Baby’s bath time can be a wonderful fun time as well as one of the daily chores you need to do when you have a new baby.

As you baby gets a bit bigger there are many games you can play at bath time

Share a bath
Listen to music, sing a relaxing song or put in some bath toys and play. It’s a great bonding experience. For safety reasons, be sure not to fill the bath too high or too hot, and always have a firm hold on your baby.

Take care when getting in and out of the bath. Getting your partner to hand her to you, and take her from you is a good idea.

Swim in the bath
Being very careful to keep her mouth and chin out of the water. Hold your baby on her tummy and swish her gently up and down the bath, as if she is swimming.

Go to the swimming pool.

Most pools seems to advise to wait until your baby is 12 weeks old before taking them swimming, and take care if a noisy swimming pool scares her. Many babies just love the water, and can’t get enough ’swimming’.

Always check with your local pool or GP if you are unsure about taking your baby swimming.

Bath toys
Children love bath toys, and this includes babies. Some babies are a little wary of bath time, others love it. A few plastic ducks bobbing around in the water will encourage her to reach out to them. And of course they go ‘quack quack quack!’

Make ice cream hair.

When in the bath, use the suds from your baby’s shampoo to transform her hair into wild shapes. Have a plastic mirror handy so she can see your efforts.

Always make sure you baby is secure and cannot slip when in the bath.

Patting water

Show your baby how to pat her hands on the surface of the water in her bath to make a nice splashy sound. At first she will probably make a fist and it won’t work, but as she gets older she’ll get the hang of it. You’ll probably get just as wet as her!

Remember – while water can be fun, your baby needs to be safe at all times.

Water can be very dangerous.

Always check the temperature of water, make sure you have a secure hold of your baby, and make sure their face NEVER slides beneath the water.

As babies get older and more mobile they become more demanding for attention and stimulation. Sometimes you need a hand thinking of new things to do, so here are some fun (and noisy) things for you and your baby to do together…

Sing Sing Sing

If you don’t know the words to nursery rhymes, don’t worry. When your baby is young, it is the sound of your voice they love not whether you got the words right. TV theme tunes, adverts, pop songs – anything will do.

Play peek-a-boo with her toys.
Watch her laugh when her favourite teddy cries “Boo” from behind the sofa, or from over the crib.

Be silly.
Pull faces, blow raspberries, stick out your tongue. She will soon start to imitate you.

Giddy-up.
Sit your baby on your knee and sing out “giddy-up” while moving your knee up and down.

Play peek a boo.
Hide your face with your hands or her teddy bear and poke out from behind them, saying “boo!” in a bright, friendly voice.
Use different phrases: “peek a boo”, “boo”, “I see”, “Where’s (baby’s name)”, are just a few

Tummy time.
Get down on the floor with your baby. As your baby gets older she will laugh at you crawling and rolling about like a baby. By being on the floor with her, you can see what she sees, watch what she watches do what she does.
You see the world from her perspective.

Little drummer
When your baby can sit up, place a few pots and pans on the floor and give her a wooden spoon to bash them with. You’ll probably get tired of this before she does!

Round and round
A favourite game – even with quite young babies.
Sit her on you lap and hold her close, while tracing a circle round her hand, say,
“Round and round the garden like a teddy bear.”
Then walk your fingers up her arm, saying,
“One step, two steps, and tickly under there.”
End up by tickling her under the arm. As she gets older she’ll start doing the game back to you, or to teddy.

Blanket rides.
Place her on the middle of a blanket and pull her around the room. Watch your baby laugh! (Take care though!)

Get messy
Fun for both of you. Play with water, cooked and cooled spaghetti, jelly – use your imagination. But make sure the “mess” is safe for your baby’s age.

Playing with food
When she is older you will probably tell her not to play with her food, but playing with your food when you are a baby is all part of learning. See how many biscuits you can stack up before they fall. Try making necklaces from spaghetti or cereal and string. (The loopy kind)

Play with bubbles
Bubbles intrigue babies and watching the look of surprise on their face as bubbles burst is fantastic. You can buy child safe bubble mixture with wands in toy shops. (Check the label.)
Playing with bubbles is a good indoor or outdoor activity. Older children love joining in and your little one will be fascinated.

Change the words to her favourite nursery rhymes
Add her name in appropriate places, change different animals, and so on. “Young Kimberley had a farm.” instead of ‘Old MacDonald’, or “Katie put the kettle on” instead of ‘Polly’.
Old MacDonald had a farm – but he can have as many animals as you can do the noises for!

Babies need to have fun, no matter how old they are. If they are having fun – you will too. It doesn’t matter how tired you are – when you get that first smile, first giggle, nothing beats it!

Keeping your baby entertained in the first few days and weeks can be easy – they spend most of their time asleep anyway (if you are lucky!). As they get older and more mobile – they become more demanding for attention and stimulation. When they are young, a smile, the sound of your voice, a cuddle, might be all they need.

Sometimes you need a hand thinking of new things to do…
Here are some idea for creative activities for you and your baby.

Get creative

Make a foot or handprint of your baby.
A great souvenir to remind you of your baby’s hand or foot size at 3 months, 6 months or 12 months.

Buy a handy clay-kit, or make safe paint (mix flour and water to the right consistency, add a little food colouring). Paint their hand or foot, (or press it into the clay to make an imprint), then press their hand or foot onto paper

Make a mobile.
It doesn’t have to be complicated – just safe. Hang it above her cot – out of her reach. When a baby is very young they see black and white shapes best, and then as their eyes begin to focus better, brightly coloured shapes are good.

Make a video for friends and family.
If you have (or can borrow) a video camera, make a video or your baby.
Laughing, gurgling, feeding – anything!
A treasure you will enjoy well into their adult years, as well as your friends and family. You can upload the video to sites on the internet, or make a DVD.

Make a memory blanket.
Use her old clothes to make a memory blanket. You can use motifs from tops, or pieces in different colours and textures. If you are not up to all that sewing – remember you can still be green…
Recycle – Donate. Women’s shelters and other charities all are glad to take baby clothes off your hands. Clothes that are not fit for selling are usually sold to textile recycling firms that recycle the clothes into rags for commercial use.

Make a weight/height chart.
Growth charts can make it easy for you to follow her growth, as well as being fun for your baby as she gets older.

Any other creative ideas that you and your baby have tried – let us know.

With the latest research released by Pampers Active Fit revealing “that parents spend on average 40 minutes each week looking for household items moved by their babies as part of play time.” I wondered if this is actually a very conservative figure.

I know I seemed to spend an age looking for stuff. I’m not sure if it was a case of Mumnesia (any new mum will confirm this is a genuine affliction! ) my offspring trying to be helpful and tidying things away, or simply he knew how to wind me up.

Pampers have worked out that parents are “spending on average a staggering 2080 minutes [or 34 hours] over the course of a year looking for toys and household items their baby has lost.”

I wondered how this time could be better spent…

• Watching 20 movies – non stop!
• Having sex with your partner (2080 times)
• Catching up on much needed sleep

I found that as time went on, I spent more time looking for things. As my baby grew into a toddler, things seemed to migrate that bit further. The things that disappeared changed too, from dummies and toys, to the car keys, my mobile phone, money, food from the fridge, and yes even his bike!

According to the Pampers research

“The most common places toddlers hide items, which are then found by parents, are down or under the back of the sofa (40%), in the baby’s toy chest (14%), under the table (10%), in the pram (9%) and behind the TV (8%).

The strangest places parents have found missing household items or small toys include the washing machine or tumble dryer (one in five), the fridge (one in six) and stuck down the toilet (one in ten).

The most common items to be found down the back of the sofa are toys (nearly two thirds of those surveyed), unwanted snacks (six in ten) and dummies (just over a half of all respondents).”

It all sounds so frighteningly familiar!

I was wondering if I can have back all the time spent on looking for things, probably not.

What’s the strangest thing your baby has hidden/lost and where did you find it?

When I was young, preschool kids TV meant Playschool each morning and Bagpuss or the Flumps if I was lucky. We certainly had no dedicated Kids TV Channel.

It is probably impossible for children today to imagine only 3 TV channels and no kids TV on a Sunday. Black Beauty was the best Sunday TV had to offer in my day.

Before my baby was born, I was looking forward to the joys of CBeebies. I think I may have been crazy. Yes some of the programmes are brilliant, but when you have seen the same one 3 times in one day, you start to go slightly bonkers. I will admit some programmes I could watch endlessly. Timmy Time and Pingu are my favourites. Luckily for me, they are favourites of 3yo too! It is slightly disturbing though that he has a fondness for Waybuloo. Just what is that show about? I just don’t get it. Maybe you have to be under 5 to appreciate these things. I hate the dubbed voices, I hate the freaky floating creatures. I hate the fact that pretty much nothing happens.

I like kids TV programmes to be fun, bright and educational. Justin Fletcher seems to get it right. Mr Tumble is genius, Gigglebiz IS funny, Something Special teaches us sign language in a way that I and 3yo actually remember. I love the shows that give me ideas for what I can do with 3yo. I Can Cook – Katy cooks things that are healthy and fun to make. Kids cooking doesn’t have to be just Crispie Crackles. Mister Maker and Doodle Do have fun arts and crafts ideas that keep me and 3yo entertained. (Maybe they just keep the inner Blue Peter presenter in me satisfied.)

It is easy to let CBeebies become your babysitter though. The off button on the TV is hard to press, even when you are going nuts at the thought of watching Balamory AGAIN! Some experts say that you shouldn’t let your young child watch TV. Some say limit it. I agree that if your child is doing something else, don’t have it on in the background. It is a distraction that doesn’t help young minds concentrate on something else, and let’s face it, it can send mum potty! The CBeebies babysitter is useful when you are busy. It has it’s drawbacks though. The songs and theme tunes wafting in from the living room to the kitchen while you are making dinner, can have the effect of getting inside your head for hours. Anyone been humming the tune to Timmy Time – ALL THE TIME?

What do you think is the best and worst of kids TV?

These are nursery rhymes that we remember from when we were young. Some have actions that you will remember, some have melodies, but all work just read out to your child. She will probably remember the words before you do!! As nursery rhymes are passed down through the generations, you may know slightly different versions. All of them are right, just different, feel free to add in your words.

Remember, it is never too early to start reading to your child.

You can view and print the PDF ebook for FREE
A-Z Popular Nursery Rhymes

Nursery Rhymes in our FREE PDF ebook are:

• The Alphabet Song
• Baa, baa, black sheep
• The big ship
• Bobby Shaftoe
• Christmas is coming
• Dance to your Daddy
• Doctor Foster
• Five little speckled frogs
• Frère Jacques
• Georgie Porgie

• Good night, sleep tight
• Goosey, goosey, gander
• Grand Old Duke of York
• Here we go ’round the mulberry bush
• Hickory, dickory, dock
• Higglety Pigglety, my black hen
• The Hokey Cokey
• The house that Jack built
• Humpty Dumpty
• Hush-a-bye, baby

• Hot cross buns!
• I Hear Thunder
• If You’re Happy and You Know It
• I’m a Little Teapot
• I was going to St. Ives
• Incy Wincy Spider
• I had a little nut tree
• I see the moon and the moon sees me
• It’s raining, it’s pouring
• Jack and Jill
• Jack be nimble

• Jack Sprat
• Knick, knack, paddy whack
• Ladybird! Ladybird!
• Little Boy Blue
• Little Jack Horner
• Little Miss Muffet
• Little Polly Flinders
• London Bridge
• Lucy Locket
• Mama’s gonna buy you a mockin’bird
• Mary had a little lamb

• Mary, Mary, quite contrary
• Monday’s child
• The North wind doth blow
• Old King Cole was a merry old soul
• Old Macdonald had a farm
• Old Mother Hubbard
• One for sorrow
• One, two, buckle my shoe
• One, Two, Three, Four, Five
• Oranges and Lemons

• Pat-a-cake
• Pease pudding hot
• Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater
• Polly, put the kettle on
• Pop Goes the Weasel
• Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been?
• The Queen of Hearts
• Ring-a-ring o’ roses
• Row, row, row your boat
• See, saw, Marjorie Daw

• She’ll be comin’ round the mountain
• Sing a song of sixpence
• Ten Green Bottles
• There was a crooked man
• There was an old woman who lived in a shoe
• This little piggy went to market
• There was an old lady who swallowed a fly
• Three blind mice
• Three little kittens
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor

• Tom, Tom, the piper’s son
• Twinkle, twinkle, little star
• Wee Willie Winkie
• What are little boys made of?
• The Wheels On The Bus
• Yankee Doodle

Remember – you can download the PDF for FREE

Download A-Z Popular Nursery Rhyme ebook

All you need to view it is Adobe Reader, if you don’t have this already you can download it for free.

Download Adobe Reader