Finger painting, playdough squishing, and scribbling with thick crayons—your ten-month-old is an artist in training.
These creative activities develop fine motor strength through art materials, encourage self-expression through color and form, and build the hand muscles needed for writing.
Your baby's marks are becoming more varied — lines, dots, scribbles in different directions. They experiment with pressure (pressing hard versus lightly) and enjoy the contrast between different media. Creative play is becoming more intentional and personal.
Offer a variety of mark-making tools: chunky crayons, finger paint, chalk on a sidewalk, a stick in sand. Let your baby experience how different tools create different marks. They're developing preferences and a personal approach to creative expression.
Varied mark-making at ten months develops fine motor control, creative experimentation, and the personal expression that are the building blocks of artistic development.
Stacking and nesting toys are perfect for this age. Your baby is learning about size, order, and cause-and-effect with every tower they build and knock down.
First words may be emerging! Name everything you see throughout the day—narrating your world is the single best vocabulary builder.
Brief standing is happening! Let your baby practice standing while holding your fingers—building the leg strength and balance for walking.
Baby crumples colorful tissue paper and presses it onto a sticky surface to create a textured collage — a taste-safe creative activity that strengthens little hands.
Baby creates colorful stamp prints using soft sponges dipped in taste-safe paint — a simple first art activity that builds hand strength and visual exploration.
Baby drags colorful ribbons through taste-safe paint to create swooping trail art — a mess-friendly creative activity that encourages reaching and arm movement.
Seal blobs of colorful paint inside a ziplock bag and tape it to the tray — your baby can squish, push, and mix colors without touching the paint directly.
Give your baby a wide brush and a cup of water to paint on cardboard — they see the color change as water hits the surface, with zero mess and zero risk.
Hand your baby their first chunky crayons and watch the magic of intentional mark-making begin — scribbling is the very start of writing and drawing.