Creative ways to keep your kids engaged when you get busy
Kids are lovely rare gems that add beauty and meaning to life. A stressful day at work can suddenly feel better when it’s time to go home and see your cute young ones.
However, a day inside with your kids can be stressful as children tend to be restless and always want more playtime, no matter how much time you’ve already given.
If you’re a work-from-home parent, making your days productive while caring for your kids can be daunting. Thus, you’re always looking for creative activities to keep your kids engaged while you comfortably go about your busy schedule.
Regardless of your to-do list, here are some foolproof ways to keep your little ones creatively engaged.
1. Gather donations
Keeping your kids distracted and engaged shouldn’t mean another waste of time for them. Instead, you can teach your little ones the art of helping others in more exciting ways via donation gatherings.
Are there any items your kids have outgrown or are no longer useful in the house? Good! Tell your kids to gather them up for the next family donation.
So whether they’re from the toy bins or closets, those items should be enough to keep your kids positively occupied.
2. Cook with them
If you need to keep your kids engaged because they will distract your cooking, then you already have the perfect activity.
Kids love to be in the cookhouse; it’s where all the tasty meals come from. So instead of keeping them out of the arena, you could collaborate with them on your next meal.
Besides helping them learn the basics of what goes on in the kitchen, your kids will develop good teamwork skills and become emotionally closer to you. Plus, you can significantly reduce the workload of your next meal by allowing them to help you with activities such as:
- Washing the fruits and vegetables
- Mixing ingredients
- Scooping or stirring ingredients
- Mashing soft ingredients
3. Have them make their cartoon
Children have extraordinary imagination abilities, but you can only see that when you put them to the test. They’ve probably watched a series of cartoons and can make their own when given the tools– paper and some crayons.
To help them perform better, you don’t have to make this sound like some difficult task. Simply tell them to draw a hero and a bad guy, and you’d see how creative your kids are.
You may even get insights into your child’s potential and help them build a passion for their future ambition.
4. Camp out
Kids love adventure, and it’s one of the best ways to keep them engaged for a longer time. Let them enjoy camp games by setting up a tent or fort using coffee tables, blankets, or couches and filling it with various items.
You should include pillows, books, and toys to help them feel comfortable as they camp out and have fun.
Keep them fed with good snacks and give them flashlights for making shadow animals and hideaways.
5. Create a reading challenge
Cultivating a reading habit is one of the most important life skills anyone can have.
Give each child a target and let them summarize what they have learned. Additionally, to ensure you always have new books to keep these activities for kids fun, you can subscribe to have them delivered monthly. You can also encourage your kids by offering them rewards like watching their favorite TV show after reading.
6. Make ramps
How about rolling balls, stuffies, and cars down? Kids really love to do that, and ramps are an excellent way to get them rolling.
More interestingly, you can make your own ramp at home by either taping a solid piece of cardboard or the lid of your bin to the edge of a kitchen counter, dining room table, or coffee table.
Alternatively, you can prop up a crib mattress at the side of a wall or crib, and voila! Your kids are ready to roll all day.
7. Try science projects
Whether or not your kids will eventually want a career in science, practicing simple science projects can broaden their horizons and serve as a fun time. However, avoid harmful or risky projects and allow only safe and exciting ones.
Some simple projects to do include:
- Building a lava lamp
Materials
- A clean plastic bottle
- Water
- Vegetable Oil (you could use Mineral or Baby Oil instead)
- Fizzing tablets
- Food Coloring
Making a volcano
Materials
- 10 ml of dish soap
- 100 ml of warm water
- 400 ml of white vinegar
- Food coloring
- Baking soda slurry
- Empty 2-liter soda bottle
- And so on.
8. Flashlight treasure hunt
Try hiding items in one room, and then give your kids a pictured list of the things to hunt. Afterward, turn off the lights and let them find out if they can locate the items.
The more items you have on the list, the longer it will take to find them all, giving you all the time to complete your work. You may spice up things a bit more by telling them they’d get a prize if they found all the treasures.
9. Sock-matching
So sock-matching is one of the tasks on your to-do list; strike it off by allowing your kids to do the matching! Kids love to organize and arrange; that’s why they regularly create fantastic shapes with their toys.
Scatter unmatched socks on the floor and let your kids match them together. If they’re older, you may include a cloth folding competition where each person gets a reward based on the number of clothes they fold.
10. Magnify the fun
What’s interesting about this activity is that it builds your kids’ curiosity. For example, what does a flower, insect, stone, or sand grain look like when magnified?
Let them find out. You may see your little ones moving from one object to the other while exploring nature via a magnifying lens without interrupting your busy schedule.
11. Get creative with paper
From airplanes to ships, there are tons of objects your kids can create from paper. Aside from puzzles, this is a great way to encourage creativity in your kids. Show them a few videos to serve as an inspiration and let them build unique designs from the knowledge.
Make sure to provide enough paper to help them stay glued to the task and avoid disturbance.
Wrapping up
Other activities such as puzzles, park picnics, virtual museum tours, calligraphy practice, and others can help keep your little ones occupied.
You want to make sure they’re having fun, learning something, or doing both to help you get enough free time.
