Does anyone work with newborn to almost 3 year olds?

[riu girl]

If so, what sort of activities/crafts do you do with this age group??

Thank you

 

[Narnia]

For a baby a simple games work best. It depends on the age.
Newborns love looking at faced. Sometimes when you stick out your toung they will too.Reading so that they can hear your voice change poetry type books are great like brown bear
about 3-6 months they like games like peekaboo. They will be a bit more active so toys that are simple to work are great. I found that at this age babies liked looking at bright books that are very simple(like a picture of an apple)

from 6-12 months they are on the go.
safe kitchen items like pots spoons containers. I filled pop bottles with water added food color and sparkles and small toys if I had them.
blocks,stacking rings nesting cups are the best toys.

from 12-2
by this age most kids are learning to scribble so fat washable crayons are great. Dolls and trucks work for both boys and girls. If you can find one a baby bath tub with water for the doll. A baby bath tub can be filled with oats,paste,rice to make a sensory table.

3 three year olda are more independent so things like dress up, fake adult like items, easy games like candy land and memory. They like to watch tv so it's easy to protend that they are a "person" off of a show. Cut and paste are great for getting ready or school. Give them just scrapes and let them go at it. Play dough is great too at this age because most likly they won't eat it!

So much to do with them so little time

 

[disneyvacationmom]

I work with newborns to about 18 months old. Mostly the younger kids though. We do a lot of singing of repetative songs and try to use the childs name as much as possible. Also a lot of easy to hold rattle type toys with a soft rattle sound(probably because the louder ones are so annoying to the adults-lol) The link together toys seem to be a hit as the children can reach for and hold them(we only allow 3 links at one time however to avoid strangulation issues. I have found that the coloured stacking cups are fun--not so much for stacking but to hold--they can hold onto the cup and and wave it around to follow it. We encourage tummy time for a few minutes to encourage lifting of the head. We do do circle time and sing name songs as well as favourites--twinkle twinkle, itsy bitsy spider, itsy bitsy bumble-bee, rolly polly, etc. As for crafts, we do glueing and paninting, markers and crayons but with our age group it is mostly hand over hand with mom and baby. Our sensory bin is also fun--all ages love the water play and we have used paper easter grass as well, they love it--we always say it's party time when the paper easter grass is being tossed everywhere. We have only allowed the paper grass as when it hits their mouth it starts to disintegrate .We have lots of fun and we never stop talking--even if its just narrating whats going on or imitating the sounds the babies are making. Hope this helps.