Activities to do at home with children

It can be challenging to entertain children all day, so we’ve put together an ideas list of activities to do at home.

Children operate well with structure and routine. With changes to a usual routine under current circumstances, we recommend creating a timetable at home to minimise disruption to daily life as much as possible. A daily routine, incorporating 4-5 main activities, can be displayed visually on a wall. Consider including allocations for arts and crafts, creative play, reading, learning and quiet time.

Activities to do at home with children

Reading/Audiobooks

Audiobooks are a brilliant way for children to get immersed in a story, while giving you some much needed free time to do something else.

We love Story Nory, which offers free audio downloads of classic fairy tales, world fairy tales, fables, 1001 Nights, and more.

The International Children’s Digital Library offers online books and audiobooks in different languages.

More recommendations can be found in our top picks.

Educational
Yoga – Cosmic Kids offers yoga, mindfulness and relaxation designed specially for kids aged 3+.

Language learning – DinoLingo offers language lessons, books, games, stories, songs, downloadable worksheets and flashcards to encourage children to learn a language.

Audiobooks – please see above in the Reading section

Physical/Creative activities
Garden treasure hunt – how many things can be collected from the garden? Use a raisin box or empty plant pot to gather up ‘treasures’ outside

Dance shows – encourage children to put together a dance routine to their favourite song (implement ‘practice time’ to provide you with some free time before the ‘show’)

Role play and dress up

Sports in the garden, for example a potato and spoon race

Building a house from a cardboard box

Painting or making animals from stones – for example a tortoise using a large rounded stone, four smaller for legs and a slightly larger for the head!

Arts & Crafts
Make play dough (try our easy, no-cook recipe)

Painting and drawing

Create a puzzle – draw a pattern of jigsaw pieces on a piece of paper. After your child has drawn a picture on the other side, cut out the pieces together

Make a mask – there are lots of animal templates here

Write or draw a story – encourage children to write, or draw, a story to read or tell you at bedtime

Potato stamps – slice the bottom off a potato and carve shapes. These can be dipped in watercolour before stamping on to card

Leaf painting – collect leaves in the garden and paint them before carefully pressing onto paper to create beautiful natural art

Cooking
Baking or cooking with children is a great way to keep children entertained. Give them the responsibility of choosing a recipe or ask them to help with preparing a meal as an inclusive way to cook and eat together.

Quiet time
Quiet time benefits you as well as your child. Every day, set aside time for ‘quiet play’. This can be as simple choosing an activity together that allows your child to do something they enjoy doing on their own such as reading their favourite book or playing with a favourite toy.

This can be challenging for younger children, so positioning it as a treat for them to have time just to themselves is important. It may take some getting used to at first but is certainly worth the effort all round! Finishing ‘quiet time’ with spending ten minutes together afterwards to talk about what you both did can also be very effective. The skill of learning to play without relying on a parent’s constant company also teaches children independence.

We hope you enjoy our suggestions of activities to do at home with children. We’ll be posting more ideas soon, please keep an eye out or feel free to contact us with your own suggestions for us to share with the Wild.Kind. community.

 

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