Up and down, round and round is what my Munchkin does a lot these days. She’s constantly climbing up anything and everything she can, running all over the place, going in circles. But then isn’t that what she’s supposed to do? She loves it and we just make sure there is nothing around that would hurt her.

Read on to know what new things were introduced to My Munchkin:

Care of Environment

This is something she did by herself through observation. A lot of times you will find my Munchkin with a cloth in her hand dusting things around the house. There are times you will find her with a broom, trying to clean up the house.

There is nothing wrong in letting your Munchkin do this as they are ingraining in them virtues of cleanliness and they are learning how to keep their surroundings clean. We have got my Munchkin her own child size broom and pan.

My Munchkin’s Shelf in Month 18

You will be familiar with most of the things on the shelf from my previous articles. The ones that are new are highlighted below:

Family Cards: A set of cards that have a picture of My Munchkin, her father and me. This is to allow her to observe and associate the image with the person. I will put up a DIY for this soon.

Farm Animals + Cards: You remember we had a set of Farm Animals on her shelf sometime back. We now added cards of the same animals to her basket for her to do a matching activity. Tutorial for this to come as well.

Blocks: My Munchkin has two sets of blocks, one is plain square wooden blocks and the other is big size building blocks. These keep her busy for a while when she works with them. Free play with blocks must be encouraged so let them build things by themselves rather that showing them what they need to do. If your Munchkin has an older sibling, this is one great activity for them to work together on.

Transferring Activity: A lot of our transferring activities are done in the kitchen with My Munchkin transferring cut vegetables into the water, or from the water into the strainer, etc. Since she enjoyed this, I added a transferring activity on her shelf too which she could work on when she wanted. She transfers balls from one bowl to the other. A DIY for this will come up soon as well.

Cupboard: She has had this for sometime now. A child-size cupboard with all her clothes, shoes, accessories in them. This is easy for her to access herself so you find her often opening it to remove some clothes or shoes when she wants to go some place.

Books, books and more books: I am blessed to have a reader. My Munchkin loves books and we have loads of them available for her. We rotate these on her shelf; keep only four to five out at one time. I hope to soon start a section on the books My Munchkin has and enjoys.

Outdoor Activity

The energy levels in babies are amazing and most often parents try to slow them down because they are unable to keep up. It is tiring but we try our best to not be a hurdle in her way and slow her or stop her.

At Month 18, she is trying to build her gross motor skills and what better than outdoor play. As parents we must be around our children when they are playing but at the same time allow them to do things themselves. My Munchkin climbs up the stairs and goes down the slide all by herself. This month she has started climbing the spiral stairs (not sure if that is the correct name) that leads to the slide. You can watch her do that in the video below:

Does your Munchkin enjoy outdoor activities? What is their favourite? Would love to hear about it.

Further to my post on Month 17, where I mentioned about exercising Maximum Effort, babies tend to have a big urge for this as new walkers. Trying most aspects of Maximum Effort helps them develop and perfect their motor skills. We saw in the previous post, one such way was to lift heavy object when walking. Another one is perfecting their walking skills and gross motor movements.

My Munchkin does not sit still for even 5 seconds (I am sure most of you know how this feels). She always wants to climb on things, walk, beginning to run and just be on the move all the time. This was the perfect time for the Balancing Beam to be done from my Montessori list of things to do. I looked up various designs and found it to be quite simple to get made.

Luckily I had spare wood at home from the making of our wardrobe. My husband organized for a carpenter to make the Balancing Beam for us. The length of this is 4 feet and on the base (to hold up the ground), we used three strips of 1 foot each. (You can probably do it without the center support but that would depend on how sturdy your wood is). Very simply cut the pieced and nailed them together (someone with the tools can make it themselves).

My Munchkin was thrilled to see something new for her to use. We of course have helped her walk on it initially and now she walks holding the wall or one of our hands. So initially they will hold on to something with both hands and slowly move to using one hand (holding the wall or your hand like my Munchkin). I am yet to see if she does it without holding on to anything.

In the beginning they may also walk with one foot on the beam and one on the ground. Its best to let them explore all the ways they find possible on their own.

Age: Around 14 to 16 months (once they are walking independently and steadily)

Purpose: Gross motor development and maximum effort.

I hope you are able to make this DIY for your Munchkin. Do let me know if they enjoy using it.