Banging, smearing, tearing—your baby's first art is wonderfully destructive, and that's exactly how it should be.
These creative activities develop bilateral hand use, introduce mark-making as a concept, and encourage the exploratory play that is the origin of all artistic expression.
Your baby's creative play is beautifully destructive: they tear paper, bang on pots, smear food across their tray, and dump containers of objects. This isn't mess — it's experimentation with materials and cause-and-effect.
Offer safe materials for creative destruction: old magazines to tear, pots and wooden spoons to bang, finger paint on a high-chair tray. Your baby is learning what materials do when you act on them — the fundamental question behind all art-making.
Creative experimentation with materials at seven months builds bilateral hand coordination, cause-and-effect understanding, and the sensory tolerance for messy art.
Crawling is coming! Place favorite toys just out of reach to motivate your baby to move. Celebrate every army crawl and scoot.
Container play is a hit now. Babies love putting things in, dumping them out, and doing it again. Simple cups and blocks are all you need.
Repetition is learning, not boredom. Your baby wants the same game 20 times because each round strengthens a neural pathway.
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.
Create a safe textured surface for your baby to explore during tummy time — different fabrics taped to cardboard give little hands something to touch.