9 WAYS TO KEEP LITTLE KIDS BUSY

Anyone else’s kids repeatedly say “I’m bored” over and over?

Welcome to our house.

We could have played 3 board games, hide and seek, painted, AND had a dance party…5 minutes later “I’m bored.”

The need to constantly be stimulated and guided in play is utterly exhausting…no wonder we live on coffee!

Well, we’re here to provide you with some activities to keep little hands busy. Let’s jump into it 🙂

2. BRAIDING

My niece used to braid my hair over and over. But no worries, kids can braid more than your hair in case you’re picturing a bird’s nest in the back of your head. 

Thanks to Amazon and their two day shipping, you can have packs of bracelet threads sent right to your door. 

Once you take the 5 to 10 minutes to provide instruction on how to braid, your child can sit there calmly, focusing on the threads and how to weave them together. 

3. MAGNET TILES

SO MANY things you can do with the magnet tiles. We have photos of mazes upon mazes going through the house.

Need some more ideas on what to build with your magnet blocks?

• Roadways
• Towers (to knock down and then rebuild)
• Castles
• A replica of your house
• Cars
• Cubes
• Pyramids

4. LEGO KITS

If your kids haven’t done one of these Lego Kits yet, you would not believe the amount of time they take!

A word of caution: if your kids are too young to follow the directions to these kits, you’ll end up being the one to sit on the floor putting it together while your adorable little one asks “is it done yet?” multiple times over. 

We got one for our 4 year old thinking this would be a great time suck – 5 hours later I finally finished it, by myself!

5. SAND ART

Make sure you put all the sand in large tupperwares or the sand will be all over the place!

Another fun way to do this is with dyed dry rice. You can color uncooked rice if you don’t have the sand kit and fill whatever mason jar you have laying around!

It doesn’t have to be too complicated.

Just have them scoop, mix, dump and REPEAT. 

6. PUFFY PAINT WINDOW ART

I LOVE puffy paint! Do you know what it is?

Check it out. On a piece of plastic (you can even use cling film) you create designs with this puffy paint. It comes in little bottles that have a little spout. 

Once you are finished with your design, you let it dry, and once it’s dry you peel it off the plastic and can stick it to the windows!

I find them very addicting and I think I end up doing it more than Trudie does hahaha it ends up being very therapeutic for some reason, kind of like the adult coloring books.

7. TRACING/STENCILS

When we were younger, my brother got a stencil kit that included all these really cool looking gears and shapes that you placed on the paper to make these really cool 3D shapes. 

We ended up sitting there for hours tracing all kinds of shapes and designs.

I think it was one of the calmer Christmas’s (not that many were calm, per say).

8. SEWING

There are so many sewing kits out now for kids. For even younger kids there are lacing kits. It comes with a shoe string to thread through the holes in the little wooden shape. 

For kids a little bit older, you can find kits that come with a plastic needle, different colors of thread and a design to follow.

Expect them to sit there for a good half hour to an hour putting it together.

9. HOMEMADE BOOKMARKS

Depending on the age, this may take a little bit of your help and guidance.

Either you can buy blank bookmarks, OR, you can thick construction paper and cut out your own bookmark.

Provide art supplies like glitter, stickers, markers, string to tie through a hole at the top, etc.

I find that when Trudie creates something herself, she’s more likely to use it. If she’s in a funk and it’s too keen on getting into her books, something like making her own bookmark would encourage her to pull her books out so she could use it.

10. PLAY DOUGH CREATIONS

We held off on this for quite some time…we know, how on earth did we get away with that?

We really don’t like the smell! And yes, you can absolutely make your own and put some lovely essential oils it in.

If you get one of the Play Dough kits that comes with all the tools – the rolling pin, the little factory to grind out shapes, cookie cutters, etc. they can sit at that table for quite some time making animals, figures, and cookies.

And there you have it. Just like that we have 9 activities that are relatively quiet and calm and provide hours of entertainment. 

Don’t worry, once they finish one activity, you’re likely to hear “I’m bored” and you’ll be ready with an arsenal of ideas!

Good luck fellow Mama’s and Dada’s keeping those little hands busy!