All the parenting books state how important play is to babies. We all want our babies to learn and to have fun.

Your baby is born with about 100 billion brain cells. Just think about that for a minute. That's 100 billion cells just waiting to be stimulated. Some of these cells are already connected at birth, however, most are not. To become connected, these brain cells need to be stimulated. How do you get these brain cells to connect? Through play of course! Babies are born with 5 senses: hearing, feeling, tasting, smelling and touching. When you play with your baby, repeating experiences such as playing pat-a-cake, you are in fact stimulating the senses which in turn help the brain form the connections between all these cells. And it's these connections which lay the foundations for how your baby learns, acts, thinks and feels. This all sounds rather technical but really all it takes is simple play activities to stimulate and help to grow your baby's brain!

Here are a few simple ways you can include play in your day to day life with your baby:

• Provide age appropriate and interesting toys for your baby to handle and learn through self-discovery. Babies learn a lot from trial and error. By providing them with the time and space to explore toys you will create many learning opportunities for your baby. Toys that squeak and rattle teach concepts such as cause and effect, which is usually learned through trial and error.

• Provide your baby with everyday objects that they can safely play with. Plastic and metal bowls are good for banging with a spoon, or for putting things in and tipping them out again. Cardboard boxes are great for pushing, banging, stacking or even sitting in.

• Encourage and praise your baby's play. For instance, if your baby has just learned how to grasp a toy and rattle it - respond with a smile and a few words of encouragement. It's through these little discoveries that babies begin to build a solid foundation upon which to learn even more complicated concept.

• Begin reading to your baby from birth. They'll enjoy the sound of your voice and the rhythm found in the sound of reading out aloud.

• Don't forget about outside play - babies love 'baby-safe' swings, baby pools (supervised of course), large balls to push and roll and just generally getting the opportunity for touching, smelling, seeing, hearing (and often tasting!) the outdoors.

By Nicole Rawson-Huff

Please share your comments, play ideas and stories below.

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