Fun Crafts And Hobbies To Enjoy With Your Children

Tweet

With the winter days drawing in, and weekends you enjoyed as a family outdoors a distant memory, now is the time to start thinking about ways you can occupy and entertain your kids during the school holidays, rainy days and at the weekends. Most preschoolers and older children like and enjoy arts and crafts, and with the festive season nearly upon us, it is the perfect time to get your gluesticks, paint pots and pom poms ready for some crafty fun! Crafting is extremely beneficial for children; it stimulates their senses, enhances their language and social skills, and is also great for building relationships with your children. Here are some fun and creative ideas that you and your kids will enjoy, and who knows some of these activities may reveal a budding Picasso or a Delia Smith in your family! Baking This is perhaps one of the most popular hobbies you can enjoy with your kids.  Not only are you teaching them vital cooking skills for when they have flown the nest in years to come, you are also giving them some knowledge about maths when measuring out ingredients.  Take your little ones to the local supermarket and you will find various mixes, ranging from cookie dough mixtures to chocolate brownies and if you want to make the good old fairy cakes, you will find lots of icing mixtures already prepared, as well as plenty of decorations to adorn your masterpieces with. Hand/feet printing This is an age old activity and you probably remember doing this yourself when you were younger, however hand and feet printing is still really popular with children.  Wriggling their little toes and hands in paint allows them to explore their senses of touch and sight and the freedom of getting a little bit messy makes the activity lots of fun.  They also serve as wonderful keepsakes for you to proudly display in frames or on canvasses.  As we all know with little ones, accidents can happen, so if you are worried about your kids staining your recently painted walls or damaging your carpets, you can get some great water based paints which are non toxic and clean off easily. Card making Card making is a great way to recycle everyday objects in your home such as buttons, ribbons, cotton wool and even bottle lids.  This activity is great for educating your children about the importance of recycling and also allows them to use their own initiative and ideas for finding ways they can use certain household items to create different types of cards.  For example, cotton wool for Santa’s beard or black pipe cleaners to create a spider for a spooky Halloween card. Make animal balloons Your kids will look at you in wonderment and amusement when you unveil an animal balloon after several actions of twisting and bending.  There are several websites and videos you can find online that will teach you how to make a simple dog or a monkey out of a balloon or you can make them freestyle.  Get your kids involved and ask them to help you by inflating the balloons or ask them to make an animal while you guess what it is. There will be guaranteed hours of fun and lots of giggles for sure. Hopefully this has helped to inspire you, for when you are stuck for ideas on a rainy day and the kids are a bit restless.  Just remember, your children will value any kind of time spent with you, so if you can, make your time together as precious as possible. This is a guest post written for www.riablahgs.com's readers.

With the winter days drawing in, and weekends you enjoyed as a family outdoors a distant memory, now is the time to start thinking about ways you can occupy and entertain your kids during the school holidays, rainy days and at the weekends.

Most preschoolers and older children like and enjoy arts and crafts, and with the festive season nearly upon us, it is the perfect time to get your gluesticks, paint pots and pom poms ready for some crafty fun!

Crafting is extremely beneficial for children; it stimulates their senses, enhances their language and social skills, and is also great for building relationships with your children.

Here are some fun and creative ideas that you and your kids will enjoy, and who knows some of these activities may reveal a budding Picasso or a Delia Smith in your family!

Baking

This is perhaps one of the most popular hobbies you can enjoy with your kids.  Not only are you teaching them vital cooking skills for when they have flown the nest in years to come, you are also giving them some knowledge about maths when measuring out ingredients.  Take your little ones to the local supermarket and you will find various mixes, ranging from cookie dough mixtures to chocolate brownies and if you want to make the good old fairy cakes, you will find lots of icing mixtures already prepared, as well as plenty of decorations to adorn your masterpieces with.

Hand/feet printing

This is an age old activity and you probably remember doing this yourself when you were younger, however hand and feet printing is still really popular with children.  Wriggling their little toes and hands in paint allows them to explore their senses of touch and sight and the freedom of getting a little bit messy makes the activity lots of fun.  They also serve as wonderful keepsakes for you to proudly display in frames or on canvasses.  As we all know with little ones, accidents can happen, so if you are worried about your kids staining your recently painted walls or damaging your carpets, you can get some great water based paints which are non toxic and clean off easily.

Card making

Card making is a great way to recycle everyday objects in your home such as buttons, ribbons, cotton wool and even bottle lids.  This activity is great for educating your children about the importance of recycling and also allows them to use their own initiative and ideas for finding ways they can use certain household items to create different types of cards.  For example, cotton wool for Santa’s beard or black pipe cleaners to create a spider for a spooky Halloween card.

Make animal balloons

Your kids will look at you in wonderment and amusement when you unveil an animal balloon after several actions of twisting and bending.  There are several websites and videos you can find online that will teach you how to make a simple dog or a monkey out of a balloon or you can make them freestyle.  Get your kids involved and ask them to help you by inflating the balloons or ask them to make an animal while you guess what it is. There will be guaranteed hours of fun and lots of giggles for sure.

Hopefully this has helped to inspire you, for when you are stuck for ideas on a rainy day and the kids are a bit restless.  Just remember, your children will value any kind of time spent with you, so if you can, make your time together as precious as possible.

This is a guest post written for www.riablahgs.com's readers.