KEEPING KIDS BUSY AT HOME

During school break when kids are at home, I prepare different activities to keep them occupied.   My husband requests more outdoor physical activities. I, on the other hand, would like them to learn something that would be useful for them in the future. While the kids, of course, would want to use their gadgets all day.  In order to strike a balance, I would plan and make a schedule of activities to keep them busy.  To yield to my husband’s request, I have enrolled them in the past in swimming and tennis classes.  The kids get to have their gadget time after they finish the tasks assigned to them for the day. Here are some of the activities that they do during school break:

Keep Kids Busy with Reading Comprehension Activities

They read a book during summer to enhance their comprehension skills. There would be questions at the end of every chapter that they need to answer. There are also some vocabulary words that they need to define. Before, I would choose the book that fits their age and interest. But lately they choose their own book.  There are materials available online, we got some from Free Unit Studies website and Super Teachers Worksheet’ site. Here are just some of the books they read during school break:

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Improve Children’s Handwriting

Handwriting is not given much importance nowadays because of the growth of technology. I believe that handwriting helps us to digest words more and helps us in our language processing skills.  Writing by hand allows us to slow down. It makes us think of the words we are writing, how they are spelled and how they fit the structure of the sentence we are creating/reading. 

I’ve reinforced writing in print when they were younger and cursive when they were in higher grades.  My son told me that he appreciates that he could read teachers notes in cursive unlike his classmates. I’ve taught them both and they can choose which form they are more comfortable with.  They have practiced handwriting bible verses, famous quotes, word definitions, etc. 

We found the cursive bible verses from Heart of Wisdom website. One whole set of cursive practice sheet is available in Activity Village, another one can be downloaded from This Reading Mama Website. We just did the movie quotes from scratch. Here are some of the works that they have done in the past:

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Introduce Kids to Typing

After handwriting, the next thing I’ve taught them was typing.  In this computer era, it is a fundamental skill to learn how to use the keyboard efficiently.  There are a number of platforms where the kids could learn how to type accurate and fast. Some are in the form of games others are in the form of drills and exercises.  They appreciate that they learned typing at an early age. They now enjoy typing fast and accurate in doing their projects in school or even in playing games or chatting online with their friends.  We used Dance Mat Typing and Typing Club for our typing exercises.

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Sharpen Kids Math Skills at Home

For me, one of the skill that needs to be strengthened is Math.  Having confidence in basic arithmetic is very important so kids would not get intimidated by any form of Mathematics.  When they were in first and second grade we focused on addition and subtraction.  In the years after, multiplication then division.  We use drill sheets, games – online and downloaded, flashcards, books, etc.  You can check out one of my posts on mastering the multiplication table. Some of the resources that we used came from Math-Aids.com and tlsbooks.com.

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Dive into Arts and Crafts

To tap into the kids’ artistic side, we did some painting, drawing, sketching, etc. Here are some of the kids output throughout the years. Check out Mr. Otter Art Studio in you tube for simple and easy to follow artworks that kids can do. You may try water color techniques, simple landscape, sunset and a whole lot more. We also did some t-shirt printing, scrapbooking, upcycling which I will discuss in detail in another post.

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Involve Kids in the Kitchen

Another life skill that I want the kids to learn is to cook and bake. Thus, I intentionally taught them basic cooking and baking when they are on school break. I would make them familiar with cooking and baking equipment and terminologies while we were using or doing them.  They had hands-on training when it comes to the kitchen. During their younger years they would chop tomatoes, peel garlic, wash the veggies etc.   Lately, they get to cook the dish that they want. I would just be the one to buy the ingredients and to guide them on what to do.

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Acquaint Young Ones with Nature

Living in the city has its pros and cons. One of the cons is that children are not familiar with plants and trees since they are surrounded by concrete structures. In order for my children to get a feel of nature, I encourage them to plant. This activity shows them how a tiny seed becomes a plant or a tree with just water, sunshine and air. It teaches them to be responsible having to take care of the plants, making sure that their plant gets what it needs. They get to appreciate nature more, getting to see God’s hand at work with His other creations such as the vegetation.

For this exercise, we use seeds from the kitchen scraps like tomatoes, kalamansi, squash, bell peppers, chili peppers. Sometimes we get to experiment with root crops like gabi and fruit seeds like avocado, papaya, mango, jackfuit etc. Some of their plants have been transplanted in the province and are bearing fruits already like papayas.

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Teach Children the Art of Selling

We also did selling. The kids help me prepare food to sell and actually sell them in our front yard. Not only did this boost their confidence, it increased their human interaction. It also sharpened their math skills when calculating the total amount and and giving change to their customers. They actually enjoyed this activity and they look forward to it every year.

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Once they are done with their assigned task for the day, they are free to use their time. We only do one or two activity per day so they still have free time to do their own stuff. We also make sure that they take breaks when they are using their gadgets. 

Hope this article gave you some ideas that you can do with your kids while they are at home.  Remember to always have fun. May God bless us always. ♥