Rainy days a struggle with the little ones? (Erm Yes!) Here are some fun and super-easy indoor activities for kids that will also keep them learning.
Language and literacy development is instrumental at home, particularly when school is out. By getting involved with your kids in games, activities and craft you’ll be aiding in their motor skill development, building better language skills and fostering their creativity and imagination.
Grab your couch blankets and dress-up box, as these are our favourite indoor activities for kids (with a sneaky sprinkle of early literacy)!
Dress up
Why stick to just dressing up when you take the bin out! Bring the fun indoors and theme your weeks, where everyone has to dress up for a family dinner. Super Hero Soup Night? Or what about Fairy Friday? Let your child decide a theme and then make costumes out of old clothes, cardboard or use that old Halloween costume you have buried in the back of your closet. Get the whole family involved!
Cardboard challenge
Recycle and reuse all those cardboard boxes by challenging the family to create different things. Can you make a tree out of cereal boxes? Can you create an aeroplane out of a large box? Make it a family activity and see what your imagination can come up with.
Sock puppets
Make puppets out of socks or stockings then hold your own puppet show. You could make a puppet theatre during the cardboard challenge and put on a show! As bedtime approaches, grab a lamp and teach the kids the magic of shadow puppets using your hands to create different shapes and figures.
Educational websites
Use your local library’s website. There are stacks of great sites linked to the library site that you can access with your library card, which aid in literacy and numeracy development. You can even learn to code!
Sensory play
Sensory play is incredibly important to develop motor skills and build the nerve connections in the brain. Squirt shaving cream on a table to draw patterns in, put pasta shells in a jar to rummage in.
Dance!
Very early in their life, children will start to identify rhythm and even move to the beats of music. After all, music is meant to touch our souls! Besides that, music provides cognitive benefits that support children’s early development. Any day is a good day to enjoy some music with your children.
Indoor cinema
Create a cinema experience at home and watch some old family friendly movies together. You don’t need much – make some popcorn, get some snacks, turn down the lights and turn up the volume. Your little one will pick up lots of words from the movie and if you show Mary Poppins (the original of course!) be prepared for them to try to recite ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’! Stream free family friendly movies and television shows courtesy of your library website. Your membership number is the only ticket you need.
Create a collage
Collage is a simple craft activity that involves pasting items like leaves or photographs onto a sheet of paper. Making a collage helps your child build fine motor skills. It’s also a fun way to encourage your child’s awareness of colour and texture. Talk with your child about the collage as you create, it will greatly help their language development too!
Hold a family book club
All family members read the same book, or read the book to children that can’t read yet, then curl up together and discuss it. Ask leading questions such as “What is the best thing you like about the character?” “If you were the character what would you have done instead?”
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