The winter break is upon us, and keeping your kids active and entertained at home these days (what with the global situation right now) couldn’t be more trying. As we all know, kids have a short attention span and get bored easily, so keeping them hooked to a game or two can test your patience for real. But don’t worry. Here are some fun and engaging activities that you can get your kids involved in and keep them busy during the holidays – or their free time!
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1. Make A Fort
Building a fort is a joyous art that your kids will love you for. Don’t worry, and it’s not as complicated as it may sound. You can have your kids make a fort using supplies that are readily available at home, such as:
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- Soft cushions
- Light blankets
- Spare sheets
- Laundry clips, chip clips, clothespins, or binder clips – any of these will do
- Strings, wires, or yarn
The success lies in successfully attaching sheets and ensuring they maintain a certain height so it looks like a fort.
2. Letter Writing
Now that everyone’s at home, there isn’t a better time introducing your kid to the concept of letter writing. Encourage them to write at least one letter daily to their loved ones, such as their best friend, grandparents, a distant cousin, etc.
In this process of having fun, your child will be able to hone their writing skills. Plus, you never know. They may even get a response from someone they sent a letter to, which could be exciting for your little one.
3. Craft a Treasure Hunt
A treasure hunt is an awesome game that will help your kid use both their mental skills and memory power. You can hide a coin – or any of your kid’s favorite toys – somewhere in the house and ask them to find it. Don’t forget to give interesting clues to activate your child’s guessing ability.
Also, try making the game a bit challenging to help your kids build up resilience and determination to solve your clues and find the prize.
4. Gardening
Help your child develop a green thumb by encouraging them to look after the garden. Start by making them water the plants daily. Then up the level by letting them take care of a small plant, any herb or flower plant.
Just make sure whatever you choose is easy to maintain so that your child doesn’t get overwhelmed by this activity.
5. Get Crafty
Your kids don’t require special talent or high-grade tools to get crafty at home. There are so many easy crafts for kids to make with few supplies – all of which can be readily found at home. For instance, kids can make a guitar out of a cardboard box, strings, and corks for tuning pegs. The same cardboard box can be used to make a puppet, cable car, ship, rocket, and so much more!
6. Listen to Stories
If your kid isn’t into reading storybooks, listening to audiobooks can be a welcome change. Puffin releases daily story time videos with children’s favorite authors on their YouTube channel, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. These are fun sessions that include readings and draw-along with authors and illustrators.
From the safety of their homes, children can listen to some of the most famous stories, including classics like Charlotte’s Web, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, and so many more!
7. Create a Memory Box
This is a great activity to keep younglings busy for a long time. Creating a memory box will get your kids’ creative juices flowing all while staying inside the house. Choose a box that is large enough to hold plenty of boxes. Now, your child can decorate it as they want. They can cover it with glitter, draw their favorite memories or cartoon characters, stick family photos, and so on. Once they have created a memory box, they can put their favorite things inside, including their favorite teddy, blanket, awards, certificates, and so much more.
8. Doodling
Doodling may be dismissed as a waste of time, but little do people realize that doodling can improve learning and creativity. If you have stacks of scrap paper lying around, doodling can be a fun and creative way to use them. Get your kids off the TV and mobile phones and encourage them to put their ideas and thoughts down on paper!
9. Do a Fun Science Experiment
Does your child love science? Well, a great way to get them to really explore their interest in science is by encouraging them to perform some cool yet simple science experiments that they can do at home.
Don’t worry, and you don’t need to get special equipment for them. All you need are a few objects from your own home and ingredients from the kitchen. For instance, a chemical reaction between baking soda and vinegar can create “lava.” All that needs to be done is adding some vinegar and baking soda to a plastic bottle until the gas bubbles and erupts!
10. Make A Gooey Slime
Gooey slime can keep your kids occupied to no end. We love the most about slime because it can be created at home with everyday supplies such as glue, water, and food coloring. Mix these three ingredients and add some borax until the slime starts to become elastic. All of this works because glue contains a liquid polymer that links itself to water and food coloring molecules, developing into a sloppy slime.
With these 10 interactive activities, your kids will be all set to make the most of their winter holidays. In fact, you will never see your kids complaining and saying, “I’m bored!”
