As any mother would know, it is hard to keep your child occupied for long periods of time. Children usually have a notoriously small attention span, making it difficult for their caretakers or parents to breathe in peace. It is especially beneficial to have some activities lined up for your child if you crave some time to yourself and also want to help your child improve in the meantime.
Activities for children have to be chosen carefully, as a lot of their mental and intellectual growth depends on what they do during the formative years. An exercise that can work the brain while also intellectually stimulating the child can have a telling effect on their development. Therefore, it is imperative that parents choose the activities that their children do with great care.
Fun Creative Activities for Children
Here are some of the best creative activities for children:
1. Cut and Glue
Using scissors is an activity that all children take some time to learn and is an important motor skill too. This is one of the creative craft activities for kids which helps them build their creativity and also create memorable pieces of art.
What You Will Need:
- A pair of scissors
- Coloured paper with predetermined shapes
- Glue
- Drawing paper
How To Perform:
- Encourage the child to cut through the predetermined shapes on the coloured paper.
- You can start with simple shapes and make them complex once your child gets a hang of it.
- Let him stick the cutouts on the drawing paper to create an artwork.
2. Sticker Fun
Stickers were some of the best aspects of all our childhoods, and they also have beneficial effects on the child. Stickers help build motor skills, as the child concentrates on peeling it off without damaging the paper body, and it also teaches them to be patient.
What You Will Need:
- Stickers
- Drawing Paper/ or a book
How To Perform:
- Give a wad of stickers to your child, and encourage him to peel them off and stick them the way they like in a book or on a drawing paper.
- This helps build their creativity, and the resulting artwork is sure to be one to keep for ages.
3. Raised Salt Painting
A tried and tested favourite among children, salt painting is ridiculously fun to do and also an activity that helps improves the child’s creativity. Salt painting can bring out a real potential for art among children, no matter how disinterested they seem at first.
What You Will Need:
- Epsom Salt
- Food colour in varied colours
- Glue
- Drawing paper
- Pencil
- Paper plates
How To Perform:
- On a paper plate, add a few drops of food colour on some Epsom salt and mix. Repeat this process for all the colours the child wants.
- Let your child draw his favourite shapes and patterns on the drawing paper.
- Help him apply glue on the designs and then pour the coloured salt over the glued areas.
- Let it dry.
4. Drawing With Oil Pastel
Although it is not strictly an activity meant for children, oil pastel painting is highly stimulating and also fun to do. Encourage your child to draw various shapes on a canvas, and fill it in a variety of ways.
What You Will Need:
- Oil pastels
- Drawing paper
- Baby oil
- Cotton buds
How To Perform:
- Let your kid draw his favourite things on a drawing paper with the oil pastels and fill in the colour. Encourage him to make as many shapes as he wants.
- For a fine, painting-like art effect, give him some baby oil and help him smear it on the painting with a cotton bud.
- The baby oil can make any art look vibrant and deserving of being hung on the refrigerator.
5. The Back-And-Forth Drawing Game
Creative games for kids, such as this one, require active participation from the parent, and can greatly help in bringing your child closer to you. This game involves drawing a common image alternatively, so children are forced to think on their feet and make stuff up as the game progresses. This stimulates creativity in your child, as the game becomes harder with each step.
What You Will Need:
- Colour pencils/ crayons
- Drawing paper
How To Perform:
- Start by drawing an unassuming picture on a paper, and pass it onto your child.
- The child is to add something of his own accord to the image.
- Both of you then proceed to build on the drawings of the previous person.
6. Playdough Modelling
Playdough has been a mainstay in toy stores for ages. Not only is it cheap, but it is also a highly fun and creative item to play with. Creative art activities for preschoolers, like this one, are simple. Just provide some playdough to your child, and let his imagination take over. Soon, the child will be seen making shapes of increasing complexities. Playdough easily stimulates the brain and makes the child think hard to make different shapes.
What You Will Need:
- Playdough
- Poke-ins
- Playdough mats
How To Perform:
- Give your child some playdough and let him make shapes of his choice.
- You may sit next to him and assist or have fun making your own shapes.
- Encourage him to use poke-ins, and playdough mats to make textures on his shapes.
7. Marble Painting
Marble paintings are fun to do and great to look at, so your child is sure to not get bored with this activity any time soon.
What You Will Need:
- Watercolour
- Drawing paper
- Some marbles
How To Perform:
- Encourage your child to dip the marbles in the paint and draw shapes on the paper.
- The child can roll the marbles to create interesting patterns or hold them in between his fingers and carefully draw his favourite shapes.
8. Water Balloon Painting
Water balloon painting is another great way to add new textures and techniques in your child’s activities. With this activity, your child can learn how to play with textures.
What You Will Need:
- Some water balloons.
- Watercolour
- Paper plates
- Drawing paper/ canvas
- How To Perform
How to Perform:
- Start with getting your child to fill some water in the water balloons. You may help them tie the opening so that the water doesn’t spill while he is painting.
- You can have him fill different amounts of water to give him more sizes to experiment with.
- Remove your child’s favourite colours on different disposable paper plates.
- Let your child dip the water balloons in the colour. He can dab the balloons or drag and roll them as he pleases on the drawing paper.
9. Elephant Toothpaste
Elephant toothpaste fits the bill perfectly as one of the best creative thinking activities for kids. Watch your child curiously play with jumbo-sized toothpaste-like substance, which is created out of harmless ingredients.
What You Will Need:
- Safety goggles
- Dry Yeast
- A plastic bottle
- Liquid soap, preferably dish soap
- 6% peroxide
- Edible colour
- Warm water
How To Perform:
- Help your child put on the safety goggles.
- Take some 6% peroxide in the bottle.
- Add dish soap and colour.
- Stir the bottle.
- In another container, take some yeast and add warm water to it.
- Add the yeast mix to the bottle with peroxide, dish soap and colour.
- Step back with your child and watch the mixture lather up and flow out of the bottle in wonderful shapes and forms!
10. Shaving Cream Playdough
For a more interactive creative game for kids, you can choose to make dough out of shaving cream along with your child. Colour the dough in various colours, and watch your child thrive creatively.
What You Will Need:
- 1/2 cup of cornstarch
- 1/2 cup of shaving cream
- Food colour
How To Perform:
- Help your child mix and knead the cornstarch, shaving cream and edible colour together.
- The dough would still look crumbly after a while but will be able to hold shapes.
- Let your child then create desired shapes and patterns with this dough.
11. Making Masks
Making masks can help kids truly think out of the box and use their imagination in creative ways.
What You Will Need:
- A construction plate
- A pair of scissors
- Glue
- Watercolour/ crayons
- A pencil
- Two rubber bands
How To Perform:
- Get your child to mark areas that need to be cut out on the construction plate (for your eyes, nose and mouth).
- Help him cut the plate as per the markings.
- Now, let your child colour the mask his way.
- Poke two holes on opposite sides of the plate.
- Tie a rubber band on each side, leaving a loop to put on the mask around the ears.
12. Finger Painting
Finger painting has traditionally been one of the messiest activities a child can do, but also one of the most creative.
What You Will Need:
- Watercolour
- Paint palette
- Drawing paper or canvas
How To Perform:
- Spread some newspaper on a table before your child starts painting.
- Remove all the colours he wants and let him paint shapes and patterns of his choice with his fingers.
13. Playing School
Playing school at home may not seem appealing, but believe it or not, your child will turn out to love it soon enough.
Things You Will Need:
- Some stationary
- A roll-up blackboard/ whiteboard
- Some chalk/ whiteboard markers
How To Perform
- Let your child play the roles of whomever he likes; let him choose if he wants to be the teacher or the student, or the principal or the school nurse.
- Make him alternate various roles until he is satisfied with the dialogue and the outcome.
14. Glowing Dough
Children seem to have an attraction towards anything that glows, and glowing playdough is no different. This activity is advisable for older children who can handle being around the stovetop and are exposed to some amount of cooking. Nonetheless, you need to be around them at all times to prevent any accidents.
What You Will Need:
- 4 to 5 cups of water
- 5 cups of flour
- 2 cups of table salt
- 2/3rd cup of vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoon of cream of tartar
- Edible colour
- Glow in the dark paint
- Blacklight
How To Perform:
- On a stovetop and on a medium flame, mix all the ingredients except the edible colour and the glow in the dark paint.
- Let the mixture cook till it starts coming together like a gooey dough.
- Get it off the stovetop and let it cool a bit.
- While it is still a little warm, add the food colour and the glow in the dark paint.
- Knead the dough properly.
- You can store in a ziplock, and whenever your child wants to play, he can have some fun making shapes with the dough with some blacklight.
15. Toy Excavation
To make for a truly memorable evening for your child, excavating toys are a great idea. This can improve their motor and reasoning skills.
What You Will Need:
- Some plastic toys
- Utensils
- Water
- A dropper
- Some saltwater
- Brushes
How To Perform:
- Take enough water in the utensils and drop the toys in them. You may choose to drop one toy in each utensil or all of them in one large utensil.
- Keep the utensils in the freezer and let the water freeze.
- Then, remove the utensils, loosen the ice and drop it in a tray.
- Make your child excavate the toys carefully with the help of some saltwater, a dropper and some brushes.
These creative activities will help you keep your energetic toddler happily engaged for long. By trying out these creative activities, his motor skills, reasoning skills, and observational skills will develop. If your child shows interest in craft activities, you can also get him craft kits too. The activities in the craft kits can help your child nurture his talents.
If you’re looking for a box full of activities that can not just keep your little one busy but also provide hours of learning through fun and play, you might want to consider picking up an Intellikit.
These interesting activities can truly help your child have fun, learn something new, and also improve their cognitive and motor skills.
