Musical toys are a great way to teach babies about object permanence since they can be out of sight but not out of ear shot. Today, I pulled out several of Veronika’s musical toys and music boxes to see if she could find them once hidden. This is a slightly more sophisticated variation on a musical “hide and seek” game we played when she was just an infant. This time around, there’s an added element of enticing your baby to crawl.

She loves music boxes when out in the open.

I thought for sure she’d go for them right away once I hid the box under a blanket, but little Miss Busy had her attention elsewhere.

A toy music cube grabbed her attention better. I pretended to crawl around next to her. Where was the music?

I had to slightly pull back the edge of the blanket before she truly noticed the musical toy.

But now she’s got it!

If you repeat this game over and over, you’ll reinforce the idea of object permanence. Later in the afternoon, I hid the music box behind pillows.

This time she was more interested. She bopped along to the sound and then went looking.

Ta da!

You can have so much fun with this one in various ways as your baby continues to grow. Once he or she is really crawling, try hiding the musical toys behind furniture. And during the toddler stage, let them be the hider, and mommy and daddy can go on a music hunt.