How to Keep Children Busy After School at Home

Parents can keep children busy by participating in role-playing games.

Children can be kept busy at home after school without the expense of piano lessons and organized sports. Activities at home give children a chance to explore their creativity and resourcefulness in ways that help develop character. Some home-based activities, such as chores and helping prepare dinner, prepare children for adulthood. Deciding which activity to assign your children depends on the personality and preferences of each child. However, encouraging children to do something new can open up new possibilities for them to explore the world.

Instructions

1. Assess the age of your children and the types of things they like to do. Take stock of the materials you have available or can obtain easily. There are many activities you can do using items found around most homes, such as photography, gardening, puzzles, creating lunch sack paper puppets, making collages and bird watching.

2. Send your children into the backyard to look at insects and butterflies with a digital camera. Tell them you need a catalog of the things they find. Give your children a jar with a lid punctured with air holes to catch butterflies and grasshoppers. Have the children release the creatures after you have seen them.

3. Have your children pull up weeds in the garden. Show them what weeds to pull up. Give them a trowel to play in the dirt, or to use to plant a few flowers or plants on their own.

4. Put out puzzles the children can put together at the dining table or on the floor while you finish your own projects.

5. Provide a few paper lunch sacks, glue, glitter, scissors and construction paper for the children so they can make little puppets for after-dinner entertainment. Encourage the children to create stories and put on a puppet show for the family after dinner.

6. Pull out old magazines, scissors and plain paper. Encourage the children to make a collage of the things they see and like so you can get to know them better. Ask them to pick out things that impress them, mean something to them or that they would like you to know about them.

7. Encourage children to help in the kitchen in preparation for dinner. Place a stool near the stove or counter for smaller children to watch. Depending on the children's age, ask them to stir, pull items from the refrigerator or cut up different vegetables. Teach them how to read the recipe you are preparing by reading over the recipe and explaining what each thing means as you go. Set out the measuring cups and explain what goes in each.

8. Take a trip to the library and let children pick out as many books as they like. Ask the children to read at least one book after school on days when no other activities are planned.

References

• Care One Credit: Keep Kids Busy With Inexpensive After School Activities
• A Child's Academy: Keeping the Gainesville Preschool Kiddos Busy This Summer
• Better Kid Care: 101+ Ways to Keep Kids Busy