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There’s a strong reason why educational, learning and creative activities are recommended for 8-year-olds. This is the age when kids start developing a better sense of their motor skills and get a bearing of their strengths. Social interaction is also at a high, and involving your kid in individual or group activities helps him pick up the skills of discussion, debate, and teamwork in a safe setting.
Educational and Learning Activities
We’ve put together a list of great activities that can be educational for your kids, and open them up to learning a few other skills as well.
1. Chatting With Alphabets
Considered one of the easiest writing activities for 8-year-olds, you can mix it up with some conversations as well.
How to Do
One child writes a word on a whiteboard. The next child needs to write another word which begins with the last letter of the previous one. This cycle continues for as long as it can go.
What Does It Teach?
This activity allows your child’s vocabulary to expand quickly because he gets to learn new words and their meanings from his friends.
2. Decode the Message
Turn your kid into a detective with this mysterious and fun-filled activity.
How to Do
Use simple substitution cyphers such as alphabet numbers or replace previous alphabets in the message, and send the decoded message around. Let your child rack his brains to find the right message, with some hints from you.
What Does It Teach?
Your child learns how to think out of the box and to write simple sentences in different ways.
3. Brain Teasers
This is one of the many fantastic math activities for 8-year-olds. Your kid will be absolutely ecstatic while solving them.
How to Do
Use the Internet or books from the library to put together a bunch of math-based riddles for your child. These could even be descriptive puzzles that need math skills to solve them.
What Does It Teach?
Your child begins to look at numbers beyond arithmetic operations and understands how real-life scenarios can make use of mathematical understanding as well.
4. Writing A Letter
A long lost art in today’s age, don’t let it fade away. Teach your kid to write a letter, for he can learn a lot from it.
How to Do
Ask your child to think of someone he hasn’t spoken to in a long time. It could be a friend or even a relative. Let him write a letter to that person describing events of his own life and enquiring about theirs.
What Does It Teach?
Communication is a two-way street, and writing a letter helps your child express his feelings better, as well as be curious and interested in other people.
5. Find the Location
Let your child brush up his geography skills with this wonderful group activity.
How to Do
Hang a large world map on the wall. Mention the names of countries, cities, mountains, or any other geographical entity. The first child to point out the correct location of the same on the map gets points.
What Does It Teach?
Children will begin to remember locations easily and start making connections between names and their possible locations.
Art and Craft Activities
Letting your child unleash his creativity from time to time is necessary as well, which is why we have listed out some exciting art and craft activities for him.
1. Origami Primer
This might be one of the most popular fun activities for 8-year-olds, but it is also a great skill to learn at an early age.
How to Do
Print out origami instructions from the Internet, or get an origami kit for your child. Start with easy shapes and help him complete them. Encourage him to paint the origami to make them even more attractive.
What Does It Teach?
Spatial and visual perception are great when developed at an early age, and the art of origami can open up your child’s mind to all the wonderful possibilities it holds.
2. Cardboard Creations
Wondering what to do with all those cardboard boxes you’ve got? Well, let your child handle them for you.
How to Do
Put together an array of boxes, sellotape, glue, safety scissors, and other material. Let your child make different items out of the boxes, right from ovens to televisions; things that he can sit in, or even a pet house.
What Does It Teach?
Creativity can be expressed even in old waste items, and this activity encourages your child to think beyond typical play items while giving him a chance to do better.
3. Beetle Dice Drawing
Turn the act of drawing a beetle into one of the coolest creative group activities for 8-year-olds with this brilliant twist.
How to Do
Assign a number from 1 to 6 to each beetle part, such as 1 for a leg, 2 for an eye, 3 for spots, and so on. Each kid needs to roll the dice and draw that particular body part, working together to finish the drawing before others.
What Does It Teach?
Apart from understanding the beetle’s structure better, it helps kids learn the importance of perseverance to achieve what they want.
4. Bridge Construction
Let your children work together in building the strongest bridge that they can.
How to Do
Gather as many ice cream sticks as you can. Let your children refer to a drawing of the bridge and glue the sticks together to make one. Once done, place some coins on it and note how many it can hold before collapsing down.
What Does It Teach?
Children will learn the importance of logical thinking and making detailed observations while building, while others can come up with ideas to improve on it.
5. Aeroplane Challenge
Bring on pure nostalgia with paper aeroplanes and let your child start crafting these right away.
How to Do
Let each child pick a paper of his favourite colour. Teach them to fold it the right way to form an aeroplane. Each child then throws it as far as he can, while you measure the distance.
What Does It Teach?
Along with making their toys, the kids will learn to give their best with each consecutive performance, as they look for better ways to make an aeroplane and ensure it flies as far as it can.
Indoor Activities
A hot afternoon or a rainy day can get everyone holed up in the house. Don’t let that stop you from indulging in some crazy activities with your child.
1. Family Tree
Among all the lovely activities for 8-year-olds at home, this one takes the cake for helping you bond with your child.
How to Do
Give your child a pencil and a large paper to draw a tree. Then use your family albums to go through the photos, identifying your family members and placing them in appropriate positions on the tree.
What Does It Teach?
Your child may have a difficult time putting together people and their relationships with the family. This activity helps him understand and appreciate his family better.
2. Magazine Art
Get out all those old magazines and let your child turn them into a work of art.
How to Do
Give your child a theme around which he needs to create something interesting. Let him peruse each magazine, cut out any parts he wants, and create something wonderful.
What Does It Teach?
Your child will begin to understand how to wade through a lot of unnecessary stuff to find that which matters most.
3. Cooking Time
Unleash your child’s inner Masterchef with one of the popular Montessori activities for 8-year-olds.
How to Do
Let your child choose an episode from the show. Ask him to note down the ingredients and the steps. Then, work together in making the dish for everyone in the family.
What Does It Teach?
Not only does it increase his interest in cooking, but your child will be happy, cooking his very own meal.
4. Playing Cards
UNO might be your child’s favourite, but does he know of the other classic card games as well?
How to Do
Get the usual deck of cards and teach your child a variety of games such as Rummy, Don’t hold the joker, and so on. Start with simple ones at the very beginning.
What Does It Teach?
Your child will learn all about strategic thinking, arithmetics and shape recognition through a simple card game.
5. Cleaning Race
What better time to get your children to help with household chores than this?
How to Do
For each child, assign the same activity, and time them to see who finishes it up first. Keep all activities simple, such as making the bed, arranging the books or toys, and so on.
What Does It Teach?
It helps children understand the effort that goes into keeping the room clean and instils a sense of discipline.
Outdoor Activities
You don’t need to take a picnic or go to the mall to have fun every time you step outside. Any of the following activities will make your child’s day.
1. Washing the Car
Who knew washing a car could be perceived as a fun activity instead of a chore? Your child may love behaving like a grown-up, and this would be the perfect opportunity to help him do so. All it takes is a bucket, a sponge, soapy water and a cloth.
How to Do
Get those soapy solutions and buckets ready. Make sure your child is wearing clothes that are comfortable even when he gets wet, and let him have a gala time cleaning your car.
What Does It Teach?
It makes the entire concept of car cleaning a fun-filled activity. Your child can also use his imagination to write or draw anything he wishes on the car with the soap suds, of course before wiping it squeaky clean!
2. Reverse Hide and Seek
Put a spin on the classic game of Hide and Seek and watch as this turns out to be your child’s favourite game!
How to Do
This starts with one child hiding, while everybody else looks for him. Whenever someone finds him, he has to hide with him as well. It ends with one child looking for everyone hiding in a constricted space together.
What Does It Teach?
Team effort and compromising with others is learnt effectively with this activity.
3. Balloon Toss
A large open area and a nice big balloon are all it takes to keep your children happy.
How to Do
Blow up a balloon and take your kids to an open garden. Ask them to keep the balloon up in the air as long as they can, by passing it to each other with a simple tap of the hand.
What Does It Teach?
Your kids learn to be competitive and cooperative at the same time with this game.
4. Bulls-eye Toss
Among numerous fine motor activities for 8-year-olds, this is the easiest to pull off.
How to Do
Draw a dart-board on the ground and let your kids stand at a distance. Ask them to toss a wet sponge onto the board as close as possible to the bulls-eye. Give points accordingly.
What Does It Teach?
It helps children make a better judgement about weight, distance, and energy to land the target.
5. Map Making
Turn your children into brave explorers with this group activity.
How to Do
Task each group of kids to investigate an area of the neighbourhood and draw as accurate a map as possible. These can then be compared with maps on the Internet and scored accordingly.
What Does It Teach?
This simple game helps improve the sense of direction in kids and makes them adept at reading maps.
Putting together summer activities for 8-year-olds as well as at any other time of the year can be quite a task. By knowing what children love and integrating them with any activity, you can soon come up with a massive list of interesting ones all by yourself.
