Play Ball!

In this episode of “Kim and Carrots,” Kim and Mommy play with a ball in the park. The next time it’s warm out, play ball with your little MVP—there’s a lot to be discovered and learned about texture, color, size, distance, gravity, and speed. (You can gently toss or roll a ball indoors, too!)

Introduce your child to balls of different sizes, textures, and weights. Playing with a firm rubber ball is a distinctly different experience than playing with an inflated beach ball.

• Newborns and young infants are fascinated by brightly colored balls or ones with a high-contrast pattern on them.  It’s easier for a very young baby to see a ball if you hold it about 8 inches from her face, slightly below eye level. Move the ball slowly to encourage your baby to watch it.
• Somewhat older babies will wave both arms when you show them a ball.  Try gently touching your baby’s hand with the ball and then moving it a few inches away. He may begin to reach for it if you hold the ball so that your baby can see both the ball and his hands at the same time. Eventually babies learn to reach for balls with both hands, but it takes many weeks and lots of effort to finally grasp one.
• Babies who can sit up like to touch, taste, watch, drop, and throw balls. Provide your child with balls of various textures. Show your baby how to drop balls into a container and dump them out again. Or try rolling a colorful ball in front of your child. Then slowly roll it behind you. Your baby may react when a ball rolls out of sight by staring at the spot where it disappeared. 
• Toddlers, like Kim, learn about space and direction by throwing, rolling, kicking, and chasing balls. Roll or toss balls back and forth between the two of you. Show your toddler how to throw balls into a large container such as a laundry basket. Roll balls down gentle hills or ramps together. Find out which goes faster, a light ball or a heavy ball? A big one or a small one? Try rolling balls under a row of chairs or aim them at lightweight objects such as empty cereal boxes. Give your toddler a large ball to kick. At first, toddlers simply walk into balls to move them forward, but as they approach age two, children begin to be able to kick with one foot.

Outdoor Play

Working in the garden is very satisfying for children, as the selection “Our Garden” shows, but playing in the garden is fun as well. Here are some ideas for outdoor play in the garden:

• Show your child how to pinch the sides of a snapdragon bloom to make it open and close its “mouth” as if talking.
• Make a flower lady. Pick a hollyhock bloom and turn it upside-down for the skirt. Make a tiny hole in its base, and insert the stem of a hollyhock bud in the hole for the lady’s head.
• Grow a special garden, just for picking. In a container or a small patch of ground, grow flowers that your child is always free to pick. Zinnias, daisies, or marigolds work well for frequent plucking.
• Digging is half the fun! Designate a place where your children can dig away to their heart’s content.

Here are a few other ideas for outdoor fun:

• Roll down a grassy slope together. When you get to the bottom, lie there for a moment and watch the clouds.
• Make a ring toss game by sticking a wooden spoon in the ground. Cut the centers out of plastic coffee can lids and use them as rings.
• Stir up a yummy batch of mud pies and bake them in the sun.
• Blow bubbles outdoors. Watch for the little rainbows that shimmer on their surface.
• Have a weekly library day this summer. Take a picnic lunch, and stop in the park afterwards to eat under a tree and explore the books you checked out.
• Cut large sponges into circles, triangles and squares. Your toddler can dip them into water to make designs on a sidewalk.
• Brush diluted white glue onto a sheet of dark colored paper.  Blow dandelion seeds at the paper and admire the patterns they make.
• When you go out to play in the sand with your toddler, bring along a few containers that hold sand (measuring cups, jars, yogurt containers)—and a few that don’t (funnels, cardboard tubes, sieves, colanders).