What?! -Include your Baby in unit studies? …..Yes, it can be done!!!
In our home, we truly do find creative ways to include Baby, AND, those ways are actually beneficial to his growth and development!
Below is an Instagram post showing just one of the many ways we include Baby S-C in our 5 minute lessons and unit study themes:
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There are so very many ways to include even the littlest of ones into lessons and themes! For us, sometimes, that might look like a Honey Bee Teether, like the one pictured above, or, this natural Bee Teether. Correlating (age-appropriate) baby items to the topic of our current unit study, we might use a themed rattle, a stuffed animal, or even a themed sheet or blanket…the possibilities are abundant!
We try to think in terms of practical items that Baby needs for his or her development and growth, and/or that he just needs in general (like bedding), and see if we can add in a theme to those items! This also gives us an excuse to focus just on baby in particular, and to treat him to something special and unique just for his learning style, instead of the usual hand-me-downs (though, we still frequently re-purpose hand-me-downs for our activities!).
Customizing activities in special and unique ways to each particular child or individual’s learning style is actually our (myself and my Husband’s) goal with each our children and students for ALL areas of learning. We do our best not to have a “one size fits all” mentality, but a “how does this particular child think, and how can we make this subject and it’s learning process work best for this particular individual” type of mentality. While we cannot afford to go above and beyond and go super in-depth on our unit study theme for Baby, typically, we chose at least one themed item and/or activity for Baby S-C for each of our main unit studies (to find out how we do unit studies, check out this post, here).
Having a limited budget also helps us in our mentality of trying to downsize and have multipurpose toys/activities that can contribute to multiple areas of development in the child or children which the item(s) are intended for. In other words, we try not accrue too many single-purpose items in our small home that would soon only end up adding to our ongoing battle with cutting down clutter! We thrive on using items over and over again in a variety of ways for different learning needs and subjects (for example, here, we used the hexagon shapes from our shapebox to make a bee-themed hive activity!
An example of how we might choose to add baby into unit studies is:
- Choose Unit Study Topic/Subject (Identify Theme)
- Think about some practical items Baby needs (Amazon or internet search on selected theme)
- Decide your budget for item, and select it based on that (Purchase Item or materials to make it)
- Allow Baby to entertain himself with item during lessons and activities with older children…. (Look for Fun ways Incorporate into Daily Lessons/Unit Studies)
Most any themed item chosen for baby can be used in some manner during the teaching of lessons to older students; items like bedsheets will probably will be used during nap or play-yard time, while chewy books or teethers can be used during tummy or crawl times. Many items can also be used while Baby is sitting in his or her highchair (this a Great solution for including baby in projects around the table!), or given to Baby when he is crawling on the floor beside us as we work at the table. Depending on our location, there have been times when I used a play-yard, or even a bumbo chair during an activity to keep the baby nearby and included in what we are doing, yet still safely out of reach from project materials that were not appropriate for his age.
It is VERY important to my older children and toddlers that Baby S-C is included somehow in what they are learning….simple items like a bee themed teether really help with fulfilling their desire to include everyone in the fun of learning! 🙂
In order to make certain that my older kiddos are aware that baby is being included, too, I make certain to point out that baby is also participating in what we are learning by using his bee teether (or, insert any topic/themed item that applies, here; we just happen to be doing a bee unit study at the moment, so I’m mentioning bee items a lot)!
I’m often teaching the older children at the exact same time that I mention to them that baby is being included with us, so I try to keep my explanation short in order to keep the older kids’ attention on what they are doing…they love their Baby Brother and can get distracted easily!
For a realistic picture of us in daily life, envision this; I’m sitting at the table reading a book about bees that the kids have, spur of the moment, just requested that I read. To balance keeping baby happy during our reading time around the kitchen table, I often hand baby his themed teether (or, other play/sensory item) while he is either sitting in his highschair, or crawling on the floor besides us. As I hand baby this item, I might say something along the lines of, “Here, Baby SC; you can have your bee teether while we read about bees!” At this point, the older kids usually begin commenting on how baby has his bee teether (they often repeat sentences back in order to process information). I validate the information in their comments and refocus them onto the book we are reading! 🙂
As many of you know, I am VERY big on incorporating fine motor skills activities as much as possible into the daily lives of my children and students. There is a whole host of reasons for why fine motor skills are important, but our personal favorite is how much the working of on fine motor skills truly does help in speech development!! One of my children, in particular, struggles with speech development. I cannot say enough how much fine motor activities has helped (and continues to aid in) my children’s speech development.
For the reasons mentioned above, I like to start my kiddos off quite young with fine motor skills…..as soon as at all possible, I am providing age appropriate activities and opportunities for each Baby’s motor skill development. An example of a simple (free) fine motor skills with Baby SC is in our Instagram post, below:
Many activities which are geared towards older children can be simplified to an age-appropriate activity for Baby. In the post above, the older children were playing with water sensory bins, filled with pom-poms and other fun tools. I simplified the activity for baby by offering him a shallow bin partially filled with water, and a scoop from some baby formula. Baby SC practiced fine motor skills by grabbing, pinching, and scooping with the scoop, as well as by grabbing the bin and splashing in the water (and, yes…he ended up dumping it on the blanket on day #2 of this activity! 🙂 ).
Basic sensory bins for themed unit study activities can often be made to Baby’s needs, too. Another option is to allow Baby to participate in the older kiddos’ sensory bins by letting Baby sit in your lap and touch (run hands through, grasp and play with) the beans/rice, etc., in the bin. Baby SC sees his older siblings playing with the bins and wants to explore and participate in what they are doing…he even feels a bit left out when he cannot participate. By allowing baby to touch the sensory materials while I am holding him, we can gradually introduce SC to the idea of sensory bin play, and include him; I am just very careful to keep his hands from getting to his mouth!!
What are some ways that you like to include your Baby into Family time and themed unit studies or activities? Would you like me to make a post sharing our personal favorites for baby items that practice fine motor skills and sensory play? ~ Please drop a comment below; we LOVE to hear about your thoughts and ideas! 🙂
And, It Is On to Our Next Lesson! Thanks for reading my post! 🙂
Gloria Joy