Baby Activities From 0 to 12 Months: Simple Ideas, Age by Age

Your baby is awake, fed and happy, and you are wondering what to do together. Do you need a special mat, "educational" toys, baby music? In reality, the most useful baby activities are very simple: your face, your voice, the floor at home and a few everyday objects.

Here are practical ideas by age group, from birth to 1 year, based on advice from paediatricians and health authorities, along with what to avoid: screens and too much stimulation. For month-by-month developmental milestones, our series starts with your baby at 1 month.

Play starts with you

Before any toy, it is your interactions that stimulate your baby. Naître et grandir, the Quebec parenting resource, reminds parents that these exchanges nourish social development and language, and that expensive or complicated toys are unnecessary: a baby is interested first and foremost in the world around them.

Ordinary moments become baby activities: naming what they are looking at, singing at bath time, keeping them close at mealtimes, chatting your way through a walk to the market or the park. The WHO recommends that infants be active several times a day in different ways, particularly through floor-based play with an adult. It also advises not keeping them restrained for more than an hour at a time, in a pushchair, high chair or back carrier.

Tummy time, from the very first days

This is the cornerstone of the first months. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggests starting as soon as you are home, with 2 to 3 short sessions of 3 to 5 minutes a day, then building up to 15 to 30 minutes a day by around 7 weeks. The WHO then sets a target of at least 30 minutes a day, spread across the day, for a baby who is not yet mobile.

Tummy time always happens while your baby is awake and watched by an adult: France's Haute Autorité de santé (HAS) describes it as a special moment of connection. For sleep, babies stay on their back, as explained in our article on safe sleep. Varying positions also helps prevent flat head syndrome.

0 to 3 months: faces, voices and first sounds

At this age, babies are stimulated mostly by people. The CDC, the US public health agency, suggests for the first months:

• placing your baby on their tummy while awake, with toys at eye level;
• talking, reading and singing to them;
• shaking a rattle on one side of their head to see if they look for the sound;
• responding to their coos with enthusiasm, smiling and talking back.

Before 6 months, Naître et grandir suggests action songs, with facial expressions, touch and imitation. For the milestones at this age, read your baby at 2 months and your baby at 3 months.

3 to 6 months: grasping, rolling, mouthing

Your baby discovers their hands and wants to grab everything. The CDC recommends playing with them every day on the floor or on a play mat, placing them on their tummy or back with toys just out of reach, to encourage them to stretch out an arm and roll. The HAS describes the same set-up: a baby on their back, on a firm mat on the floor, with toys placed around them.

Everything they catch ends up in their mouth: that is how they explore. Offer light rattles, teething rings and a cloth book, and check that nothing around them can be swallowed. The milestones of this period are covered in your baby at 4 months and your baby at 5 months.

6 to 12 months: hiding, emptying, stacking, moving

Sitting up, then crawling, your baby handles things and tries to work them out. The games suggested by the CDC at 6 and 9 months:

Between 6 months and 1 year, Naître et grandir also suggests a little obstacle course with musical toys and mats of different textures to cross or go around. Once they start pulling themselves up, push-along toys take over: our article on first steps covers this stage. Month-by-month milestones are in your baby at 9 months and your baby at 12 months.

Reading, singing and listening to music

Books and songs are part of play from birth. The CDC advises talking, reading and singing to your baby from the first weeks, then, around 6 months, "reading" every day by looking at colourful pictures and talking about them, as well as singing songs and playing music. At this age, reading mostly means talking about the pictures.

The WHO encourages reading and storytelling by an adult during quiet times. Read and sing in your home language, whether that is Darija (Moroccan Arabic), Amazigh, Arabic, French or English. Our ideas for reading stories to your baby and our nursery rhymes and songs for babies will get you started.

Screens, on the other hand, do nothing for development: the WHO recommends no screen time at all before age 1.

Too much stimulation? The signs that say stop

A baby needs stimulation, but also calm. Australia's Raising Children Network describes the signs of overstimulation: your baby becomes irritable or tired, turns their head away, moves in a jerky way, clenches their fists, waves their arms or kicks, then cries if nothing changes.

Naître et grandir lists common causes such as loud noises, electronic toys, fast-moving images and a baby being passed from arm to arm. On celebration days or during big family visits, when everyone wants a cuddle, make sure your baby gets breaks. What helps: talking softly and taking them somewhere calm and dimmer until they settle.

Household items or toys: what do they really need?

Very little. A wooden spoon, stacking cups, a light scarf, a cardboard box with a lid, a small plastic bottle filled with rice with the cap glued on: your cupboards already hold plenty of baby toys. Just check that each object is clean, large enough not to be swallowed, and has no small parts that can come off.

A few well-chosen toys complete these treasures: a baby play mat for the first months, easy-grip rattles, an arch or hanging toys, then stacking toys. To choose by age, our guide to developmental and Montessori toys by age sorts it all out. And to let your baby move freely between games, read our article on free movement for babies.

From the shop

For floor play, grasping and listening

A play mat or activity arch for the first months, easy-grip rattles, a book to chew on: a few well-chosen items are enough, and the rest is already in your cupboards.

• −48 %LudiMagic bath book, from 6 months – Ludi52 DHinstead of 100 DHView product
• −48 %ChiccoTulip bell rattle, blue – Chicco78 DHinstead of 150 DHView product
• −46 %Tiny LoveBoho Chic sloth rattle – Tiny Love107 DHinstead of 200 DHView product
• −42 %LudiAnimal tiles play mat, from birth – Ludi143 DHinstead of 245 DHView product
• −11 %BadabulleSafari universal activity arch – Badabulle319 DHinstead of 360 DHView product
• −54 %Tiny LoveBlack & White giant activity mat – Tiny Love365 DHinstead of 790 DHView product
• The whole aisle · Activity mats21 products online, delivered anywhere in Morocco.Open the aisle

Products sold by La Maison du Bébé, publisher of this magazine. Prices as of 12 October 2026; please check the product page.