Fun & fulfilling holiday activities apart from TV

Taking the kids out is overrated. I think so because that’s about the only activity some parents think are associated with the holidays, so it gets boring sometimes.

Kids spending time watching TV seems to be the easiest way out but it is fast becoming an addiction that needs an urgent substitute to keep the kids refreshed. Being in front of the TV all the time has been associated with lower brain capacity and anti-social skills by reputable medical associations.

Activities are not only for the summer holidays, even short school breaks should not be a time of headaches for the parents , so the kids need to be adequately engaged.
There are other fun and fulfilling activities to do with the kids and here I am sure you would get an idea or two.
Parents need to ensure they are activities the children love or the ones you can encourage them to love, so that its all fun for everyone.

1. Arts, Crafts & Pompoms:

So let me be sincere, I am a lover of handcrafts such as painting, weaving and drawing, so this comes easy for me.

If you are not art-inclined, you should enrol the kids in a class. It may be a dance class, a mud play time, piano lessons, a painting class, and so on.

Ensure that the sessions are age-appropriate. For instance, my kids are ages 4 and 2 and I organise painting sessions for them.

For my 4 year old, I already started to introduce more challenging painting activities such as making an umbrella with cardboards and pompoms.

The 2 year-old simply plays with the colours but trust me, all these help make them more curious and help them understand life and school work easily.

2. Cooking:

When you cook with your kids and involve them in the grocery shopping and choosing what to eat, it helps them to make healthier food choices too.

It saves you some stress of cooking as well. Your 4 year old can pass on the onions to you. He can even plan the meals and even those who don’t like vegetables or certain healthy meals, can get to love them by getting involved in the kitchen!
Bake cookies, cakes and stir-fries with your children. You should not wait until you have a big kitchen to involve the kids. It also helps with bonding family members.

Try this chicken nuggets recipe

Time: 20 minutes

Recipe: Veggie Beans Chicken Nuggets

Ingredients:

• 200g boneless chicken breasts
• 2 tablespoon Veggie Beans (Buy it here: here:http://www.augustsecrets.com/shop/)
• Vegetable oil to fry or heated oven to bake
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger and garlic powder
• 1 egg

Method:

1. Cut the chicken breasts into tiny strips, rinse properly and coat with ginger, garlic powder and salt
2. Place a pan on heat with the oil
3. Now whisk the egg with the Veggie Beans in a separate bowl with some water and a pinch of salt to form a paste.
4. Dip the chicken strips one after the other in the Egg mix and fry or bake till golden brown.

Super delicious!

3. Go out to meet with other children:

Rather than taking them to the mall for candies and icecream, its better to build your children’s social skills by taking them out to relate with other children.

This will help them appreciate what they have and also learn from their peers. For instance, if your child loves baking, and you don’t know how to, you could take them on visits to their friends whose parents are professional bakers. Somehow they get to learn from them.

It is also very rewarding to take the children out to give gifts to underprivileged children. Visit an orphanage and get the kids to present gifts to the children in those places.

This will help them appreciate you and see all they have in life as a gift, and not a right.

Try to allow the kids relate with other children even while you are away for some time. They will usually return home with one or two lessons!

Please drop your comments here and share this with friends.

Thank you!