Choosing Toys to Delight Your Grasping and Giggling 3-6 month olds
Three to Six month olds are learning to reach out and grasp things and learning to roll over, some are learning to sit! It's the most fun time to help them fine tune these motor skills, and here are some of the things that worked for me!
4/10/20263 min read
It seemed like this little stage arrived fast, and I all of a sudden needed something besides a play mat and things hanging above them! As they learned to roll over and reach for things, I added some fun toys and books to interact with. Here are my favorites (and yes, some are followed by affiliate links!) :
The biggest ticket item I got for this stage was the Baby Einstein Neptune's Ocean Discovery Activity Baby Jumper. It gave me so many minutes during the day to get a few things done while they played with all of the various things on the deck of it, and it has great music. I also loved this one because it bounces, and brought lots of laughs for the boys:) My daughter has the Skip Hop Baby Activity Center, and she is very happy with it, and it takes up a little less room.
The other item I got to add a "station" to the rotation of things to do was this Fisher Price Sit Me Up Floor Seat with Snack Tray. I put it up on my bed and the boys would sit in it while I folded clothes and talked to them about colors and matching Grandpa's socks. I put suction cup toys on the tray and they enjoyed sitting up instead of lying down at this age.
A baby carrier comes in handy at this age, too....they are getting heavier, but they aren't quite ready to be propped on your hip yet until they are sitting up on their own. So I used this Baby Bjorn Mini Carrier, and my daughters had these Solly wraps that they loved too. There was a little stretch of time that they were unhappy in the stroller because they were in that stage of wanting to sit up but not able to, and so carrying them facing outward in the carrier was a good solution to walk around the neighborhood until they liked the stroller again.
What is it about kids that can have all these great toys on the floor and all they want is the remote control that Grandpa is holding in his hand? I did end up buying a two-pack of Roku remotes so that they could have their own to play with and not always want ours.....ha....but this is a cute Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Stream and Learn Remote that was a huge hit too:)
Fat Brain Toys Pip Squigz Rattle Suction Cup Toys--Okay, these might have to be one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE toys for the boys. I have these in two different sizes. The small ones are perfect for the tiniest hands that are learning to hold things and bring to their mouth. They are silicone and have suction cups on them so even as they got older I would stick them on the window or the fridge or the dishwasher and they would love to take them off over and over again. The larger ones work best more toward that 6mo age, and they are shakers, too, so you can teach them "shake shake shake" and they will love the sound it makes. They are all very easy to clean with soapy water! These toys lasted over the whole first year and we're easily into toddler days with them.
Munchkin Farm Squirts Bath Toys, set of 8: these I actually don't use in the bath--not a huge fan of bath toys because I am just concerned about them getting moldy.....so we just play with them and talk about animal sounds and I especially use them when I sing "Old McDonald Had a Farm". They are the perfect size for their little hands and they love bringing them to their mouth.
This Bright Starts Safari Beats Musical Toy has fun lights and cute songs and is fun to sit and learn how to press the drum buttons to activate the sounds. Even later, at eight months old, my grandson would stand and pick up this toy by the handle to move it from one place to another.
This set of Fisher Price Tambourine and Maracas was a hit, to encourage them to hold the maraca rattles and also to peer into the mirror of the tambourine!
Once their little hands are big enough, these Mobi Wooshlz Bath Shakers were great to introduce--and we continued to use them even as they were older babies, when you teach them to hold two objects at the same time and tap them together, and as you teach the word "ball".
One last thing--this was the age where I used a laundry basket as a place to play and learn to sit up......I placed a blanket all around them to help them stay steady, and tossed in a few small toys, and could take them from room to room as I worked around the house and they stayed entertained!