Activities with DD 9mo

[herethereandeverywhere]

DD is very good at occupying herself with her toys on her mat. She's not mobile yet, although rolls onto tummy and pushes up (before protesting to be rescued!)

I try to spend some time every day reading to her (she's a bit young and prefers to eat the book!) and singing with her. Probably 15-30 min.

I used to take her to swimming and music classes but they've finished for the summer and if I'm honest I'm getting BORED. I've set up some meet ups with NCT buddies and other friends on mat. leave but the rest ofthe time she's plonked on her mat and I'm on mumsnet (or similar )

I would like to be more pro-active/structured for part of my day and spend some nice one to one time with DD but what do I actually DO ? If anyone has some good ideas for games/activities it'd be much appreciated. I should be cherishing this time before I go back to work but its becoming monotonous.

My DD is 10 months old, and the things we do together are:
Blowing bubbles, playing with shaving foam or spaghetti with tomato sauce, rolling balls around, building towers and knocking them down. She also loves empty cardboard boxes!! And nursery rhymes and 'dancing'.
Or we go out to the supermarket which she loves, or go and see animals (we live in the country) or to the swings which she's just started enjoying. Before she like the swings, she used to just watch the other children but it kept her occupied while I could have a coffee
HTH

I know the under 2's are not meant to watch tv, but when i've been struggling, i put on cbeebies for 20mins or so and watch with her, talking most of the way through (yesterday we saw somwthing about houses - and where animals live), some days there's something with singing and dancing, and we dance around the room with the programme.

Otherwise, in the pram and to the park we try to go..

Also if you're stuck for nursery rhymes / music to play for her - try youtube if you're on the computer anyway.

Also, what about just taking her to the swimming pool, lessons or not?

Messy play is great at that age and the summer weather means its much easier to do it all outside and not have a big bother!

Tub of water outside with cups etc

Pull her highchair into the kitchen and bake with her, tell her about what you are doing and she can bash n crash some measuring cups.

Nothing wrong with singing and dancing to a bit of TV or maybe just put a CD on and do some dancing.

Building blocks / skittles will be fun for her to watch / chew / trash

See what your library has on offer, even if its packed with older kids during the hols she'll still enjoy watching them.

I cut out pictures from baby magazines / catalogues and glued them to a big piece of crdboard with themes of babies (jumping / sleeping / eating / drinking etc), animals (teach noises etc) and fruit / vegies. Big bright interesting - another thing we could look at together and practice signing or just make up stories etc.