Keep Your Children Busy at Home with These Tips

Guest post by Samantha Green 

Parenting has never been an easy feat, but it has become more challenging lately, with kids at home 24/7.

Whether you need help juggling working from home (Work-from-home jobs are available here: https://jooble.org/) and looking after the children, or just in need of fresh and creative ways to break a monotonous daily routine, we’ve rounded up several low-maintenance yet effective solutions to keep your kids occupied and engaged throughout the day.

 

Enlist their help with chores.

While it may seem like doing chores is more like a punishment, it can actually be a fun and productive way to break the monotony at home.

Make chores more interesting for your children by setting up a rewards system (monetary or otherwise) that compensates them for the amount of work they do around the house. This will not only encourage them to help out more but also make them realize that their efforts are appreciated.

Debit card for kids provide a level of ease to spend allowance in a way that is safe and convenient. You can download and make use of a kids chore app to make the task designation and tracking a whole lot easier!

Nurture their green thumb

Since your kids have more free time in their hands these days, why not get them started on a gardening project?

Gardening is a great way to teach the younger ones about plants and how they grow. For the older children, it’s as good an opportunity as any to (maybe) help them explore a new hobby.

Learn new things while having fun in the dirt and enjoying a few extra hours of sunlight!

Prepare meals together

Children, especially the little ones, love to hang out in the kitchen when the adults are making something. If you want to keep them occupied for the rest of the afternoon, ask them to help in preparing snacks or even dinner. You don’t have to whip up something fancy, a pizza or a batch of muffins will do!

Cooking/baking activities is also a clever way to keep them gathered in one space while your spouse gets something done or works from home.

Spare time for reading

Kids these days learn to read at such an early age. Most 9 and 10-year-olds are already proficient at reading, which means reading can be an independent activity for them.

Your children aren’t at reading-age yet? No problem! There’s a wide selection of attractive wordless/nearly wordless books for kids of different ages and reading levels that you can choose from. You can also make your tots listen to audiobooks, so they can learn to appreciate the art of storytelling before they even begin to read.

Dabble in arts

Art projects can create quite a mess, especially when there’s paint involved, but they’re undeniably a fun and excellent way to let your children’s creativity shine through! What more? They can hold your kid’s attention for hours on end.

There are countless arts and crafts ideas online for kids of all ages, but if you have toddlers at home, it’s best to keep things simple – something not so messy and doesn’t involve sharp objects. Try coloring books, drawing, or clay figures. Finger painting is great, too. Just make sure to cover the space to make cleaning up a lot easier.

Plan a scavenger hunt

A good scavenger hunt would be an instant hit with your kids. Plus, it’s a great way for them to expend their excess energy.

If you have the time to spare, then by all means, go all out and create an elaborate scavenger hunt that your kids will truly enjoy; but if you don’t, that’s alright, too. You can just whip up something on the spot by asking them to hunt for a bunch of random things like dad’s favorite book, their favorite toy, or something soft and blue.

Allow some screen time

Some parents believe that letting their kids spend time in front of the TV or computer screen makes for irresponsible parenting. But the truth is, cutting yourself some slack and allowing your kids some screen time while you finish tasks around the house isn’t that bad.

There are plenty of educational games and videos out there that can impart both fun and learning to your little ones. As long as you filter the shows they watch and the games they play, screen time could be a productive activity that keeps boredom at bay!

Parents can be hard on themselves whenever they fail to keep their children engaged. Don’t be. As much as you want to fill your kid’s day with learning and purpose, there are times when you’re just too exhausted or out of ideas. And you know what? That’s okay.

A little bit of boredom here and there is actually healthy. When kids get bored, they begin to use their imagination to entertain themselves.

Check out these related blog post!

How to Get Your Kids to Love the Great Outdoors

Teaching Kids to Clean Up and Organize Their Rooms

Homemade Play Dough Recipe