Thing To Do With A 6 Month Old In Bangkok?

[Learned]

Anyone got any suggestions of things to do with a 6 month old baby to 1 year old in BKK?

Like activity centers, classes etc?

Thanks.

[Nomad97]

You just have to be joking, aren't you? Are you really the father of this child? To the best of my knowledge most 6 month old babies have yet to master the art of rolling from their front to their back or vice-a-versa. For sure they have not yet mastered the art of sitting up, crawling or even standing at this age. And I doubt if they are making any intelligible sounds other than the odd burble-burble once in a while. And you want to send your child to an activity center and entrust your helpless and defenseless baby to someone else's care - shame on you. My advice, for what it is worth, look after your baby by yourself. Good luck in what is obviously your first attempt at fatherhood. After a while you may even enjoy the common bond that develops between father and child.

[dave111223]

They have "Baby Genius" and similar, which i think have session for 6 months+ babies. I think for the baby sessions it's pretty much just a padded area with some balls and bouncy stuff etc and babies just crawl around.

http://www.babiesgenius.com/contents/class1.html

[gregb]

We haven't found many group activities for small babies in Bangkok. Ours are 15 months old now, so they are just starting to reach the point where they can play with what is out there.

One thing you do want to consider is language. The period from 6-8 months is the time when the baby's brain forms pathways to inhibit the types of sounds that he can process for speech. They do this through statistically analyzing the speech patterns of their care givers. Recordings or television don't seem to have the same effect. Something about the way brain develops allows them to distinguish between other sounds in the environment and sounds from the people who are speaking to them.

Thus, if you wish your child to learn any languages other than what you and your spouse are already speaking to the baby, you may wish to visit a language school for several sessions a week and have a native speaker of that language read to the child and play with the him. Children can still rewire their brains to absorb a language up to age 7, but the easiest time to cement the architecture is 6-8 months. The longer you wait, the less efficient the process. After 7, learning a new language is done significantly differently and many can never become native speakers.

Do note that by starting them early on languages you will delay the onset of speech. By giving them a richer set of sounds to recognize, you necessarily extend the time it takes them to distinguish which sounds are important in a given situation. This is why historically doctors encouraged speaking a single language first, and then introducing other languages after the child began speaking. This plays well to the adult way of thinking, but not to the baby. The best thing for him is to train his brain early on to recognize all the sounds he will need, and then let him figure out how to group the sounds into different patterns of speech. It takes longer to begin speaking, but in the end his affinity for language will be improved.

As for what to do during the day, I would say simply go out to the mall or other places where there is alot of activity. Children at that age are trying to understand the social behaviors that govern their world. Let them see different people, different sights, different sounds. My experience is they will be fascinated just sitting in a stroller and moving through the mall. No reason to get any more sophisticated than that at this stage. There have to be more than a thousand malls in Bangkok. Even going to a different one everyday you could never visit them all.

I think before the age of 2 they just aren't really ready to face any kind of social situation with other children, so any type of group activity just isn't viable.

[richard_smith237]

You just have to be joking, aren't you? Are you really the father of this child? To the best of my knowledge most 6 month old babies have yet to master the art of rolling from their front to their back or vice-a-versa. For sure they have not yet mastered the art of sitting up, crawling or even standing at this age. And I doubt if they are making any intelligible sounds other than the odd burble-burble once in a while. And you want to send your child to an activity center and entrust your helpless and defenseless baby to someone else's care - shame on you. My advice, for what it is worth, look after your baby by yourself. Good luck in what is obviously your first attempt at fatherhood. After a while you may even enjoy the common bond that develops between father and child.

Calm down... The Op. is asking a rather logical question. Should he automatically know everything?

I'm not a parent but read these threads out of interest as one day in the near future I hope to be.

[Nomad97]

Sorry! It was the middle of the night and I had been up looking after one of my own young daughters. Perhaps I was a little on the hard side.

Quite honestly, and from recent personnal experience, a 6 month old baby is quite happy with their own surroundings in the home. Plenty of loving care is the order of the day. Soft cuddly toys, squeaky toys and rattles and interaction between child and parent does wonders for the child. And plenty of sleep for both baby and parent - you will be needing it after all those wake-up calls in the middle of the night.

[GooEng]

Sorry! It was the middle of the night and I had been up looking after one of my own young daughters. Perhaps I was a little on the hard side.

Quite honestly, and from recent personnal experience, a 6 month old baby is quite happy with their own surroundings in the home. Plenty of loving care is the order of the day. Soft cuddly toys, squeaky toys and rattles and interaction between child and parent does wonders for the child. And plenty of sleep for both baby and parent - you will be needing it after all those wake-up calls in the middle of the night.

god knows after a night of nappies pukes and crying, a terse answer is totally understandable, but yeah that's more on the money there than the inital tirade old boy ...

in my experience, at 6 mths they are as happy in the bath or lolling about on a duvet as they would be in a pool or activity play area, and are just as happily amused by a sheet of plain paper or a ping-pong ball as they are by an "educational toy". i also think that as young as that they probably benefit more from additional time spent with parents and siblings forming bonds there than they would in a group situation.

[samran]

we started our girls swimming at Bangkok Dolphins around 8 months. Only 30mins per week, but good daddy-daughter time for me...

[Learned]

Thanks for the suggestions. At 6 months the baby is already crawling so some padded gym type environment is top of the list!

The language idea sounds good, not sure what language would be best to pursue, do you know of any places that cater to young children?

Finding it hard to fill the days as the baby is full of energy and doesn't like being indoors for extended periods, prefers to be around other children for general people watching!

[samran]

Thanks for the suggestions. At 6 months the baby is already crawling so some padded gym type environment is top of the list!

The language idea sounds good, not sure what language would be best to pursue, do you know of any places that cater to young children?

Finding it hard to fill the days as the baby is full of energy and doesn't like being indoors for extended periods, prefers to be around other children for general people watching!

Have you checked out the BAMBI playgroups? Great way of meeting other parents too.

[dave111223]

We just signed our son up at Gymboree http://www.gymboree.co.th/en/index.php once a week (but you can go just about every day if you wanted to).

He's 10 months and he loves it there.

[Livinginexile]

Thanks for the suggestions. At 6 months the baby is already crawling so !

The language idea sounds good, not sure what language would be best to pursue, do you know of any places that cater to young children?

Finding it hard to fill the days as the baby is full of energy and doesn't like being indoors for extended periods, prefers to be around other children for general people watching!

"some padded gym type environment is top of the list" lol

Dude...your baby is 6 mths old! you need to take care of her/him yourself.

"The language idea sounds good, not sure what language would be best to pursue" Ummm...perhaps English would be a good start?

Seriously, you sound like you are struggling a bit. My sugestion would be to join a parenting group, get together with other parents and learn how to be a father. The answer is not to put your baby into a padded cell.

Good luck!