How to Keep Kids Busy at Home
Kids are cute, but they also get bored easily. Keeping them busy at home can be challenging. What do you do to keep them occupied?
Children today are always glued to their phones or tablets. They spend hours playing games, watching videos and browsing social media. As parents, we want to keep our children safe from distractions. But how do we balance keeping them entertained with keeping them safe?
Parents often struggle keeping their kids engaged at home. The good news is there are lots of ways to keep them entertained without having to resort to buying expensive toys. Here are some ideas to try out.
To wash toys, add water to a dish, plastic container, or sink. Give children a package of washable toys and towels (toys with electronic pieces should be hidden for this activity). Give your kids access to some miniature vehicles, plastic animals, toy food, plastic keys, etc., and watch them go to town.
Dress up : If you have a dress-up box, get it out. If not, make one using hats, socks, coats, bags, boots, kid-sized glasses, costume jewelry, old dresses, jackets, a mirror, a brush, an outdated smartphone, and old keys (no scarves or other possibly choking items). Additionally, it could be a good time to decorate your box. Give the youngsters some stickers and markers so they may decorate !
Playmats with vehicles on them : If you already have a playmat with a road pattern, put it up and get any item that can go on it, including cars and trucks, dolls, aircraft, etc. Children adore the imaginative play of navigating a city.
If you don’t have a mat, you may get one from Amazon for next-day delivery or make your own set of roads on any floor surface using painter’s tape. The capacity to make the tape travel up over little objects or chairs and in various orientations is the nicest feature of a DIY track.
Have a campfire : Construct a tent or fort and furnish it with various materials to play the game of camp. Allow your children to make themselves comfortable with pillows and blankets, provide them wholesome snacks, turn off the lights, and provide them with flashlights so they can create shadow puppets. Include some plush toys for company, a pair of binoculars to keep an eye on the bears, and several picture books with animals.
Bean bag target toss : Provide youngsters with a package of bean bags and a variety of targets, such as hula hoops or laundry baskets, for them hurl the bean bags into. In our activities area, you’ll discover additional suggestions for organizing parties.
For rubbing art, spread out many thin objects like leaves, flat Lego pieces, coins, buttons (for youngsters who are aware not to eat them ! ), a stack of thin white paper, and crayons. Teach your kids how to make an object appear by placing a sheet of paper over it and rubbing it with the crayon’s side. Kids can amuse themselves for a while just by removing the paper from a stack of crayons.
Sensory tub : Bring in your outside sand table, wipe it out, and refill it with new sand if you use it in warmer weather. Pull out a container or tub and fill it with rice if you don’t have a sand table. Your children may dig and explore in the rice by placing spoons for digging, funnels for pouring through, vehicles, toy animals, measuring spoons, miniature bowls, etc.
Ball pit : Congratulations if you have a ball pit ! In the absence of one, construct one using a kiddie pool or a big cardboard box. As many little balls as you can find, together with plush toys and beanbags, should be placed within your box.
Gather some used toilet paper, paper towel, or (we’re not judging) scotch bottle tubes to use as toilet paper funnels. Use masking tape to attach the rolls to the wall. Give your child some tiny objects to drop through the tunnels, such as cars, balls, and dry pasta. Use many rolls next to one another or aligned to create a longer tunnel for additional enjoyment.
Mini-stick target practice : Set out some soft balls, bean bags, or make sock balls, and use masking tape to draw some Xs on your wall because you definitely don’t want a puck bouncing off your walls. Use your kids’ mini-sticks or a homemade stick you produced by duct-taping an empty wrapping paper roll for the grip and a cardboard blade cutout for the blade.
Sensory bag for high chair tables or floor : Put materials in resealable bags that babies may safely squish or shake, including sand or magic sand, ice cubes, and tiny objects combined into a bag of hair gel, pebbles, or Jell-o. Before letting your child use the bag, make sure it is well sealed.
Indoor "golf" course: Construct a course of obstacles for your children to "golf" ping-pong balls or sock balls over. Have your youngster work their way along a line of cones or
upside-down plastic mixing bowls that are evenly spaced apart. Items can be arranged either around a room or in a straight line. Your youngsters can use a flyswatter or a little stick if you don't have golf clubs that are appropriate for them.
Set up a sheet with pictures of stuff you have lying around the house, and give your kids a crayon to mark off the items they locate. Or allow them to take the pictures using the camera on your phone. Make sure the list has plenty of activities to keep them occupied for a while!
O-shaped cereal necklaces: Set out a bowl of the cereal and have your youngster string the plastic lacing cord (also known as gimp) through the Os.
Clean the windows (or fridge): Although streaks may remain once this task is complete, now is not the time to be concerned about them! Set your youngster in charge of cleaning your windows (just the ones they can reach) or your refrigerator after giving them a spray bottle of water and a towel.
Create a mural: Pick a wall that is within your children's grasp and cover it with paper.
Even better if you have paper on a roll ! Give the youngsters some crayons and pencil crayons and encourage them to channel their inner Michelangelo (this could be a great opportunity to explain that the Ninja Turtles are named after notable Renaissance painters !).
Rock painting : Add color to your balcony or yard. Let your children’s creativity flow by giving them paintbrushes, pebbles, and washable paint. Kids might also be given supplies like feathers, pom poms, or googly eyes to glue onto their dried pebbles. Older children might paint inspirational words and post them for people to read in their neighborhood.
Provide your children with a broom, a Swiffer, and a sock ball to pass back and forth on hard surface floors as they perform a secret housecleaning. Voilà ! There will be spotless flooring.
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13 Kid-Friendly Living Rooms : Fun Ideas for Family Playtime
What kind of living room would you want to spend time in ? Where would you rather hang out with your family ? This week, we’re sharing some fun ideas for kid-friendly living rooms.
Kids love spending time together at home. They also enjoy playing games, watching movies, reading books, and hanging out with their friends. If you’ve got kids, you probably already know that they don’t always get along well. That’s why having a kid-friendly living room is important.
A kid-friendly living room means creating spaces where everyone feels comfortable and safe. It also means providing activities that encourage creativity and imagination. These 13 kid-friendly living rooms show us how to create a space that encourages playtime.
A narrow table behind the sofa to keep alcohol out of the kids' reach
You are well aware of how perilous a drink on the coffee table may be if you have young children. This method of placing a narrow table behind the sofa prevents little children from grabbing beverages or the remote control and tipping them over. These tables make it simple to keep an eye on your beverages while the kid is running around.
Hang containers from the wall.
Get some hooks and baskets and pin them to the wall out of toddlers’ reach to store toys, blankets, and games while not in use. To make it simpler for the kids to access their belongings when they need them, you may simply remove the basket off the wall. Having them assist you in putting the toys back in the basket once they are through playing may be enjoyable as well.
Also employing baskets :
Create a command center with baskets behind a door to arrange your mail.
The ideal storage option for blankets and pillows is a large basket.
To keep all the wires contained ! We have a « Basket » for TV remote controls and a separate basket for all the cables.
Kid-friendly cube storage
Cube storage works so well when your living room doubles as the kids’ play area. Books, puzzles, board games, and other items can be stored in the cubbies ; you can even add attractive baskets to some of the cubbies to store smaller toys like dolls and building blocks. For the child to « window shop » for the items they wish to play with, they function effectively as a showcase.
Have a coffee table with two uses.
Add a few kids’ seats so they can do their homework, art projects, or color while the rest of the family is present.
Use a coffee table that is suitable for children so that you won’t have to worry about the messes and damage that toddlers may cause.
Beanbag furnishings
These come in a variety of sizes and hues to go with your interior design. Kids may bounce on bean bag furniture safely and have fun in the living room. The teepee and bean bag seats in this living room greatly increase its kid-friendliness. Nevertheless, the neutral hues make it easy for it to match the rest of the furniture and decorations.
Framed cork boards suitable for children
Your little children have developed into artists ; they sketch, paint, and even make sculptures ; and, like Goya, they should have their works on exhibit.
By incorporating your children’s artwork into your home’s design, you may turn your living room into a museum of their work. White-framed cork boards on the St. Jude’s campus provide rotating displays of children’s artwork. The frames around the cork boards bind the pieces together and make the displays seem so much neater and more enjoyable. You can do the same in your house.
Your living room has covert storage.
Your living room has a variety of empty spots that you may utilize to keep such toys. Utilize concealed storage wherever possible.
This under-chair storage basket is stylish and practical, and as long as the contents aren’t pouring out, it will seem clean. It conceals itself well beneath the armchair.
To keep your toy chest organized, use plastic containers.
The children will dig through everything in your living room to discover that one item if you keep a toy chest there (that somehow always happens to be at the bottom). To maintain organization in your toy box, use plastic storage bins. You may try classifying them based on the child’s preferences or by size, kind, or both. Put the most often used toys in the plastic containers at the top, and the least frequently used ones on the bottom. This will prevent dolls and legos from taking over your living room.
Make a storage space for the window seat.
Regardless of how much room we have at home, we always seem to desire a little bit more. Making a toy storage room in the region under the window will be ideal for your toddler’s toys. The area is often sizable and simple to decorate to fit the other elements of your living room. You may even install locked cabinets to prevent your child from accessing delicate objects in order to maintain a kid-friendly living area.
Allow children to draw on the walls.
Does your child enjoy using the walls in your home as a canvas with the crayons ? Is it tough to remove the filth off the walls ? Does the young child require additional room to share her most recent sketching concepts ? You can use chalkboard paint to confine the pandemonium on a tiny wall, so don’t panic. Make a kid-friendly drawing area on a small area of the living room walls. Your little Goya may draw endlessly on the chalkboard since it is simple to clean and turns into an endless canvas.
A circular coffee table and bookcases suitable for children
Your kid will run about the home and occasionally crash into your furnishings. The bump will hurt significantly more if you have sharp edges and corners. To make more space in your living room or « playground," it is best to have furniture with rounded edges and, if feasible, move part of it. It is recommended to install some shelves to fill part of the storage space in place of the missing furniture.
Your kid will be protected if she runs into a circular coffee table while playing normally. Shelves will eliminate the necessity for storing items on the living room floor, giving her greater space to walk around and expend all that youthful energy.
Please make this space kid-friendly ! As the children become older, the shelves will house books as well as toys. The little poufs provide comfortable sitting, and the rounder coffee table is more kid-friendly for toddlers and preschoolers (no sharp edges, please !).
A storage ottoman
A storage ottoman resembles a swiss knife in several ways. It has a cute pattern and serves as
both sitting and storage for children’s toys. These boxes come in a variety of designs, dimensions, and hues.
Choose one or two that can hold all of those toys and go well with the décor of your living area. When the child is in the mood, the toys are only a reach away, and you have plenty of space when you want to put the games away for a family sit-in.
Children’s rugs
You won’t have to worry about the youngster scratching her knee while she plays and crawls on the floor if you have thick, vibrant carpets in your living room. The toddler will also be entertained by the vibrant colors as she uses her fingers to trace the rug’s pattern or attempts to name every hue she can.
Without having to remove all those toys from your ingenious living room toy storage places, it ought to keep her occupied for a while.
