The holiday period is traditionally a time when families get together to celebrate. Kids are on vacation from school, parents have time off work, and relatives from far and wide often unite to celebrate the seasonal festivities. While this can be an exciting and enjoyable time for the entire family, there are no guarantees that your children will be so easily amused. Particularly in the run up to gift-giving, kids can become restless, overexcited, and difficult to manage. It is important to keep these kids engaged in some activity or another, for a more harmonious household this holiday season.
Kids love art, and they thrive in environments where they are given the chance to develop these creative skills. Kids also relish parental attention, and so spending time with them working on different arts and crafts projects is a great idea for keeping them busy. Try to work through a range of festive activities. Use the likes of Stephen Dent projects as inspiration, or perhaps get more festive with holiday card making and tree decorations. There are loads of ideas you can use, with a little seasonal creativity, to keep your kids engaged and having the best possible time over this holiday period.
With older kids, there are more adventurous things you can do to keep their minds active, even when the weather outside is less than helpful. Set them research projects, or specific challenges over the period. Pick a longer-term time frame – as in three days, or a week. This creates a bigger engagement for your kids, and involves cross-disciplinary skills in requiring forethought, planning and strategy. It could be something as simple as being able to execute two new tricks on a skateboard, or being able to write a short story – whatever the task, if it is structured over this kind of timeframe, with individual objectives along the way, you can effectively capture the imagination of your kids.
One of the key ingredients in organizing a fun, engaging holiday season for your kids is to keep their days varied, in terms of the tasks that are arranged and the things they can do. For many, this is the secret to well-engaged, interested kids, and it is the easiest way to ensure they never get bored. You don’t have to schedule an activity for every day of their time off from school, but a solid mix of different activities and events is recommended for keeping the little ones out of your hair during the holiday season.
Children invariably love the holiday season – Santa is an understandably popular guy. But for those days and weeks surrounding the big day, there are plenty of opportunities for siblings to disagree, or for boredom to set in. By providing a range of activities and things for your kids to do over the holidays, you can keep them doing something productive while ensuring their minds are engaged. This can help make sure the holiday season is equally as enjoyable for adults as it is for kids.
Leave a Reply