Simple Kid Activities At Home

Some tried and tested ideas by moms.. these are for kids above 3 yrs because it needs a little coordination, balance and general big baby skills and not for toddlers and infants

Building Stories

We can build a story together. I started a story and asked my daughter to continue the next scene and then it was my turn and then hers till the story ends at an appropriate juncture. It was really interesting doing with her...

A couple of samples I tried....

1) My daughter loves the story of "Goldilocks and the three bears". So I told her that Goldilocks has now been good and its the little bear who has been naughty and did not listen to his mother and ventured into the city. Now what do u think will happen?   She thought for a while and said, "The little bear will look at the crowd and so many vehicles and he was knocked down by a car". Then I continued saying, "Then the scared bear looked for a house and entered one. It was the house of the Goldilocks". Then we continued till the little bear ran back to the forest....

2) Another was - "I said Letter A is very proud of himself. He says the names of many animals, fruits, veggies etc. begin with him and he is the greatest". The letter 'B' on hearing that said, "No, no...thats not true! Even many animals, birds, fruits etc. have their names beginning with me". Then both of us listed various things that begin with the two letters.... Then I asked my daugghter, "What do u think happened next?". She immediately said, "Letter 'C' came and said, "Dont fight". ....

While building the story, I finished my cooking too :-)

And she also connected the word 'build'. She said, "We only build blocks, is it not? How come u are saying 'build' stories?" And then I explained to her....

The downside is through out the day she wanted to build stories....:-)

Sorting!
Sorting vegetables/fruits that we buy from the market and putting them into smaller baskets or covers. Removing curry and coriander leaves from their stalks and putting them into covers...are some tasks that we can get children to help us on.

As children sort, they build essential visual skills and logical thinking. And while they sort, we can do our work while simultaneously reeling off the benefits of each of the vegetables and how it helps them build a strong mind and body.

Float or Sink!
We can bring a small tub of water and place it in an area in which the child can do some experimentation safely. We can ask the child to collect a variety of objects from in and around the house like a feather, leaf, crayon, pencil, coin etc. and drop each one in the tub and see whether each of it 'floats' or 'sinks'.....

While children learn new vocabulary thru this experiment, they also learn an important science concept. As children begin to understand the concept clearly, we can extend by analysing why objects 'float' or 'sink', what do fishes do, what happens to an object that sinks....and so on.

Also we can get them make paper boats and float them in water.

Balance walk...
Find a long rope and lay it on the floor. Take turns with the child to walk on the rope without falling off or losing balance. Children get better and better with this with practise and also develop balance, coordination and concentration :-)

- Courtesy:  Bala

SORTING LIKES AND DIFFERENCES
It helps develop thinking skills.

1. Find 3 objects that are alike in some way, such as, the same color, the same size, the same shape, and the same type of object. Then, find one that is different.
Set out the four objects and have your child find the one that is different.

Sometimes your child will pick one that is not the one you had intended as the different. However, upon questioning her, she has a valid reason why this one is different and the others are the same. If they can explain their reasoning, accept their answer. This is a great game to teach children how to look at all characteristics of an object, and how to see that objects can fall into different categories.

2. Sort by fruits and vegetables
3. Sort leaves, toys by color
4. Sort spoons, pebbles by size

Courtesy:  Renu


Color Mixing - Messy but good exercise before bath

I took red, yellow and blue paints . Then applied red on his left palm and yellow on his right palm and asked him to rub together.and pressed his palms on a white paper . I asked "what color is it? " he said Orange.. Like wise do mix and match and involve the kid, they will enjoy it.

Rolling Crayon/pencil
Put a box on the chair of dining table and ask the kid to sit on the opposite side of the table, giving some crayons, pencil, some rolling object and ask them to roll out so that they fall into the box, they can keep the count of misses and hits and can get involved in the play for a while, initially the hits will be low but eventually the kids with their persistence will learn it :).

Courtesy:  Geeta