“Mom! I am bored. Can I go out and play?”
“I want to go out! It has been months since I have played with my friends!”
“When can we go out?”
Are these the continuous requests you hear from your child?
During the recent pandemic, children were the most affected as they had to stay indoors. It made them frustrated, irritated, and bored.
As parents, you might have been searching for indoor activities for kids to keep them engaged. While screen time sounds amazing to keep your child occupied for long hours, it is a concern for parents worldwide about how much screen time should be allowed.
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Keep Your Children Entertained with These Indoor activities for kids
Children are inquisitive, so you can try fun activities that will keep them engaged and educate them at the same time.
If you are struggling to find engaging indoor activities for kids, here are 10 activities for your children to keep them occupied at home.
1. Book Reading
One of the best ways to keep your child engaged for long hours is by making them read books. This is one of the oldest indoor activities for kids that you will ever find.
Introduce them with varieties of books such as short stories, biographies, fantasy, adventure, etc. Once your children get into the habit of reading books, it will keep them busy for hours.
Reading books not only keeps them occupied but also helps them in many other ways such as:
- Enhance their vocabulary as well as writing and communication skills.
- Educate them to respect everybody.
- Develop your child’s brain and expand the power of their imagination.
- It helps them to understand different words and languages.
How can you develop reading habits in children?
Reading can be boring sometimes for your child unless you take the initiative to make it interesting for them.
If you are looking for ways to develop reading habits in kids, here is a guide to help you improve their reading habits.
2. LEGOs
Imagine, sitting at home working on your laptop, and your baby proudly walking up to you and saying, “Mom/Dad, I have made a huge building!”
Your baby is so excited that you can’t help but see his creation with LEGO blocks.
LEGO is one of the most amazing indoor activities for kids. Apart from being a fun game, it also educates your child in many ways such as:
- Playing with LEGO bricks requires lots of patience and concentration, so your child will learn how to be focused and calm.
- LEGO enhances your child’s creativity and imagination.
- LEGO blocks also develop your child’s thinking as their mind experiences fractions & divisions while they are trying to figure out how to fix and what to form from the different blocks and pieces.
- Every mistake in this game will teach your child to rebuild again, retrace their steps, and arrange & analyze to achieve the ultimate goal.
As your child reaches their final goal, they will get a sense of achievement. These achievements will boost your child’s self-esteem.
3. Exercise
Most parents are concerned about their children’s health. Nowadays, many children spend the entire day sitting in front of a screen and having unhealthy food.
Exercise is a wonderful way to keep your baby healthy. Exercising at home will not only save time but is also an effective way to bond for you and your child.
There are many diverse types of exercises to make this activity exciting like Zumba, Yoga, Pilates, etc. This will help develop your kids’ bones and muscles and make them healthier and stronger.
If you are searching for some beginner-level yoga postures, you can refer to this blog here with 5 yoga postures for beginners.
4. Solving Puzzles
Solving puzzles has a significant impact on your child’s development, as it makes your child’s brain exercise both the left and the right sides.
It also develops your child’s problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.
Puzzles help children with pattern recognition, and memory, and enhance both gross and fine motor skills. It takes a lot of time and effort to solve a puzzle that teaches your child patience, self-confidence, and self-control.
After solving the puzzle, your child will feel a sense of achievement which will boost their self-confidence as well.
5. Cooking And Baking
Cooking and baking with your kids creates a good opportunity for them to learn and grow. It helps them to learn various measurements such as glasses, teaspoons, and plates. You can also teach them about fruits, vegetables, how healthy they can be, etc. which helps in language development.
Moreover, this enhances their fine motor skills and encourages family bonding.
When your child completes baking a cake or cooking a meal, they will feel a sense of pride and confidence which will enhance their self-esteem.
6. Drawing or Painting
Do you remember the first time you let your imagination run wild on a blank piece of paper or canvas? Or the first time you colored a sketchbook with pastels or watercolor?
Most young children enjoy creating and experimenting with paint, it might be messy, but it’s also educational and engaging.
These are some benefits that your child can acquire from painting.
- Painting helps your child to develop their mobility skills along.
- Painting helps your child to communicate, through assorted colors. They can express their emotions and feelings without saying a word.
- It helps your child learn about the sizes, shapes, patterns, designs, and colors
- It also makes your child learn about the various color mixtures like how to mix and use them.
The best advantage of painting or drawing is that it provides you and your child with an excellent platform to spend time and create memories together.
7. DIY Projects
DIY stands for do-it-yourself which means that your kids can do it by themselves. There are many DIY projects which your child can try like DIY jellyfish, paper bead necklaces, friendship bracelets, puppets, and many more.
There are many DIY video tutorials on YouTube and a variety of different DIY projects to experiment with to keep their interest for long hours while you can do your work peacefully. These experiments will help them to think, imagine and explore their creativity.
DIY is not only great for your child’s development and creativity but there are other benefits also such as:
- DIY helps your child to learn to be patient.
- DIY promotes psychological development which means that your child will figure out how things work by themselves.
- DIY helps your child to develop their mobility skills.
- DIY provides your child with an opportunity to learn new skills and sharpen their mind.
8. Art and Craft
Children love Art and Crafts activities. This is one of the best indoor activities for kids.
Art and Craft activities enhance your child’s creativity and help them to focus on the details. It also improves their motor skills and color sense.
Here are some art and craft ideas that will keep your child occupied at home:
- Drawing and painting
- Clay modeling
- Papercraft and artistic creation
- Beadwork
- Sewing and knitting
- Carpentry
- Fruit and veggie art
9. Family Games
Playing family games has lots of benefits. They help in developing social skills like taking turns, graceful winning and losing, following rules, etc. while having fun!
A family game night also provides a chance for siblings, parents, peers, and family members to bond. Games like Monopoly, Chess, Jenga, Twister, etc. can help sharpen your child’s focus and teach them the value of teamwork.
10. Let Them Help You
The best way to keep your kids engaged is to involve them in household work.
Kids tend to copy their parents when young and by allowing them to help you around the house, you are teaching them to be self-sufficient and disciplined as they grow older.
You can assign them to do small tasks like cleaning their study table, arranging their books, making up their bed, etc. to keep them occupied and encourage them with surprises to complete the work on time.
Moreover, sharing household work can also help families work better and reduce family stress.
Hope that you have found this blog helpful. As far as possible, the contents of this blog are based on recent pandemic situations. However, please know that every child is completely different in their unique way.
So, what other activity do you use to keep your child engaged?
Let us know which indoor activities for kids you like in the comments below.
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