5 Ways to Keep Your Child Busy While You’re Studying
Studying with a small child at home can become quite a challenge pretty fast. Small kids are not skilled yet to entertain themselves for long periods of time. At least, they are not so great at doing so without getting in trouble later or even endangering themselves. However, even painting walls with crayons behind your back will get pretty boring pretty soon if they can’t get your attention. So, before every study session at home, a parent should also plan some fun activities for their kids to do by themselves.
Of course, you can put on an animated movie or turn on their favourite series. Such things may keep them entertained for a while. However, such a method will be more of a distraction than a solution. Instead, it can be wiser to give your child tools to enhance their imagination and creativity. Thus, they can play alone (although supervised) for prolonged periods without troubling you for attention or help. That’s the ideal environment for parents to study.
So, if you want to raise your kids to be independent and creative, these are five fun activities you can start with to keep them busy.
1. Build a fort
How about throwing some blankets, sheets, and pillows over some furniture to make a fort? Add some lights and sitting options to create a nice, intimate atmosphere inside. Such a construction will already take up to an hour to make. Yet, fort building is just half of the fun time. The other half actually centres on living in that fort. Thinking of what to do in a fort, what games to play, where your imagination will send you, and how to utilise a fort in your favourite games is the whole other fun part of having this castle in the first place.
So, by building a child a fort, you are giving them a whole new narrative to their games. Now, they can create numerous games where a fort plays the central role. Or, they can treat a fort as their safe place. They’ll bring their favourite toys, blankets, and pillows. They can also read there or watch a Disney movie on a tablet or laptop you set up for them.
2. Treasure hunt
Who doesn’t love a good treasure hunt? Children and adults all love good adventures, even if they are inside one room and you are hunting for candies. So, create your kid's treasure hunts every now and again. Such activity can keep them fully occupied for a long time. However, make it fun for both of you.
For example, you can make some riddles with tips for where to look next. They will have to think and solve those before moving on to the next tip. You can also draw them a map with some challenges along the way. Thus, a certain rug in the living suddenly turns into lava. Overall, a treasure hunt is a perfect activity for one or a few children. It will enhance their logical thinking and imagination while also giving them an unforgettable fun time.
3. Do a puzzle
If your kid loves solving problems, testing their ideas, and finding interesting solutions, puzzles can be like a treat for them. Such activity will test their memory and logic, increase attention to details, and teach them to plan. Besides, sometimes puzzles can be quite fun for adults too. So, in case you find yourself too involved in a new puzzle, remember to look for customer feedbacks on speedypaper and choose the best services for your needs. This way, you can spend an afternoon with your kids doing puzzles while professional writers help you with the assignments.
4. Give them playdough
For starters, you can create homemade playdough with your children. It’s a fun family activity where your kids learn about chemical reactions and baking. They will also value this newly made playdough much more since it’s their creation. You can hand it to kids on special occasions, for example, when you need an hour of quiet time. Children with powerful imaginations will have dozens of ideas about shaping that dough. Yet, you can also give them special instructions, like creating characters from last night's bedtime story. Perhaps, you can even create a whole installation over the weeks.
5. Play an exercise video
The Internet is full of kid-friendly exercise routines. Such a video can keep them busy for quite a while. Also, an exercise routine can be a rather helpful tool in your parenting skill set later on. For example, you can ask your kids to show what they’ve learned today. They will demonstrate what they’ve remembered. Next time you may join them for a fun little stretch in-between your studies. Also, you can ask them to watch a video more carefully next time and try harder, so they can show you more of these fun exercises. Fortunately, there is plenty of diverse, entertaining, and safe content online to help your kid grow healthy and keep them engaged for up to half an hour.
Bottom line
Being a student and a parent is like working two jobs at the same time. Of course, it is going to be challenging. Both you and your child need to settle into a strict routine, where adults have specific study hours. Meanwhile, your kid gets a treat for being respectful and quiet during that time. These five games will do rather well for such a role.