Not sure what to do with the kids these days? Well, for starters, don’t worry. As a parent, you’re your child’s first teacher. Your home is a place where lots of learning is happening every day. The National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) says a parent’s most important job when it comers to a child’s learning is to show an interest and get involved.
NALA’s website includes hundreds of fun activities that can be done in the home or outside. Best of all, the activities will help children to learn without them even realising it. All you have to do is enter your child’s age into the website and you will find lots of suitable fun activities to do with them. So they assure parents, relax – it’s going to be fine.
Play is one of the most effective ways children learn. “Many parents will find it challenging to come up with things to do with their children over the next few weeks so by using the website parents will have something to turn to when they hear the dreaded ‘I’m bored’ from their kids,” said Dr Inez Bailey, chief executive officer, NALA.
“The truth is that children learn everyday – from the moment they are born they start to soak up things like a sponge – at home, out and about, even at bedtime. Just because they are not in school at the moment doesn’t mean they will stop learning – it just means parents have to be a little creative and this website can do most of the work for you.”
Next time you hear the dreaded “I’m bored” or if you’re just desperate to drag them away from the TV or iPad, try some of these fun activities…
Eat an Alphabet
Get your kids to describe how hungry they are – starting with the letter A, take turns. The trick is to remember what everyone said before you. I’m so hungry I could eat an apple. I’m so hungry I could eat an apple and a banana. I’m so hungry I could eat an apple, banana and a cat!
Fuzz Buzz
Count to 100, every time you get to a number that’s divisible by seven (7, 14, 21) or has a seven in it (17), say “Buzz” instead of the number. For older kids, to make it even harder say Fuzz for every number with a three or that’s divisible by three. If you make a mistake it’s the next person’s turn. The first to get to 100 wins.
Marbles
Draw a circle on the ground. Each player puts four marbles inside the circle – it’s best if everyone picks a colour. Take turns trying to knock each other’s marbles out of the circle with one large marble. If you knock your own marble out, it goes back into the centre.
Spud
One person counts to 10 while the rest of the players scatter. When 10 is reached everyone freezes in their spot. The person counting takes four giant steps towards the closest person and tries to hit them with the ball. If they hit, that person gets a letter ‘S’ but if they miss then they get the letter. Now it’s the other person’s time to count. Players get knocked out whenever they reach Spud – hit or missed four times – ouch!
Fortress fun
Everyone’s made a fortress right? The next rainy day that comes around, help your kids make their own supersized fortress in the sitting room. All you need is a couple of chairs or a table covered with a blanket – they’ll stay busy all day long playing make-believe inside.
Make rain sticks
All you need is a cardboard tube, some dry rice, tinfoil, tape and long pipe cleaners or bent up wire hangers. Have your child colour and decorate the tube to their heart’s content. Then coil some pipe cleaners or wire inside the tube and close-up one end with tin foil and tape. Now pour in some rice and secure the other end with more tin foil and tape. That’s it – your kid now has a rain stick they can turn upside down to make lovely rain sounds.
Colour Connections
All you have to do is tell your child a basic colour and challenge them to tell you 20 items that are this colour – get them to name 50 items if they are older. You can make it even more difficult by setting a time limit and make them race against one another!
20 Questions
Everyone gets to ask one person up to 20 yes or no questions to find out what they are? Are you a colour? Are you a person? Are you an animal? Do you have four legs? Do you have horns? Do you have stripes?
Odd one out
Someone calls out four things but one is the odd one out. Blue, green, banana, white. First person to call out the odd item wins that round and gets to choose the next four items.
Kim’s game
Put 10 things from around the house on a tray and ask your child to look at them for a few seconds. Then take them away and ask them to call out what they remember. Another way of playing the game is to cover the items, take one thing away and ask your child to spot what is missing. You can put more things out as they get better.
Don’t say “yes” or “no”
One person asks the other a question to which ‘yes’ or ‘no’ is the obvious answer. For example, ‘Do you live in a house?’ The other person has to answer the question without saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’. If they make a mistake and say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ then they lose and get to ask the questions.
The artist
Write different items on strips of paper (house, bicycle, car) and put them in a box. Tape a large piece of paper to the wall and get the first player to pick a strip of paper. Then blindfold them and ask them to draw the item. Everyone else takes turns trying to name the item and the first one to get the right answer wins a point. The person with the most points wins.
What’s the story?
Make up your own story – each person contributes a line that builds a story, one sentence at a time. I know a boy called Jack. He’s a naughty boy. He has a dog called Fetch that fetches sticks but never gives them back. One day…
One minute of words
Everyone gets a pencil and paper. Someone has to be the timekeeper, they pick a letter, tell everyone and players write as many words as possible that start with that letter. When a minute is up, the timekeeper shouts ‘Stop!’ and all the players put down their pencils. Whoever has the most words wins.
Be a botanist
Scavenger hunts are great in woods or at the beach. Each kid gets a bag or box and have to find as many different types of leaves, flowers, shells or fossils as possible. When you get home look up books or Google what you find together – even better, stick them into a scrapbook and help your kid to write a description of everything.
What was that?
Name all the sounds you can hear – who can name the most? Can you hear the insects… you have to be very, very, very quiet…
Treasure hunt
This can be played indoors too as long as there is a reward – like sweets, small money or you could even get the kids to write their own prizes and stick them in envelops to be hidden – ‘Allowed to stay up half hour longer for one night’. Include your own dream prize ‘I promise to make everyone’s bed tomorrow morning!’
North South East West
It’s simple. One person is the compass and when they shout North, everyone has to run north until the person shouts another direction. Anyone who runs the wrong way is out. A great game for burning off some energy.
Hopscotch
Get some chalk and draw a hopscotch design on the ground. In turns you throw a small stone to land on a square. Then you hop to that square using one foot in each square you pass. If it doesn’t land inside the square you lose your turn and pass the stone to the next person. If you step on a line, hop on the wrong square, or step out of the square, you lose your turn.
When you get to the last number, turn around (remaining on one foot) and hop your way back in reverse order. Pass the marker on to the next person. If you completed the course with your marker on square one (and without losing your turn), then throw your marker onto square two on your next turn. Your goal is to complete the course with the marker on each square. The first person to do this wins the game.
Concentration
Concentration is a great family card game. Shuffle the cards and divide them face down in front of each player. On each turn, a player turns over two cards (one at a time) and keeps them if they match numbers or pictures. If they successfully match a pair, that player also gets to take another turn. When a player turns over two cards that do not match numbers, those cards are turned face down again and it becomes the next player’s turn.
The person with the most pairs wins.
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