We've put together a detailed list of at-home Montessori-aligned activities suitable for a 10-month-old.
Here you will see age-appropriate activities for all areas, in our Ultimate Series Of Activities to try at home, where the emphasis is on providing a prepared environment and allowing the child to actively engage in self-directed learning.
So what is my child working on mastering at this age?
Between the 9-12 month age, typically we will see your little one focused on sensorimotor exploration, refining gross and fine motor skills, early language development, fostering independence in simple tasks, and establishing a sense of order and routine in their environment.
1. Sensory Exploration:
* Create a sensory bag with soft fabrics, providing different textures for baby to touch.
* Introduce a treasure basket with safe objects like wooden blocks, cloth, or soft balls for tactile exploration.
* Offer a water play activity with floating toys in a shallow basin for splashing.
* Spinning drum: This is a sensorial material that can help your baby develop fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, auditory skills, and cause and effect understanding. You can offer baby a wooden drum that spins when tapped. Your baby can explore the different sounds and movements of the drum.
* Sensory bottles: These are simple DIY materials that can help your baby develop fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, visual skills, and sensory awareness. You can fill clear plastic bottles with different items, such as water, beads, pom poms, or rice. You can seal the bottles securely and let baby explore them with their hands and eyes.
2. Eye-Hand Coordination:
* Provide a container with large, easy-to-grasp objects for baby to practice picking up and dropping.
* Introduce a simple shape-sorting toy with large pieces.
* Bell cylinder: This is another sensorial material that can help baby develop fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, auditory skills, and object permanence. You can offer your baby a wooden cylinder that contains a bell inside. Baby can roll, shake, and listen to the cylinder.
* You can offer baby a set of stacking cups, such as the Montessori rainbow stacking cups. You can show baby how to stack and nest the cups. You can also use the cups for scooping and pouring water or other sensory materials. This can help your baby develop fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, as well as colour and size discrimination.
* Introduce your baby to simple puzzles, such as knob puzzles, shape sorters, or peg puzzles. Show baby how to fit the pieces into the corresponding slots. This can help your baby develop fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness, and cognitive skills
3. Movement:
* Set up a safe crawling and exploring area with soft mats and cushions.
* Encourage pull-to-stand activities using sturdy furniture.
* Place a low, stable box for baby to practice cruising or taking steps around.
* Balls: You can offer baby different balls, such as soft balls, textured balls, or balls with bells inside. Roll the balls to baby and encourage them to roll them back. You can also place the balls in a basket or a container and let baby take them out and put them back in. This can help your baby develop gross motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and auditory skills.
4. Practical Life Skills:
* Offer a child-size spoon or scoop for transferring objects between containers during mealtime.
* Provide a soft cloth for baby to practice wiping their hands or a small table.
* Introduce a baby-safe mirror for self-recognition.
* Introduce wet pouring activities.
* Encourage self-feeding with age-appropriate finger foods.
5. Language Development:
* Offer baby a variety of books, such as board books, cloth books, or books with real photographs. Read the books to baby and point out the different words and pictures. This will help the baby develop language, literacy, and visual skills.
* Engage in Baby Sign Language with your baby. Teach your baby simple signs like “more,” “all done,” and “milk” to help them communicate before they can speak. To learn more about using Baby Sign Langauge click here.
* Engage in interactive storytelling using expressive facial expressions and varying tones.
* Name everyday objects during routines, such as naming items during mealtime.
* Treasure basket of animals: fill a basket with 3 or 4 realistic animal figures (such as Schleich animals) and allow baby to explore them with their hands and mouth. This will help baby develop language, cognitive, and sensory skills.
6. Art Exploration:
* Create simple stamps using baby-safe materials like soft sponges or textured fabrics, encourage baby to press the stamps onto paper to explore patterns and textures.
* Offer non-toxic, washable finger paints for baby to explore colour and texture.
* Introduce large, easy-to-grip crayons for the baby to explore mark-making on paper.
* Allow baby to crumple and tear paper for a tactile experience.
* Add a small amount of paint to a sealable freezer bag and securely seal it. Allow baby to squish and move the paint around inside the bag.
* Create DIY sensory paints using safe ingredients like pudding or yogurt mixed with natural food colouring.
7. Music:
* Create a designated music area with simple instruments.
* Encourage clapping, patting, or gentle dancing together.
* Wooden spoon and pot: This is a simple activity that involves giving your baby a wooden spoon and a pot. You can show baby how to bang the spoon on the pot and make different sounds. This will help your baby develop fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, auditory skills, and imitation skills.
* Sing songs with repetitive actions, encouraging baby to mimic movements like clapping or waving. Read our article on the Benefits Of Music At Playtime here.
8. Nature Exploration:
* Set up a nature tray with safe natural objects like pinecones, leaves, or smooth stones for sensory exploration.
* Take short outdoor walks, allowing baby to observe and touch natural elements.
* Engage in simple nature-inspired activities like feeling grass or leaves.
9. Object Permanence:
* Cube in a box: This is an imbucare activity that involves placing a cube inside a box with a hole. You can show the baby how to take the cube out and put it back in. This can help the baby develop hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness, and object permanence.
* Introduce nesting cups or containers for baby to explore opening and closing lids.
* Place a soft cloth over a toy and encourage baby to reveal it.
* Introduce soft books with fabric flaps that your baby can lift to reveal hidden pictures or objects.
* Place a soft toy inside a cloth bag and allow baby to explore reaching inside to retrieve it.
* Create a simple pop-up tent using soft fabric, allowing baby to enter and exit, experiencing moments of disappearance and reappearance.
10. Social Interaction:
* Arrange playdates with other babies to encourage social interactions and turn-taking.
* Engage in mirrored play, imitating the baby's sounds and expressions.
* Encourage simple interactive games, such as rolling a soft ball back and forth.
11. The Whole Child Development:
* Attend our weekly SensorStory Baby and Toddler Montessori parent-child sensory classes! Follow this link to enrol your infant here.
We hope we have given you some inpiration for activities to do with your 10-month-old in our ultimate list!
Remember, follow the child, adapting activities based on your observation of your baby's developmental stage and individual interests. The key in a Montessori environment is to provide your child with real, purposeful, and age-appropriate tools and materials that allow them to engage in activities independently and at their own pace.
Disclaimer: Adult supervision is required for any activity suggested by SensorStory. Please follow any directions and/or warnings on the labels(s) of any materials used during such activity & be aware of any potential choking hazards or allergies.
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'Activities To Do With An 11 Month Old
FAQ.