessarily learn all on their own.  Puppets are awesome for this age, because even though your mouth will be moving in an obvious way, your son won't notice or care; his eyes will be fixed and fascinated on that puppet.  Read to him when he's quieting down.  Sing and talk to him all the time.  Try and find some houshold objects he can play with safely, wooden spoons and a pot to bang on, and so forth.  

Outside the home, here are some things I do with my 2 year old and also did with the older ones:

PetSmart: A really big pet store, it's like a mini-aquarium and zoo for a toddler.  And free.  And people are allowed to bring leased pets, so she can ask and usually be allowed to pet the dogs.  They hold training classes for dogs on certain days and she loves to watch.  The grooming center has a huge window so everyone can see the dogs being groomed, and this is endlessly fascinating for her.

Walks around the neighborhood without the stroller.  In order to burn off some of her boundless energy, I have gradually let her go more and more without the stroller, especially when it's very safe, like picking up two things from the grocery store.

The local parks here have walking trails in the woods.  Sometimes she likes this better than the playground.

Any fastfood restaurant with an indoor playground, or places designed for indoor play. Also, now all the malls in our area have indoor play areas that are safe for little ones as young as yours.

Local small museums.  We have a Nature Museum that's quite small with local wildlife to look at and some other displays.  Our biggest art museum here (but it really isn't all that big) is free on Tuesdays (though the toddler is free anyway) and it's almost deserted then, so we go and I just let her basically look at whatever peeks her interest.  This might be too much now for yours, but soon enough.

Feeding ducks at a nearby pond, though in some places here it's illegal.  There are also some ponds where we can feed fish.  

I've also made a list of outdoor public playgrounds, and we try a different one ever few weeks.  At one year, he'll mostly just wander around, play in the sand or woodchips, and take everything in.  

Remember no matter what you go and do with him, to always have a running conversation with him (I call it a "one-versation, since baby can't contribute much), sing, point out stuff to look at.  Let him touch and hold as many things as possible.  His little brain is absolutely obsessed with absorbing as much information from all the senses as he possibly can.  You can feed that intense desire to take in information and it usually doesn't have to cost a thing.