Our SUPERbaby play series focuses on simple, playful ideas you can use with the youngest of children to have fun and encourage them to develop important early learning skills. The emphasis is on ideas you can easily fit into a busy week, using materials you’ll have around your home. This week we have some ideas you can use for mirror play.
Babies love looking at faces, so sit yourselves down in front of a mirror and have some fun.
- Start by sitting your baby on your lap or propped up between your legs, as you look at yourselves in front of a mirror. At first just let your baby look at their reflection and notice how they react. Do they try to touch the baby in the mirror or smile at her?
- Try changing your expression and seeing if your baby notices. Sit with a calm expression and then change to a happy, animated face. Can you make your baby laugh? Do they copy your expression and smile back?
- You could play peek-a-boo with the mirror too. Drape a scarf or piece of fabric over the mirror and wonder where the baby has gone – then whip it away with a flourish to find the baby is still there. This is a great opportunity to include an older brother or sister in the play, as they can be in charge of pulling away the scarf and can join in some fun play with their little sibling.
- It’s always good to include some chat with any game you play so you could touch and name the different parts of your face. ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ would be a perfect song to sing.
- If you have a safety mirror (a polycarbonate unbreakable one) you might think about fixing it up somewhere your baby can lie next to, or crawl over to. You could prop it up near to them when they’re having some tummy time and let them enjoy looking at the other baby.
Babies naturally like to look at other people and this mirror time lets them become familiar with faces and different expressions. It helps them practise focusing on things and tracking images with their eyes. It’s an early step towards their emotional development too because they’ll begin to notice how their own expression changes which once they are older can lead you into talking about how they’re feeling.
Does your baby enjoy looking at themselves in the mirror? What games do you play?
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!
Great post! I remember sitting in front of mirrors a lot when my little girl was 6 months and laughing at each other. Fond memories.
Oh, the wonderful hours I’ve spent in front of mirrors with my son as well as my nieces and nephews. Wonderful post.
Great ideas! A full-length horizontal safety mirror was one of my children’s favorite “toys” when they were babies! I featured your post at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/LivingMontessoriNow
Both my kids love making faces and poses in front of the mirror. They are not babies anymore, but it’s still great fun.
Thanks for the lovely ideas. My youngest is almost 6 weeks and is really starting to notice the world a lot more – I’m inspired to get her in front of the mirror now!
Hi Julie, just hopped over to your blog and your baby is lovely – congratulations! Glad you liked our mirror ideas.
What fun ideas, we had so much fun playing when Immy was a bub, you’ve made me wistful tonight 🙂
Ah this is lovely and I’m sorry I didn’t see that you had done something very similar before I posted! Do you find this happens a lot in the blog world? I’m already finding this and I’m still relatively new to it all.
Hi Anna, for sure you see similar ideas around the place but it’s good to get different people’s take on things and to see how they adapt ideas to suit their children. I think some ideas are brand new to us and others grow from things we’ve seen elsewhere – or even what we learned from our parents.