In order to develop balance and stability, babies age 1-2 should practice walking in different directions and in different patterns. Non-walkers begin to develop the sense of balance by experiencing varied movements in a grown up’s arms.
For your crawler or lap baby, put on a piece of music you love. Hold your baby in your arms, and dance in curves, circles, zig zags, straight lines, and any direction you can think of. Be sure to change the direction you are holding your little one (frontwards, backwards, sideways or even upside down!) This helps your baby have a different visual perspective on the world.
For your walker, pull the car out of your garage. Take some sidewalk chalk and draw all sorts of different kinds of lines on the floor. Play follow the leader and have fun walking, running, jumping and tiptoeing on the lines. Be sure to change leaders, and let your child lead when he or she has the hang of the game. You’ll be surprised at how quickly your child will catch on.
-by Miss Analiisa, whose middle child Rob had a very clear preference to be held and rocked upside down when he was a baby. No small wonder he now is loving being a gymnast!
Special thanks to Analiisa Reichlin for allowing us to share such an informative post from the Studio 3 Music Blog. Analiisa is Director of Studio 3 Music in Seattle, Washington, the world’s largest Kindermusik program.