Value Bookshop's Reading Notes

It’s not good for children to watch too much television. Unfortunately, many of us mothers find television to be a very useful babysitter. If you are cracking your head on how to keep your children busy and away from the television, here are some ideas.

• Do simple crafts. Little children can do some gluing e.g. gluing beans on an art paper to form the letter B.  There are lots of things you can do with paper plates and toilet rolls too.  See how I did this kite craft with my kids.  If you need more craft ideas, check out this affiliate link: LITTLE KIDS CRAFTS
• Older children can learn origami.
• Maybe someone’s birthday is coming up, or a celebration like Christmas or Father’s Day. How about crafting a card.
• Make a candy flower.  Or a lollipop flower.
• Teach them to do some Manga drawing.
• Give them balloons to play with. Oh, this one will definitely keep them occupied for a long while. You can also encourage them to draw on the balloons. This is actually a good pre-writing activity.
• Alternatively, make water balloons for them to burst. Of course this one has to be done outside the house.
• Playdoh. Here is a recipe for uncooked playdoh and another for cooked playdoh.
• Go bicycling.
• Make cookies or muffins together.
• Play boardgames, card games, puzzles and many other kinds of interesting indoor games you can find on the shelves of at the stores.
• Bubbles
• Singing time. Sing nursery songs, folk songs, church primary songs etc….
• Read books.
• Make a smoothie.
• Play with Lego or building blocks.
• Put out the kiddy swimming pool.
• Playing with a ball. Use it to bowl over some bottles. Try to throw it into a box or your laundry basket.  Toss it up and catch it to improve coordination.
• Play hide and seek. An alternative is you hide their teddy bear (or whatever) and they have to find it.
• Pretend play. Pretend to be a doctor and care for all the injured soft toys. Pretend to work in a restaurant where they need to take people’s orders and cook the food. Pretend to be a teacher.
• Play charades. Take turns acting out something and the other has to guess what it is.
• Give them simple house chores like wiping dust off the furniture.
• Give them blankets and sheets to put over chairs and tables to make like a camp.
• Let them watch you as you cook. Teach them the name of foods and vegetables. Give them kitchen tips like “how come mommy doesn’t cut her hand when she cuts the vegetables?”
• Make and play with sock puppets.
• Take a walk round the neighborhood and count stuff like trees, cars, houses etc….
• Make flowers out of colored tissue paper. Here’s a video to show you how.

There are lots of things children can do, so don’t just let them sit in front of the television. What are some things that you do to keep your children away from the television?

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