If you’re looking for interesting and educational ways to entertain your youngsters, you’ve come to the right place! Today, I’m sharing some fun ideas for activities and projects that your kids can enjoy at home…
1 ANIMAL MAGIC
If you’ve got pets – or even animals in your garden – they can be a great source of learning for your children. If you’re indoors, get a wormery, ant farm, sea monkey zoo or fish tank starter kit so they can watch the animals growing and creating their own mini-world. If you have a garden, you can let the little ones put out seeds and nuts for the birds and help them to make fat balls using lard and bird feed.
Kids can take responsibility for looking after pets too. Washing the dog, grooming the cat, and feeding them or refilling their water bowls can become part of their regular routine. Looking after their animals teaches them to how care for others and gives them the responsibility of pet ownership.
2 GET CREATIVE
Most kids enjoy art – I think it’s the messiness that makes it so much fun! Nonetheless, you can easily spread out a tablecloth or old sheets of newspaper to keep the paint and glue under control while they create their very own masterpieces. For older kids, how about painting along with Bob Ross on Netflix? We did that with our friends recently and it was a fun way to spend the day – also, it takes a lot longer than you think, so it’s a good few hours of creative entertainment.
Scrapbooking is also fun for kids as it boosts their memory as they look back over photographs and stick in event tickets or travel passes. They can be encouraged to write down a paragraph or two about the day that the photo was taken and this can be glued into the scrapbook along side the pictures. Creating photo albums is something that we all would like to do but never get round to doing it – so why not get the kids on the job?!
3 READ AND WRITE
Now’s the time to get your children to read and write more at home. But how? Well I’ve shared a guide to get your kids more interested in books here – and it involves dressing up, reading out loud and even making up their own stories. If your children have seen the films but never read the books (Beauty and The Beast or Cinderella for little ones, Harry Potter for the older kids) this is also a great way to encourage them to start reading more because they already know that they enjoy the story.
4 COOKING UP A STORM
Baking at home can be a fun way to learn maths. No, honestly! Imagine if you have double the quantities of a 2-person recipe so that it feeds all 4 of your family? Kids will be figuring out sums without even noticing! Measuring out ingredients can also turn into a maths task, if you’re converting ounces to grams or similar. Find out at what ages it’s safe for kids to learn to cook here.
Plus, cooking with kids is the best way to get them to east ingredients that they wouldn’t usually try – if they’ve made it themselves, they are SO much more likely to eat the end result. I’ve enjoyed making everything from chocolate rice crispy cakes with toddlers to layering up lasagne with older children and, in my experience, they LOVE to get involved with any kind of cooking (and eating)! This leads us nicely on to…
5 HEALTH AND EXERCISE
Educating your children in nutrition is a skill that’ll help them to stay healthy and strong throughout their lives. While you’re cooking together you can work out nutritional values and make sure that meals include all the nutrients they need = More maths!
The mental health value of exercise for adults is widely known – and it’s just the same for children. If you’re at home there are plenty of exercises you can do together indoors or in the garden – just have a look on YouTube for exercise classes and yoga lessons that you can follow along with. The benefits of teaching yoga to children and teens include easing stress, boosting confidence and taking on a challenge, so it’s a great way to help them mentally as well as physically.
Will you be giving any of these ideas a go this week?What else are you doing with your children at home? Let me know your ideas in the comments below so we can all benefit from your activities and ideas 🙂
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