Baby's Place in Space

After Baby is born, every experience is new.  You smell new, their clothes and blankets smell new, their home smells new, even THEY smell new (well, different at least).  Every day, all day is full of new experiences.  How exhausting!  Sometimes to us grown-ups, one new experience a day is all we can take.  Thankfully, as we grow up and older, we find patterns and similarities that make our "new experiences" somewhat similar.

Baby, while in your belly, is wrapped up nice and tight knowing everything about your movements.  They are connected to you, and become used to your closeness and their position in your space.  After they are born, that position in your space is quickly disconnected and they are left with nothing but newness.  So -how do we give them an awareness of their space?  In their egocentric lives where they belong with us and around us is one of the most important things. 

In the Kindermusik curricula, there are exercises written specifically to expose your baby to their spaces.  The educational term for this is spatial awareness.  Up high, down low, in close to you, and away from you.  We forget that most of the time, Baby is looking at you or other people, or at your eye level, seeing things from your point of view (literally, not figuratively.  Give them some time, though, and they will!).  These exercises show them things above their eye level, and while they spend a lot of time looking at or nibbling on their adorable toes, by showing them the ground, you are showing them the carpet, your feet, shoes, etc. from a different and new perspective.

Kindermusik has created cute rhymes, games, and songs to encourage this type of awareness, and believe it or not, Baby LOVES them and learns at the same time.  One of my favorites is called "Clever Cows"

The clever cows in single file walk up the hill and stay a while.

Then black and brindle, red and brown the make a line and walk back down.

Now, you may be thinking, "how does this show my baby anything?"  I'm SO glad you asked!  You follow the directions in the rhyme, of course!  As the cows go up the hill, so does baby in a step-ladder motion.  At the top, they are extended above your head and away from your body.  As the cows climb back down the hill, they come down to the ground and back to you.  You have three new perspectives here!  You have the High, the Low, and the in between/movement view where baby can look around while in motion.  I LOOOOVE it!

While holding your baby way up high, way down low, in cuddled close, or away from your body during songs, games, bed time, car time, any time, you are creating new connections in their brain (something I talked about in this post), giving them a new perspective and yet another new experience. I encourage you to make the most of this brand new time because when they start to walk -all space is their space!



Musically yours~