Montessori Activities for babies 6-9 month olds

Hey guys, I'm Hazy, a mom of two children. I have an almost four-year-old named Alina and an eight-month-old named Elijah. Now that Elijah's nearly nine months old, I thought it's time to share what activities we have in our Montessori home and the changes we made in the house to keep it safe and Montessori friendly. If your baby has reached six months, well, your life is about to get busier and messier. Unlike the three to six month stage when babies don't move much, at around six to nine months, they'll start slithering and gradually transition to crawling constantly on the go. They'll be able to sit up on their own and begin using their hands more effectively, reaching out, grasping things and putting them in their mouths. The best way to support this developmental stage is by giving your baby the freedom to move around on the floor. This is where we have Elijah's Montessori shelf, but let's be honest, he's not really interested in this section unless I'm actively playing with him. It's clear that he wants to explore other parts of the house. He's more fascinated by opening drawers and cabinet doors that he could find, discovering household items with different textures and shapes. Instead of just rotating the shelf to attract Elijah's attention, which I never seem to achieve, I decided to have multiple treasure baskets around the house with different themes. This way, I can get ready and tackle some tasks during the day while also encouraging him to work on his growth and fine motor skills. The first one is in his bedroom. Toys in his bedroom have to be the safest out of any treasure baskets around the house because Elijah will play with them without my supervision anytime he's in the room alone. Plus, I don't want him to wake up and cry looking for me. I want something that's going to capture his attention as soon as he wakes up, so I thought a clear plastic basket is perfect for that. I put various balls with different textures, colors and sizes that make different noises. The second basket is in our bedroom. I need something to keep him busy while I get ready in the morning. All I need is just those five minutes to get dressed and put on some makeup, but often I don't even get that. Even with this ball pulled in front of the mirror, he can be really clingy, especially in the morning as his first nap time approaches, so I put together some interesting objects that I could find in our bedroom. They're just some random stuff, but I made sure they're not only safe to play with, but also have different textures and temperatures, providing a variety of sensory experiences. Let's see if he likes them. The third basket is under the bathroom sink. When Elijah's unusually quiet for a long time, this is usually where I find him playing with the stool, attempting to pull things out of the little shelf or trying to get into the bathroom. So having a treasure basket right here will be such a great surprise for him, and hopefully this will stop him from getting into the toilet in case the door's left open. Moving on to the kitchen area, I feel like he's constantly in my way when I try to cook, so I've created a drawer with things that are safe for Elijah to play with while I prepare dinner. I think it helps to minimize him being underfoot. Elijah's obsessed with climbing up on the couch to check out the view outside, so I folded up our playmat and turned it into a stand next to the couch. Now he loves going up and down the couch without my help, and it's seriously cut down on his fussiness. However, I'm aware of the major safety issue with this setup, so what I do is make sure to move the playmat away from the couch when I can't actively supervise him so he can't go up on the couch while I'm not watching him. I want him to truly explore his surroundings, learn about the world, and understand the potential risks and dangers he might face, all in a safe way under my supervision. Here's another great addition to our living room setup that has been a game changer for Elijah's gross motor skills, a climbing frame which is almost the same as a picot triangle. While Montessori pull-up bars may seem sturdy and interesting, I find them overly expensive for something I can't use in the long term. The cheapest and easiest alternative is to have a picot triangle, such as this wooden frame I found at Kmart during a clearance sale for only $12. It helps him practice pulling up to stand and safely transition from standing to sitting. I often move it to our bedroom where we have a large mirror. I believe it provides the same benefits as a Montessori pull-up bar with a mirror. Additionally, he will eventually learn to climb up and down the frame and I'm thrilled to witness his progress. Now moving on to the next thing I want to share, some fantastic DIY activities that Elijah really loved. All you need is some sort of box with a hole. I opted for a tissue box, although I would recommend using a sturdier option like a shoe box. Babies often enjoy smashing and crushing, so a more durable container will be better for their curious exploration. Present the box containing colourful scarves all tied together inside. Watch as they discover the joy of pulling them out through the hole. Alternatively, you can always place various items you have at home inside the tissue box with different themes. We tried some wooden moulds, wooden farm animal figurines, wooden eggs, legos and small word books and he loved them all as well. Babies at this age love to grasp objects and bring them to their mouth, so when you DIY something, I would recommend avoiding materials that can be easily chewed, such as toilet paper rolls or egg cartons because I tried it and it didn't work. Personally, I believe that investing in a couple of high-quality wooden toys isn't a bad idea compared to buying multiple cheap plastic toys because they tend to last longer, are sturdier and are safe to put in the mouth and can be used in various ways. I have this beautiful wooden mould game set made out of eco-friendly natural wood and I've been using it in a lot of DIY activities throughout the day. Next one is a spider web basket. All you need is some sort of basket, some string and toys. Thread it tightly in any pattern you want and just make sure to tie it off the end securely to minimise the risk of the baby getting tangled. Then place some toys inside, super simple. Elijah enjoyed the challenge of working his hand through the thread and had a lot of fun trying to reach and grab the toys. For the next activity, skip the drill, just puncture two holes in the lid with something sharp then use a piece of string, not too long and two yogurt caps. As Elijah pulls one cap, the other cap gets pulled as well, allowing him to learn about cause and effect. For some reason, this one is Elijah's favourite out of every other toy in the home. The final activity I'm going to DIY is a scarf pulling activity. First, take a few plastic water bottles and trim off the bottom side. I taped the edges just in case there are any sharp areas. I didn't think taping them on the wall would be doable enough so I screwed them onto a cardboard house that Alina made with make-do screws which seems to be fairly doable. Once the bottles are secure on the wall, I stuffed the scarf into each one. Surprisingly, this didn't catch Elijah's interest as much as I hoped but I wanted to include it on the list because I'm sure there are lots of babies out there who will have a blast with this activity. There are so many more activities Elijah loved such as this wooden ring sticker, xylophone and spinning drum. I'll do my best to provide links for everything in the video but please note that some items may not be available. So this is it. I hope you guys enjoyed today's video. If you did, I would really appreciate if you could give it a thumbs up. Thank you for watching and I'll see you in the next video. Bye!