Occupying your kids can be a very daunting task. They have very short
attention spans and sometimes your well planned activities can fall flat on you. Here are some activities which kids love and will not burst
your budget.
1.Bubble Art
My kids love playing with bubbles and love taking bubble baths. It is
quite easy to create your own bubble solution with dishwashing liquid,
water, and a teaspoon of sugar. You can add in a few drops of food
colouring and use straws to blow bubbles that pop onto drawing paper. The
end result would be a collage made from multi-coloured bubbles.
2. Chef for the day
Let the kids create a menu based on the ingredients available in the
kitchen. They can take turns taking orders from each other and everyone can
chip in preparing the meals together. Younger kids can help set the
table while the older kids can help in meal preparation and cooking.
You can incorporate baking of cakes/cookies and teach them how to measure
ingredients using the right containers at the same time. Most of the time
the kids would be more interested and willing to eat the food/desserts
which they have helped to make and it will certainly make your mealtime more
fun and interesting.
3. Go Shopping
Let your kids set up a shop in your house and stock up the shop using
items found around the house. You do not need a toy cash register just a
calculator with a notepad or even your laptop with an open excel
spreadsheet so they can jot down and register the sales made. You can use
real or play money and at the same time teach your child how to budget and
make purchases. For older kids you can make it more challenging by having
sales or make them calculate the number of items needed to be sold to make
a certain amount of profit.
4. Visit the Museum
Over here in Singapore during the Kids Festival month
the Singapore Art Museum gives FREE entry to all kids.
There are many hands on activities specially arranged for kids and
exhibits which would be of interest to them. We bring the kids yearly and
they have lots of fun there.
Dominique Goh, Singaporean
elementary school teacher, freelance writer and mom of three who is
passionate about parenting and educating kids. In her free time you can
see her dabbling in photography, cooking and cake decorating and blogging
at Dominique’s Desk.
