6 Things You Can Do Everyday at Home With Your Kids

There is a saying when raising kids… the days are long and the years are short. How many times have you caught yourself looking at photos of your kids while they are sleeping? Let’s not even touch parent guilt 🙂 We love our children and we genuinely want what is best for them, but we also are human and can’t play Barbies with them for 3 hours straight. In order to enjoy my time with my child, I try to do these 6 things every day. They help save my sanity on long days and ensure that my child isn’t sitting in front of a screen (don’t get me wrong, we are definitely not a screen-free house).

1. Gross Motor Play
2. Fine Motor Activity
3. Get Creative
4. Read and Write
5. Imaginative Play
6. Bonus: When in doubt, bath time 🙂
7. Double Bonus: Games

1. Gross Motor Play

My first child was born the year of the fire monkey. I don’t know a lot about the Chinese calendar, but what I do know is that pretty much fits my daughter to a tea. She needs to move her body and be active. We live in Canada and our winters are cold, so we can’t always go to a park or play outside (-53 degrees Celcius makes your lungs feel frozen), so we have to get creative with our gross motor play. Here are some ideas:

• Grab a die and think of 6 different movements (jump like a frog, walk like a bear, twirl like a princess, gallop like a horse) and then have your child roll the die and then do the movement that many times!
• Play catch with a ball.
• Make hopscotch with painters tape on the floor
• Make an obstacle course.
• Go for a nature walk and make a list of things to find.
• Go to the park.
• Ride a scooter or bike (we do this in the basement in the winter).
• Find a “yoga for kids” video on YouTube or a “Just Dance” video and dance with your child (cardio for both of you!)

2. Fine Motor Activities

Fine Motor skills are the ability to make small movements using our hands and wrist. When your baby first started picking up those Cheerios off their high chair tray, they were using the pincer grasp. That grasp is an important fine motor skill for many real-world activities. Children also need to learn to use scissors, button their clothes, zip their coats and hold and use a pencil or crayon.

• Practice scissor skills by cutting cooked spaghetti.
• Play playdough and use cookie cutters.
• Thread cheerios (for younger kids) or beads (for older kids) on a pipe cleaner and make bracelets.
• Draw a shape and have children use bingo daubers to outline the shape or fill it in (a rainbow or heart or something the child is interested in).
• Posting activities (great for toddlers)- cut a hole in the top of a large yogurt container and allow your child to drop popsicle sticks through the hole.
• Draw a bunch of different shaped lines (zig-zag, curved, wavy) and then give your child buttons, stones, or pom-poms. Have them put the buttons on the lines.

3. Get Creative

In our house, we love to make crafts. We do a lot of #recycledcrafts because we always have the supplies on hand! If you have paint, pipe cleaners, glue, paper, scissors, markers, crayons, painters tape, googly eyes, pom-poms and craft sticks you can make tons of different crafts for kids! Keep your egg cartons, sturdy cardboard boxes and paper towel rolls for even more craft possibilities.

• Paint a picture of your family
• create caterpillars by cutting an egg carton in half lengthwise, painting it, adding pipe cleaner antenna and googly eyes.
• Create insects out of playdough, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes.
• Create animals from paper plates.
• Create binoculars out of toilet paper rolls and go on a color, shape or letter hunt.

4. Read and Write

Having dedicated time to read during the day is a great way to expand your child’s vocabulary and imagination. I usually have 2 times for reading, during the day when we can work on comprehension and do activities with reading and then before bed as a time to relax with a good book. You do not need to buy 100s of books in order to keep your child interested, check your local library or do book swaps with your friends (just be sure to label your books)! Here are some reading and writing activities to do with your child.

• Repetition is sometimes hard for adults, but necessary for kids. Reading the same book over and over can help your child with word recognition as well as reading comprehension.
• Rhyming books are fantastic because they help children predict which words might come next.
• When reading to your child, track the words with your finger to help them understand what reading is.
• Bake together and read the recipe.
• Have your child help you write a grocery list.
• Give your child a notebook and pencil and let them write “secret notes” (make sure they are writing from left to right)
• Give your child time to explore books, look at the pictures and try to figure out what the story might be about.

5. Imaginative Play

Allowing your child’s imagination to grow and flourish when they are young will help them be innovative thinkers as young adults and adults. Kids often need support getting into imaginative play. If you set up a scenario for your child and play along, their imagination will take over.

• Set up action figures, barbies, playmobile or lego so that they look like they are in conversation. You can start the play by saying something like ” We need to rescue _____” or ” Let’s have a picnic”.
• Build a fort and pretend you are camping.
• Play store, you just need to raid your pantry!
• Create a little post office and send letters to family and friends.
• Create a bakery or ice cream shop with playdough.
• Play dress up and take on the role of the character you are playing.

6. Games

Board games and card games are very important to help your child learn to take turns, learn number skills and have fun! We play a lot of games in our house and this is something that is fun for both my daughter and me! My daughter started enjoying card and board games around 3, but each child is different.

• Crazy 8s! This is a simple one you can play with a regular deck of cards and children can understand it (with support) starting at age 3.
• Zingo! Fun for all ages! It is kind of like bingo, but with pictures.
• Too many Monkeys! A fantastic game that is simple enough for a 2.5-3- year old to play and great at building math skills.
• Dice games! There are lots of “roll and cover” games you can print from Pinterest that are great for ages 2+.
• Snakes and ladders!
• Hungry Hungry Hippos!
• Tic-Tac-Toe!
• Magnetic Fishing Game! This game is great for hand-eye coordination as well as counting.

7. Bath Time (BONUS)

When my daughter gave up her nap, I found out that “the witching hour” was the hardest part of my day. My mom gave me some really good advice! She said, just put her in the bath! It always seemed to calm my daughter down and get us through that terrible time when she just couldn’t handle any other activity. Bath time is a great time to do sensory play! Here are some examples of things to do in the bath 🙂 (Please always make sure you are supervising your child while they are in the bath)

• Bath crayons! Let your child draw all over the tub and then wash it away with just water and a washcloth (you can even get your child to do this).
• Put a few drops of food coloring and throw some scoops and pom-poms in the bath! Endless fun!
• Jumbo Water Beads in the bath with scoops! (Just make sure your child is old enough to not put them in their mouth.
• Turn out the lights and throw some glow sticks in the bath for a glow in the dark bath!
• Throw a few toys and some sponges in the bath and make sponge boats (can also use a straw to blow the boats across the bath.
• Bath bomb bath!
• Blow bubbles in the bath. Close the curtain and let them go crazy blowing bubbles everywhere!

These are just a few ideas of things you can do every day with your child so you both enjoy your time together and don’t lose your minds!

*For even more ideas of what to do with your kids, you can follow me on Instagram @teach.me.mom.

**Please make sure you choose activities that are age-appropriate and if your child still puts items in their mouth, make sure any manipulatives you use are larger than the end of a toilet paper roll!