There are so many children-friendly activities that parents can try with their little ones on weekends. The good news is, parents, don’t even have to spend too much money to make the most of their and their children’s time together. Besides, wisely-chosen activities will help children learn through play and age-appropriate activities. School is not the only place where they can learn about themselves and the environment. Below are some engaging and entertaining activities families can get involved in together!
Learn identifying colours
Children are interested in learning their colours at a young age. One great weekend activity is teaching them more about colours. Parents can accomplish this by using several different methods. For instance, a bag full of coloured pom poms will have just enough different coloured items to help them identify and learn more on the topic. Alternatively, parents can tackle this by simply using a Crayola set and a sheet of paper.
Rearrange their bedroom furniture
Children usually get bored easily. Besides, at a young age, they have little comprehension of space and shapes. Rearranging their bedrooms is a great way to help them overcome boredom (temporarily) and grasp some space notions at the same time. When moving their furniture around, ensure that you let them know what shapes the items are. This will offer them a good start in learning about shapes and space.
Let your child style your hair
If you don’t have enough money on hand and you still want to keep your children entertained, you could let them style your hair. Of course, you should never let them use heating tools because of the dangers associated with them. Parents who want to boost their children’s creativity can always try this little game. Besides, this is a great indoor type of fun.
Visit a public free museum
Visiting free public spaces, especially if they are inherently educational, will help children learn new, interesting things. Public free museums are perfect in keeping children occupied during lazy weekends without having to spend too much money. Visit a local history or natural science museum, and you will have them talking about it for days.
Have a tea party
If you have a little girl, you will certainly make her happy by having a tea party together. If you want to be a parenting Meister and make her feel like a grownup, have a tea party with a real tea set, tea and suitable cookies. If you want to bond at a different level with her, you want to use her own tea party set including the table set. This is a great way to bond new, deeper connections with your little one and to have to get to know her at another level.
Go metal detecting
Metal detecting is a perfect way to get your children moving more. Besides, metal detecting can boost their creativity. When planning a similar trip, parents should look into appropriate tools and areas to explore. Trick your children think they are involved in something important by hiding around your backyard different metal objects. This will make them thrilled and excited to go for more similar trips in the future. Besides investing in metal detecting tools, parents don’t have to invest in any other items beforehand. Metal detecting is a simple and thrilling experience for both parents and children, and it is also inexpensive!
Have a backyard camp
Backyard camping has always been a great experience for parent-child bonding. If you have a generous yard, you can have a tent installed. A backyard camp fire and some S’Mores will definitely create the necessary atmosphere to make your children excited and keep them entertained throughout the weekend. When they grow older, you can let them have other children around and have fun on their own!
Food play is good play
To boost their creativity, food play has been proven to work amazingly. Besides, children will always learn something new from the entire experience. In fact, many schools organize cooking classes for their students since it opens new learning and experiencing opportunities. There are some ideal jobs for pre-schoolers in the kitchen parents can encourage their children to tackle. Of course, they should never be allowed to use knives and other types of dangerous kitchen gear. Children aged 3 to 5 can be easily involved in the following cooking tasks:
- Stirring pancake batter;
- Adding different ingredients;
- Assembling different meals, like pizza or lasagne;
- Tearing lettuce apart;
- Help by reading from a cookbook.
Teach them new songs
Children can learn so much through singing. However, “Mary had a little lamb” on a loop can be counterproductive. If you want to invest a little more in enriching your children’s minds, you can always go for some music classes. Alternatively, you can try to teach them by using an affordable instrument you can find in children’s toys sections of general stores. YouTube is a great resource to use when you want to teach them easy songs. You could also try to make your own instruments at home, to make things more interesting and entertaining for them.
Plant a garden
Although planting a garden looks like an easy to tackle activity with not too many things to learn from it, you should always involve your children in similar tasks. Gardening lessons offer children a little bit of knowledge in different spheres: science, nutrition, patience and fun, all in the comfort of your own home. In many cases, you will see gardening classes in many schools’ curricula and this happens for a solid reason: the huge learning potential they have. Ensure that you let children know more about each vegetable you plant together. What nutritional benefits it has and how it reproduces are good starting points for them.
These are only some of those fun and educational types of activities you can include in your schedule, as a family. Of course, you can always try to switch things up and experiment with new activities we didn’t mention in this article. Children’s minds are like sponges and stimulating them comes with the great advantage of allowing them to learn faster and better new things.
