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Do you keep slouching on the couch and watch TV while leaving your kids to do their own thing during weekends or free time? Might not be a great idea! Studies suggest that spending quality time with children does them good in several ways – be it emotional, intellectual or spiritual. But with all the good intentions, if you weren’t able to spend quality time with your kids simply because you were losing the way around planning things with them or because things were just getting haywire, then here are our few tips that you could do with children besides watching TV:
1. Have A Family Breakfast
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Turn off the idiot box while having breakfast. Get your children to join you for the morning meal. Make the best use of this time to share the day to day experiences, crack jokes and giggle together. You will be surprised how well it can help the family bonds strengthen.
2. Take Them To Grape Stomping
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Time to get your feet dirty! Jump, roll, and crush the grapes in the barrels. Slosh the wine, drench and smear yourself in squashes in some fun moments of grape stomping at a vineyard. Kids are sure to have fun and so will you not be any less amused.
3. Kayaking On River
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Your little one will feel like a captain on a ship taking the front seat. Kayaking on a quiet weekend is all you might want to do together. Get him to steer the kayak through a pristine river. We bet he won’t want to come back on the land ;)
4. Schedule A Fixing Time
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Just take a look at the basement. There must be a pile of articles stashed for long that need to be fixed. Use the free time to mend stuff with your kids. The time spent together this way will not only help them learn the nitty-gritty of some engineering, but also the little chatter with him can be mind-blowing
5. Workout Time Together
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Working out together with your kid can be fun. It is also likely to boost your endurance of an exercise regime. Just hit the gym or get a little bit of aerobics or yoga with your young one at home. You will enjoy her antics and efforts to get it right while she is making herself more flexible and energetic.
6. Pass On The Tailoring Skills
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Our mothers did that. And now it’s our time to pass on the tailoring skills to the young ones. They might not have to get the needle and thread together, but watching you do your bit will help them learn to fix a button or mend a torn hem. Observation does come handy after all!
7. Tidying The Wardrobe
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Ask kids to tidy up their wardrobe. You could help them chuck out all the unwanted items. Help them to iron and mend any outfits that need to be done. They will not only have revamped wardrobes, but also cultivate the habit of keeping wardrobe ever-ready for any occasion.
8. Go On A Picnic
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Get your sandwich baskets, table-mats, Frisbee and Hula Hoops ready for a picnic in the nearest woods. Get children to make a camp fire or do a barbecue. They will love the time out in nature and get some fresh air.
9. âOnce Upon A Timeâ¦â
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…And they lived happily ever after.’
Read your kids fairy tales and other children stories. They are a treasure to cherish all their life. Stories help children dwell in their fantasy world. So help them get their imaginations fly high and learn about the world around them.
10. Get Mini-Adventures
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Undoubtedly, winters are for skiing and summers for swimming. Go on a seasonal adventure in free time with your kids. You never know how they might turn out to be adventure-freaks! Ski over the snow-covered cars or race in the swimming pool for an extra punch.
11. Flag A Fair
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Keep your calendars flagged with the fun events that might be coming to town. Perhaps a fair or a magic show will work wonders for kids. Get your slurpies and munch candies together. They will be amazed at the wonderful time you planned for them.
12. Amusement Rides
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Eeek! You’ve just been snapped screaming on the roller-coaster!
Kids can never refuse amusement rides. But they will have a whale of a time if they know how you reacted to them on those topsy-turvy rides. (Now this can be embarrassing, but it’s worth it :D)
13. Drench Over With Water Balloons
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Throw a surprise by bursting water balloons over each other in the backyard. You won’t realise when one starts off and when the whole thing comes a full circle!
14. Simply Go On A Walk
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Doesn’t your kid count the number of steps you walk? Or does he ask you to jump over the tiles of the sidewalk? Or does he throw questions like who painted the zebra-crossing? Yes, a stroll through the neighborhood with family might be a great idea. But just be prepared to answer your child’s curiosities and more
Television can take off such a good amount of time from our quality lives. What’s worse is that we risk ourselves being simply lazy and pay less attention towards kids. We have dished out our top activities besides watching TV. But we’d love to hear more on this from you!
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