Development and Activities

Baby Milestones Milestones

At 2 months old, your baby will start looking at you and at times, even smile. These are great milestones that are very interesting to follow. By month 12, your baby will have 5 or so teeth and may be able to sit without help. Many more milestones will follow such as your baby sleeping through the night or having a dry diaper in the morning which will bring great excitement.

From months 0 to 12, there will be a lot of first and you should be happy to see this progress in your baby as it signifies that your little one is healthy. As your baby and toddler learn to do things by themselves, you will notice the way they learn, speak, act, move or play and all these will give you an idea of how well they are hitting the expected growth milestones.

Below are the main milestone categories and their descriptions:

Physical Milestones	These milestones show how the baby is developing physically demonstrated by the ability to do things such as rolling over, crawling, walking, and talking
Cognitive Milestones	These milestones show how the baby is developing new ways to think, communicate, and solve problems
Emotional and Social Development	These milestones show how the baby is learning to express feelings and emotions, and how they learn to understand other people’s feelings, as well
Language development	These miles show how your baby is learning to express themselves, respond to others, and understand when communicated to.

Activities:

As your to be toddler grows to pre-school and school ages, they’ll learn about different activities, some of which you may play a role in introducing them. Aside from what you show them, kids love to run around, find something to play with, jump around the yard, climb some trees or even ride some bikes or electric scooters.

All these are very important to their development and there are several baby safety items that you should get together with baby play equipment such as trampolines. Whether they are indoor or outdoor, and play will help in the development of their motor skills and you should encourage your little one to try out different things. What you need to understand, however, is that kids may not be good at judging dangers that could harm them in the environment. Trampolines, for example, result in a lot of injuries and we encourage parents to get those trampolines with enclosures.

Education

Before age 6 when typical American kids join an elementary school, you can start teaching your kid early about different things. Not necessarily algebra or spelling but there are plenty of opportunities to combine play and learning at home. You may even find learning at home is fun and decide to homeschool.

COVID motivated several parents to try out different ways to teach their kids while staying at home. Parents who were against masks also decided to try out different things to teach their kids at home where there is no mask mandate. Very interesting.

Some of the activities you can do at home that are part of learning include reading. If your kid is older, you can also try different learning software. There are even games to play on the trampoline or you can get your kid a tablet and there are plenty of apps for kids to learn.

Our Expert on Kids’ Activities and Development

Mary Stephens

Indoor & Outdoor Kids' Activities Expert

Mary Stephens is our infant development and baby fun activities specialist here at MotherhoodHQ. She has over 10 years of experience dealing with kids, previously as a K3 teacher and now as a K9-12 teacher specializing in physical education and Social Studies.

She is certified to teach in New York and Massachusetts and when not teaching trampoline jump tricks or giving toddler safety guides, she enjoys writing and providing helpful guides to parents on baby fun activities from infancy to toddlerhood.

Mary is also an independent consultant providing parents with fun activities at home and appropriate toys and baby gear for infants and toddler development. She can be reached at her email, mary.s(at)motherhoodhq.com.