11 Ways To Positively Engage Your Children During The Holidays

Holidays can be a great time to bond with your children and maybe even let your own inner child come out to play. It’s also a time when kids with excess energy can step out of line due to boredom. Best to put a little bit of planning into the holidays and prepare ahead with a menu of activities to keep the children out of mischief.

Planning each week in advance makes it easy to tame their wild energy; if the kids know they have things to look forward to, it will make for happier more relaxed children, especially if you involved them in the planning.

Have a range of activities to select from: stuff to do at home, indoor and outdoor activities.

Here are 12 ideas that you can choose from:

1. Make Your Own Arts

Get a supply of colored cards (cardboard), children’s scissors, glue and anything else you may need. Help the children to cut out different designs, say, butterflies, houses and trees and affix on the colored cards with glue to create a perfect scenery.

2. Cooking and Baking

Introduce a once a week cooking or baking day. Involve the kids in the process from the beginning — let them choose from a selection of recipes that you have ingredients for. If the child can read, get them to read from the recipe book. Step by step, help them to work through the instructions. Resist the temptation of doing it yourself..

3. Build A Garden Area

Dedicate a small patch in the garden to the kids or have a little nursery at the back of the house where plants, flowers, herbs, that grows quickly can be nurtured by the children — this is sure to give them the satisfaction of having produced something. kids love to play with sand anyway.

4. Go Camping

Build a tent indoors or outdoors with blankets and sheets. Once the tent is up, give them a torch, snacks and drinks to take with them. They won’t bug you for hours.

5. Go On Picnics

Your picnic does not have to take you driving far, you can have one right there in your home. Serve whatever natural drinks you have in the fridge.

You’d be amazed how once it is packed in a plastic container and eaten on a blanket in open space, how the most boring of sandwiches tastes so much more better.

6. Make a movie

Encourage them to make a fun family movie with your phone, they get to have creative fun — and you get to attend to your other businesses in peace.

7. Paint

One of the nicest ways to express your ideas and emotions is through painting. Get large sheets of paper and paint wholeheartedly with the kids as if you are a kid again — it’s liberating.

To avoid any stress during and after the painting session, prepare the area well, cover with plastic or newspaper and have the kids wear aprons. Have some water on hand to wash when you are finished.

8. Make Jewellery

Stock up on beads, wire and clasps, and get busy making your own jewellery. This activity can be done with even the the smaller kids, just be sure to get appropriate bead sizes for different age groups. The children will be so proud to gift their friends or wear the jewellery that they have made.

9. Take Nature Walks

Go to the beach for instance with the kids and enjoy the ocean breeze, collect shells and stones to later make a shell castle or shell and stone sculptures.

10. Organize Play Dates

This one is so cool and the kids will probably have more fun. Plan some play dates and invite their friends over. While they spend time with their friends it may give you the chance to get some work done and perhaps even connect with other parents.Plus…the invite may be returned some day.

11. Have a “Chill Day”

With all that activity planned, the kids will also need some down time. Make sure you plan some days where the whole family can just relax and bond without any structured activities. Just chill, watch some movies, read some books, and go easy.