Entertaining Your Baby with Unique Play Ideas: Ceiling Fan Pulley
Sometimes entertaining an infant who is only a few months old feels challenging. You've already moved them from station to station in your home, trying out all of their toys from the store. In this article, we'll discuss a fun and unique idea for entertaining your little one while enabling them to track slow moving objects.
Does your baby like to lie under a still or slowly moving ceiling fan? If so, this activity adds to the fun! Choose a light weight and color stuffed toy. A Whoozit from Einstein works well.
Tie the toy securely with a long peice of ribbon.
Loop the ribbon over the blade of a securely installed ceiling fan that is off.
Place your baby on a blanket under the fan.
Lie down beside your baby while holding the other end of the ribbon.
Gently move the ribbon to make the toy (and the fan) move. The fan blades will gently begin to move around. The toy will slowly swing back and forth like an unpredictable pendelum. The toy moves slowly enough that the baby can track it if they are a few months old. My baby is 3 months old and loves this game. She kicks and yells as I lower and lift the toy using the ribbon as a pulley system. Then I move the ribbon so that the toy swings in gently arcs above her. It twirls and spins and swings. My baby is normally pretty fussy, but loved this activity and was entertained by it for 30 minutes. I finally ended the game. Who knows how long she would have laid there mesmerized!
It goes without saying, that safety is important. This should be a parent supervised game. Never let your baby grab the toy and pull it. An infant can easily strangle if left playing with ribbon.