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Family Friday: Entertaining Kids Without TV & Video Games (Pt 2)
By
Staff Writer |
July 16th, 2009 |
Category:
Kids |
6 comments
Last week we talked about entertaining kids without TV and video games while still allowing you to get things done around the house. You can read part 1 of Entertaining Kids Without TV and Video Games here.
There are even more ways to get your kids involved in “helping” with household chores. Kids can help to set the table, fold napkins and fill cups with ice before dinner.
Even babies and small children can get in on the action. Keep all of your plastic bowls, pots and pans in a cabinet that baby can access. Let him empty the cabinet and engage himself with building and sorting activities at your feet while you cook.
Ask your kids to help you when performing other household chores. When doing laundry, have your child add the measured detergent to the washing machine. Allow him to transfer wet clothes from the washer to the dryer.
Give him a sand bucket or other small container and let him remove a few items from the dryer while you load the clothes into a basket. Have him follow you with his own ‘basket’ while you set out to fold clothes. While folding, have your child play a matching game with the socks, digging through the basket to find all of the pairs.
You can provide your child with lots of fun alternatives to watching television and playing video games. Break out some family board games for older kids and let them play together. Cards, marbles and dominoes can be equally entertaining.
Arts and crafts generally will keep even the fussiest children busy for an hour or so. Stock up on craft items such as popsicle sticks, cotton balls, sequins, beads, feathers, buttons, pasta, paint, markers, crayons, foam, felt, googly eyes, empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls, paper plates, old pizza boxes, socks, yarn, paper bags, etc. Store everything in a large supply box and bring it out once a day to keep your child’s creative juices flowing.
Family Friday: Time to Share!
Now it’s time for you to share your Family Friday post with the rest of us! If you’re not sure how it works, read the directions and guidelines for Family Friday here.
Please add your family-related blog post below in the Mr. Linky. Remember, you MUST link your post back to HomeEverAfter.com. (If your link was deleted, email us.)
What great ideas! My favorite is the “creative juices” box. I used to be able to have a few boxes with different items but we moved to a small apartment. The small boxes idea isn’t working there – no room, so I tend not to do it at all. I’m going to try the big box idea and see if I use it more. I bet I do. Easier to pull it out and clean it up.
Thanks for the idea.
Great post I do this with my children. While I cook I fill the sink w/bubbles and dirty plastic bowls, cups and spoons and let them play…I mean wash them 4 me
@Nightowl: lol As long as they think they’re helping, that’s all that matters – right?!
Barbi
@Kaye: I have a big basket filled with goodies, but don’t get it out much because it’s sitting on top of a bookcase. Good reminder to use it!
Barbi
Great tips! My boys are older now, in their teens, but we did lots of fun stuff like that when they were little.
Thanks for hosting!
~Liz
From a very early age I taught my children to do a few chores especially well (folding laundry, wiping down counters, setting the table), adding new chores as the got older. Now at 6 & 7 my oldest two are capable of doing so much!! They are able to take care of so much without being reminded and constantly corrected.
Another thing I’ve done with my children is use small plastic bins, I put one activity in each bin. I have a set of 5 bins stacked for each child and when I need them to do something quietly or just give them a change in their activity I have them go pick the top bin. The bins I’m using now are about 11×14 by 3 inches high. They are the perfect size for puzzles and larger books. They hold quite a bit. There are so many different activities you can put in them.
This is my first time participating in Family Friday – I look forward to all the great ideas!!