what to do with a six month old?

My girls loved being read too. To this day they still love being read to. It's good for them as well. Singing to them is great too. My girls used to love it when I would hold them and dance around the living room as well. Getting down on the floor with them playing floor games with them is what my girls liked as well growing up. Good luck and I bet your little girl will grow up to be very smart.

I started reading to any babies around me [have a large extended family] from day one but at this age a baby will love attention, they do make what they call bathtub books, I did purchase some of thse, however never allowed them in the tub, didn't want the child to learn to put books in water but they are easy to clean up if say it gets drooled on, or ends up in their mouths. This is when their necks are getting stronger so they are able to better hold head up to look around so keeping the kind of activity toys that have bright colors and will provide cause and reaction is a good idea. This may sound odd to some, but six months is about the time if you choose to start teaching sign language, this is a time when understanding of language and moter skills develop more quickly then a baby learns to speak, there are some books out on baby sign language and can help them in ways that they can take throughout their lives. Learning that they can communicate in ways that are more clearly, is a great learning tool, because it also develops more interaction, and less annoyance when they want something but can't get the message across. Simple things, can be done to start, example, before reading, to your child, be sure they can see your hands clearly and then put your palms together then open them like you would a book and say book, then bringing out the book and reading to them one with bright colors and pictures is both a way for them to learn as well as a good way for you to create the idea that learning is fun, pointing out all the different shapes or colors or items in the book they look at. signing doesn't interfere with children developing their speech skills often it helps them because they already know better how communication can work for them. each child is different, so pay attention and watch what it is your child seems to do or be drawn to or seems to pay attention to the longest, example, as a baby one of my cousins ALWAYS banged on things, before he could speak he would bang on things and while we didn't realize it at first he did seem to notice that different things made different sounds. His favorite toy was a wooden spoon he would use to bang on everything, from pots to furniture, to boxes etc, later he turned out to have an ear for music, not as a drummer which with the banging some might thing that would be how he ended up, but he just liked creating tones etc, different cousin liked things that were quieter, but loved bright colors and contrasts, no that child did not become an artist, but it is just an example, one child loved the different mutli colored plastic blocks, one loved banging things. So part of finding what to do with your child will be trial and error, to see what they may be interested in. At this age babies love attention, enjoy when people are around them with them talk to the child, and find ways that seem to work best for your child as an individual, if your baby seems to respond well to sounds, then toys and games with noise ie the toy xylophone, or other items like that, so they can learn different dounds etc, if your child responds best to when you are lookin directly at her then talk to her, maybe try baby sign language, or just always make a point of talking to her about what is going on around you both, or maybe she likes the sound of your voice so that reading is a good option, be sure to find childrens books with good pictures that you can show. And it helps to build strength when you hold her with her feet on your lap or the floor so she stands and bounce her gently, also at the six to seven month stage she is likely to start pickin things up so work on that, find things where you can move things around or transfer things from one place to another, but since this is when babies really start to grab at small things and put them in their mouths be sure that small objects she might choke on are kept out of reach. One game we played was using the stuffed animals and moving them around but making the animal sounds, with us taking the animals and "walking" towards are away from my one niece, she would laugh and sometimes try to grab them, sometimes try to move them back and forth expecting one of the adults around her to make the animal noises for her. My one uncle called it playin zoo keeper.

i have a three year old son and pictures appears as my avatar. when he was six months we watch tv together, bathe together i read him a book and talk to him a lot. my wife also do that too. he loves seeing his mom dancing on some nursery rhymes. we also have cds of nursery rhymes that we play everyday. that helps a lot. welcome to the wonderful world of mylot diana