This activity takes all of two minutes to set up, but your baby will reap great benefits from it. It’s perfect for times when you want to visually stimulate a baby who can’t sit up yet; great for tummy time; and also encourages gross motor development towards rolling or crawling.

Here’s the set-up: lay a soft blanket on the ground, and simply surround it with pretty scarves. Before I draped each one down, I let Veronika see it and grab it if she wanted to, then added it to the circle.

Now baby goes in the middle! The bright colors immediately caught her eye. Since Veronika isn’t rolling on her own yet, I nudged her gently to her side.

From here, she could complete the roll, and seemed intent on getting closer to the bold blues and reds. If your baby is already rolling, he or she might enjoy rolling back and forth between these scarves for quite some time!

Once on her tummy, she had plenty to look at, which was a nice way to shake up tummy time.

Back on her back, she enjoyed running her hands over soft fabrics, or grabbing on to the tassels, leading to great tactile play.

Note: There’s also no need to wait until your baby is rolling for this game. I’ve been setting Veronika up in a similar circle of scarves since she was tiny. The only difference is that now the game is more interactive.