baking, cooking, cooking with kids

Fun and educational activities to do with your children at home

Creating a productive, fun and educational environment in your home has never been more important to you. Making sure that your children always have a go-to activity to exercise their mind, body or soul is always at the top of your priority list. When it comes to feeling happy in your life, you are always at the top of your game when you’re spending time with the people you love the most. With that being said, you need some activities in your backpocket, so that you always have a good idea. Consider some of the following ideas, and you’ll soon have a whole host of fun activities to do with your children at home.

Board Games

Board games are such a valuable tool when you have children of any age. Getting them involved in classic games such as chess or pucket will not only teach them about strategy, but it can also help to improve their concentration. Getting your youngsters into the competitive spirit with a good board game will always be successful, as someone will always learn a valuable lesson as a result of the game they’ve played with you.

pucket

Cooking

Cooking is one of the most valuable skills you can teach your little ones, especially if they are getting older. Teaching your children how to read a recipe, cook basic meals and be proud of the finishing product is so important. At home you can encourage your kids to get busy in the kitchen, whether they’re baking lemon drizzle cake for guests or helping you cook a full dinner, you can gradually introduce them to the idea of cooking.

Exercise

This is one activity that will never go out of style when it comes to quality family time. Encouraging your youngsters to stay active and move their bodies in a way that feels enjoyable to them is so important. Exercise can come in all sorts of forms, from walking in the park to going swimming with friends. Leading by example with exercise will teach your children healthy habits and it will also allow everyone in the family to get into a good routine when it comes to physical activity.

Watch Documentaries

Parents often feel guilty about giving their kids too much screen time, but sometimes that’s all you need to relax, unwind and learn something new. There are so many fun and educational documentaries that you can enjoy with your child, and it won’t give you any guilt for putting them in front of the television for an hour or two! This is something you can do as a family, and it will spark conversations afterwards too.

It doesn’t matter how old or young your children are, you can get them involved in all of the healthy, fun and educational activities mentioned above. Whether you’re teaching them how to play chess from the comfort of your own home, or you’re cooking up a delicious recipe in the kitchen, there is so much you can do to spend quality time with the little ones you love.

This is a collaborative post.

key stage 2, kids, life

As a family, we like to play games together… we like the classics (of my youth)… Monopoly, Connect 4, and anyone remember ‘Sorry’?

My parents always bought a new ‘family game’ every year, and I’ve carried on this tradition with my own children.

pucket photoThis time last year, we bought Pucket – an amazingly fun game, you pull back the elastic to fire your wooden pucks through a gap in the middle of the board (the ‘gate’), and when all of your pucks have got through… before your opponents’, you’ve won! It’s manic, and massively funny to play. We can highly recommend this game 🙂

bridget-kidschaos-photo

Now the makers of Pucket, ETGames, have a new game… it’s called ‘Bridget’ and the boys LOVE it… 11yo opened it on his birthday, they figured out the rules – taking it in turns to add the bricks to get across the board with their ‘bridges’…they insisted we took it with us to the restaurant for Birthday Supper with Daddy… and excitedly explained the Bridge Building Strategy Game to him. “A three dimensional noughts and crosses” which I seem to lose to a 9yo and an 11yo…grrr.

bridget-kidschaos-square(When not playing the official game, they use the bricks to create characters and funny faces!!)

It’s produced following the same Fair Trade principles as the production of the Pucket game, and packaged in a small organic cotton bag, perfect for taking with you on your travels, and Bridget is carefully hand-crafted in the UK – in fact, it’s quite a thing of beauty!

I’ve recommended this to several friends who have already purchased the Bridget for Christmas pressies, and my Brother in Law will certainly be getting one from us too this year!

If you can recommend any other classic games you think my family, and the boys age 9 and 11 may like – please comment below, thank you 🙂

Oh, by the way, I’m also on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Google+Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x LIKE IT? Pin it!