It’s so beneficial to get your baby hooked on books, as all the chatting you do as you read together boosts their language and listening skills. Just right for a Valentine’s gift then is this idea for a Lift-the-Flap Love Book.

1. Gather together some pictures of the people, pets and things your baby knows and loves.

2. Stick them on some colourful card to make pages for your book.

3. Make some flaps from coloured card a little bigger than each of your pictures, using contrasting colours to the pages so they catch your babies eye.

4. Make a fold at the top of each flap and use this edge to stick each flap over one of the pictures. You might like to use a strong glue and some tape over the top to make them extra sturdy and able to withstand some handling by little fingers.

5. Fasten all the pages of your book together with treasury tags.

6. Share the book with your baby. You can play peek-a-boo with the flaps, or guess who’s hiding underneath. Encourage your baby to try and lift the flaps themselves and say who they see underneath.

More activities for babies and toddlers

Zero to Two: The Book of Play is full of fun activities for babies and toddlers. Download you copy here!