As summer approaches, many parents may be starting to feel the pressure of how they’re going to manage to keep their kids entertained all day. Since kids often have short attention spans, it can be challenging to keep them occupied.
Fear not, however. With these tips, you can make sure that you survive summer and have a great vacation with happy entertained kids.
A New Hobby
It’s important to encourage your children to be able to play by themselves. Kids who aren’t encouraged to be independent and find things to do themselves may have social issues as life goes on. It’s in their best interest to know how to keep themselves happy without someone having to help them out.
Try to guide them to find a new hobby that they find interesting. You shouldn’t force a hobby onto them, but instead, encourage them to find something that they like. It can be anything from learning to ride a unicycle, to interpretative dance. Once they show an interest in something, they’ll likely be inclined to spend a large part of their time getting better at it. Make sure that you encourage their efforts and support their development.
Go On a Trip
Summer is one of the best times of year to go on a trip together as a family. You can hit a sunny location and do things like swimming and boating, or you can even go camping.
This is something which won’t just bring you closer as a family, but it’s a great time to take advantage of the kids having time off of school. This way they don’t miss time off of school when you want to travel.
Encourage Them To Make Friends
Encouraging your child to be more social is in their best interest. If their idea of a summer vacation is sleeping in until the afternoon and watching television all day, then you should push them to contact their friends.
Push them to hang out with the other kids in the neighborhood, or call the friends they already have. Being social is good for their development and happiness. It will keep them busy and dissuade them from losing brain cells watching too much tv or staring at tablets.
Play Games
If you have a lot of board games sitting around in the closets that have been gathering dust, it’s time to pull them out. Playing games a family can be an enjoyable way to pass the time together.
Try organizing a family game night each week. Everyone can take turns choosing the game to play, and you’ll all start to look forward to it!
Encouraging your children to be creative and crafty stimulates their development, so letting them loose with glitter clue and crayons every once in a while is valuable to them. If you try to avoid arts and crafts at all costs for fear of the subsequent clean up, consider products that will take some of the weight off. Household technology has come a long way. With products like robot mops on the market, there’s no excuse for banning the kids from cracking open the craft box.
