If you are feeling guilty about plopping your kid in front of your phone, iPad, or TV then you must adopt a way to keep your kid distracted long enough to accomplish anything. TV or Mobile phones are not bad but it could be dangerous when Watching them becomes the default choice of your kid’s leisure time. It can suck away the energy, imagination power, and innocence of children.
It’s easy to call out your child in the backyard and play different games. But it becomes difficult to engage your child when it’s raining outside or during a hot summer day or when the temperature is below 0.
The first step you have to take is to plan and think, it requires a lot more effort to encourage your kid to do something constructive than to sit with him in front of a screen. When your child gets enough active play you will surely notice the improvement in his academic behavior, cognitive abilities, and overall attitude according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
1. Let your kid Read
Reading is a good idea to allow your kids to explore magazines and books on their own or you can join and read with them. It is interesting to read picture books with large colorful images and to understand the story by using them.
It is a very beneficial activity as opening a book every day even for a few minutes will improve your child’s development. All the children, including all age groups, feel excited and comfortable while reading. Parental reading to kids will become a reason to increase a child’s reading and other cognitive skills.
Don’t take storytime as only a bedtime ritual. Set a storytime in your kid’s daily routine and to make it funny you can pick a story that has a word that is repeated many times, for instance, if the word is the hat and whenever it comes while reading or listening to the story they have to do a jumping jack.
2. Draw or paint
Instead of watching cartoons, you can let your kids make their own cartoons. Give them paper and pencils to draw their hero and the bad guy and let them color or paint also. When they completed the task, ask them about the story of their hero and the bad guy they have drawn.
According to a primary art author when a kid creates art then his or her ability to analyze and solve the problem increases. Never look at the product, it is the process that is giving benefit to your child. When they draw or sketch their language and design basics expand. When they are holding up paint brushes they are improving their motor skills.
A parenting magazine states that while creating art, the self-confidence of kids boosts up and they will feel free to make mistakes to invent new ways of thinking which extends well beyond the craft room.
Have you heard about paint by numbers for kids? It is the best idea to increase the creativity and discovering skills of a child. Whereby using the paint by numbers for kids’ kit they have to invent a design by mixing different colors.
3. Build something
Make a unique and stylish game box for your child and in his routine set a specific game box time in which he or she is busy with playing things like puzzles, coloring books, playing cards, etc. you have added in the game box.
Take your kid to the kitchen and make some food. By using this technique you can teach your child about counting and measuring skills. For the understanding of health, it is very important to teach your kids about nutrition. It is the best indoor activity that gives you quality parent-child time.
To make the food-making process interesting and funny you can select a color and then design the whole meal with that color in mind, for instance, a yellow lunch where you might include a grilled cheese sandwich with pineapple and corn on the cob. What about a green dinner in which you may use zucchini boats with green beans and green Apple slices.
4. Play indoor game
It is not necessary to have a backyard to play a soccer game. You can set up a net in your hallway on opposite ends by placing some masking tape on the floor. Make 2 teams and grab a plastic ball and let the fun begin.
What about balloon volleyball? You can make a net by tying a piece of yarn from one chair to the other. Take a balloon, blow it up and start the game. It should be played fairly, they have to play by kicking or head bumping the balloon.
Have your child heard about a crab race? When your kids are dreaming of playing with crabs on a sunny beach day then teach them how to walk like a crab by putting their feet and Palms to the floor while raising their stomachs to face the roof of your house. Now the task is how long they can balance something on the belly. They can also run a crab race while maintaining the postures to hit a destination.
5. Give them a mission
Give a task to your child and make them feel that it is very important to complete it in the prescribed time. If they take it as a mission then they will do it enthusiastically alone. You can ask them to make a block fort for grandma. If your child is older enough then you can assign him or her a task that lets them help you like slicing vegetables or sweeping the house in 20 minutes.
To make the mission more interesting you can set a reward that they will take if they completed it within the time limit. It could be a candy or a piece of their favorite brownies.
When your kids are going on a mission, their confidence, creativity, and motor skills are improved, they learn a lot about time management skills. When they are working as a team they learn teamwork.
Conclusion
Letting your children watch TV all the time not only affects their mental and physical health but also masks their creative and other cognitive skills. I know it is difficult to engage your child in a home in bad weather. But you can try different interesting activities which not only distract them from the television but also improve their confidence and creative skills.
Let them read interesting story books or ask them to draw a sketch or play on canvas with different colors. Paint by numbers for kids is a unique way to let your child discover their artistic skills.
It is a good idea to assign them an important mission or let them build something creative or interesting. Your kids can make their indoor games by using alternative things in the home.
