An easy play guide to follow could be that of the senses.
We learn everything from our senses - our eyes, ears, sense of touch and movement, noses and through taste.
The more senses we use, the deeper the impression and greater the learning.
Imagine an orange. If you see an orange, you know what it looks like. If you see an orange and hear its name and touch it and feel it and taste it - imagine how much more profound and much better you understand it.
Let's look at each sense practically. What can we do in play with each of these senses?
Vision
Looking is one of a young babies chief sources of stimulation.
He cannot yet hold or reach out for a toy. Looking keeps him entertained. Looking also strengthens the eye muscles that are used for focussing.
He gradually recognise people, objects, shapes and sizes. Initially focus distance is about 20cm. In other words, breast-feeding distance.
For a young baby, black, white and red are colours that contrast strongly and that research has shown babies prefer.
Use high contrast designs, especially bulls' eyes, checker boards and a favourite with young babies - faces. Draw a face on a paper plate dangled over his cot.
We only look at a few ideas, once you begin with some of them, let you imagination take over and add to the repertoire.
Ideas to stimulate vision
Use mobiles, mirrors, shiny paper, tinsel, balloons and any other object you may have in the house that could be visually appealing.
Hang them from a coat hanger or a mobile stand or simply hold them for your baby to see.
Balls that roll along on the floor can promote visual tracking skills and focus.
Play peek-a-boo with partially hidden toys or by hiding yourself. Hide behind a cloth and peek-a-boo. Pop up toys and puppets are also fun.
Fill an old plastic cork bottle with water. Add food colouring and things that float and sink and shiny pieces of paper. Let your baby or toddler watch it as the water moves in the bottle. Roll it and encourage him to crawl after it.
Look through coloured cellophane, binoculars, sunglasses and magnifying glasses.
Encourage your child to look at similarities and differences - this leaf is round and smooth and this leaf is thin and pointy.
Look at books and pictures. Encourage your child to point out objects in a picture.
Try to change your baby's position during the day so that he has a different view of the world. If it's warm enough lie him under a tree to watch the leaves move.
Let him watch you as you prepare lunch. Take him on outings to the shop or to the farm.
Open and shut eyes, cover your eyes with your hands.
What do we use our eyes for? Tears come out of our eyes when we are sad. Some people wear glasses to see better.
Auditory or listening
Your baby can hear high pitched sounds better than low pitched ones. He enjoys soothing sounds and gentle talking or singing.
Use "parentese", a high pitched sing-song voice with exaggerated vowels. Talk to your baby, even though he cannot yet talk to you.
Talking speeds up the process of learning new words. A six-month-old can already recognise vowel sounds, the basic building blocks for speech.
Your baby can understand you long before he is able to talk.
Ideas to stimulate listening
Think of all the things you can do to make your child aware of his ears. We can whisper into each others ears, we wear earrings on our ears, we block our ears if we don't want to listen, we wear ear muffs to keep our ears warm.
Play classical music. Mozart and Baroque music are firm favourites. Research shows that if you listen to classical music early on, appreciation of the finer sounds will be enhanced.
Fill empty containers with rice, pasta, salt, buttons or sand. Shake them and listen to the sound they make. Shake them to a rhythm or to music.
Stuff a sock with cellophane paper and tie it securely at the open end. Let your baby feel and listen to it.
Try to make your child aware of daily sound. A watch ticking, rustling paper, an aeroplane, a creaking door, running water, a boiling kettle, a flushing toilet, wind or stirring tea.
Differentiate between sounds - loud, soft, fast, slow, happy or sad.
Make your own story or tape songs.
Sing nursery rhymes and other songs.
Play find the sound. Hide a playing tape recorder away behind a pillow on the sofa, and see if your toddler can find it.
The sense of touch
The tactile system is the largest sensory system in the body. It serves to protect us and it helps us to discriminate - it tells us about shapes, temperatures, textures, weight and sizes of objects in our environment.
Touch has an important emotional element too. Hugs make us feel good and touch can calm us down or excite us.
Ideas to stimulate touch
Give your child lots of hugs and cuddles. Spend time holding, rocking or carrying your baby.
Massage your child using firm, but gentle strokes.
Massage is good for both physical and emotional well- being.
Consider the variety of body positions your baby experiences throughout the day. Instead of always putting him on his back, put him on his tummy or side, from where he can receive different sensations.
Providing a variety of body positions for playing, sleeping and cuddling helps your baby to master gravity, movement and body control.
Allow your baby to crawl and lie on different surfaces - grass, carpets, silky fabric.
Sand and water play is full of tactile experiences.
Place a basket of interesting objects for your baby to explore and play within each room of the house.
The bathroom could contain a nail brush, a face cloth, empty plastic containers, a bath plug.
The kitchen could contain a sieve, pots and pans, tupperware, wooden spoons, unopened packets that make lots of noise.
Make a touch and feel book using textures for your illustrations - rubber, hessian, rough and smooth textures.
Mess in the mud - if you have a garden to do so!
Paint with butterscotch pudding, bake using hands to mix, squish with jelly or spaghetti.
Hide under duvets, crawl through tunnels, play on the grass.
Provide lots of physical play opportunities, crawling, sliding, rolling and body games.
The sense of taste
Our sense of taste can tell us about salty, sweet and sour tastes. It can also tell us about temperature and texture.
Your toddler will be ready to sample cold yogurt or warm tea, crumbly biscuits, lumpy porridge, crunchy carrots and apples.
Make him aware of his tongue by sticking yours out and asking him to stick his out. Look in the mirror together at each others tongues.
The sense of smell
Make your toddler aware of his nose by painting it red with lipstick, discuss what we do with our nose. We smell, sniff, blow and sneeze. Animals have very sensitive noses.
Use words to describe smell: delicious, spicy, horrible, yucky.
Make your own smelling garden by picking herbs and pasting them on paper or by sticking them into a polystyrene holder.