Your baby may be moving around by this stage by bottom shuffling, crawling, or rolling. It is very typical for some babies to miss out the crawling phase altogether. If your baby has decided walking is their mission, there are plenty of ways you can build the skills your baby would have been practising.
Wherever your baby is on their journey of crawling, here are few ideas of making crawling into a fun activity. Your baby isn’t the only one who can join in, crawling is good for adults too!
1) Sensory crawling
Create a sensory trail for your baby either indoors or outdoors. Place items on the floor such as a cushion, blanket, towel, bubblewrap. Anything that you can lay your hands on that have different textures. Make your way around the items, on your hands and knees. You are welcome to describe the textures as you move onto them.
2) Tunnels
If you have shop bought tunnel, this is a great resource for encouraging crawling. If you don’t do not despair. Your furniture will be of great use in this activity. Turn chairs inwards and place fabric, such as towel over the seats. Your baby will have to crawl under in order to get through. An even easier way is to encourage your baby to crawl under the legs of your chairs. You have to decide whether this is an activity you wish for them to whilst you might not be looking though!
3) Cardboard boxes
If you have any larger cardboard boxes, lay the with the open side lay on the floor. Place some toys in the box. If your baby wants to enter the box, the only way is crawling!
4) Crawling under legs
Stand with your legs spread far apart. Encourage your child to crawl under them. Try this activity with a toy if they need some motivation. Your baby can crawl to fetch the toy if it is placed right behind your legs.