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Conducting activities that encourage a 7-year-old to read is a good starting point for any parent. There are a whole bunch of activities that can teach a 7-year-old some vital information that ends up delivering the nuances required to master a particular skill, apart from reading.
Educational and Learning Activities
Here are a bunch of activities for your child that can get him engaged in the task of educating himself.
1. Crossword Reading
Your kids might be too young to do the crossword themselves. But they can read the words aloud for sure.
How to Do?
Use a solved crossword puzzle. You can refer to the number within the crossword puzzle and ask your child to read that specific word. If he is weak at reading, he can spell out the letters first and then say the word.
What Does it Teach?
By reading the words in the crossword, he will get used to reading vertically as well as horizontally.
2. Food for Ants
Food for Ants is one of the most exciting science activities for 7-year-olds that can put them right in the middle of an unknown world.
How to Do?
Work with your kids in figuring out a location nearby that has a resident anthill. Carry along a bunch of tiny food items of varying kinds, such as salt, sugar, honey, shredded fish, and so on. Ask him to note down how quickly do the ants find the food item and how long do they take to finish it up.
What Does it Teach?
Getting kids to be aware of the biological differences in various animals helps them understand how each living being functions differently.
3. Music with Bottles
Set up the foundation for understanding the base concepts of music and let your child start exploring the tones all by himself.
How to Do?
Arrange all glass bottles of the same type and size. Fill them up in varying quantities of water and place them on a platform. Let your child use a steel spoon and tap the bottles one after the other. Let him change the levels of water and explore how the music changes.
What Does it Teach?
By recognising the differences in notes and pitch, your child will start understanding the basics of music theory without requiring any targeted study as such.
4. Quick Dice Math
Get that game dice out and turn it into a new game altogether.
How to Do?
Take two dice and roll them together. Ask your child to either add the values that face up or subtract them.
What Does it Teach?
Math is a matter of accuracy and speed both. The dice game helps your child enhance both these skills quite effectively.
5. Hopscotch
Hopscotch is one of the simplest maths activities for 7-year-olds which will have your child fall in love with arithmetic instantly.
How to Do?
Chalk out the hopscotch squares on the floor or the path outside your house. Then, start by throwing simple arithmetic problems at him and let him hop to the answer.
What Does it Teach?
Kids can get a grip on addition and subtraction and let it become a second habit in their life.
Art and Craft Activities
Making use of a few activities that are focused on the artistic skillset allows your child to express his creative side and work on it.
1. Camouflage With Nature
Let your little one explore his creativity with one of the smartest colouring activities for 7-year-olds.
How to Do?
Get some white paper and let your child cut and colour it to resemble various natural elements. Once done, ask him to place those pieces in the garden of your house or outdoors. Join him and see if you can spot those pieces easily.
What Does it Teach?
Mimicry is the most natural form of learning. By learning to emulate nature, your child gets a better understanding of colours and their various shades.
2. Paper Chains
Bring back the nostalgia by teaching your kid how to make some unique paper chain designs.
How to Do?
Take a large, coloured paper and fold it until there are at least 5-6 layers to it. Draw the shape of a doll or any other design on it. Let your kid know that he should not cut the edge part of the chain. Use scissors to cut along the shape outline and unfold the paper to see the chain.
What Does it Teach?
Paper chains allow kids to understand how layers of papers work and fuels their creativity into thinking beyond a single dimension.
3. Sundial
A craft activity that also teaches your child an important science lesson.
How to Do?
Take a large paper plate and poke a straw through it. Let your kid place the stick on the terrace of your home at specific intervals and note the time and the position of the shadow. Make rough markings for the time and recheck them the next day.
What Does it Teach?
Not only does it get your kid to understand time better, but he also learns how the sun tends to move around the Earth.
4. Milk Art
One of the craziest creative activities for 7-year-olds, this will leave your kids with their jaws dropped.
How to Do?
Take a bowl and add milk to it. Put in a few drops of different food colours right at the centre. Then, add a tinge of liquid soap right on them and watch them swirl around in various shades. Let your child experiment by putting the drops in different locations of the bowl.
What Does it Teach?
Apart from letting your child know how specific molecules react with each other, the swirling colours can let him experiment with different painting styles.
5. Sock Puppets
Let your child go berserk with his whimsy behaviour as he puts them in different sock puppet characters.
How to Do?
Get some old socks out of the closet and use a pen to paint various character faces on them. Distribute them equally between you and your kid and then indulge in some character banter, with different voices and speaking styles.
What Does it Teach?
Apart from being solid fun, your child learns to perceive the underlying layers of communication and expresses his thoughts in a better way, too.
Indoor Activities
Make use of these activities to turn your house into a playground whenever you want.
1. Simon Says
This is one of the most popular fine motor activities for 7-year-olds that is a good bit of fun.
How to Play?
You get to be Simon, and your kids need to follow each order that you say out loud, as long as it is prefixed with the phrase “Simon Says”. If you don’t say “Simon Says” and your child still follows it, then he is out of the game.
What Does it Teach?
While making your child more attentive, he also learns how to control his motor activities concerning the orders he receives.
2. Don’t Hold The Pillow
Combine this with music, and you have got a clear winner.
How to Play?
Queue up some intense music and start it up as you toss a pillow or a ball to your child. Let the children then start tossing it amongst each other. At a random point, stop the music. The child who has the pillow has to step out.
What Does it Teach?
It helps your child be more attentive to the music as well as strategise the best time to toss or hold the pillow/ball.
3. Scavenger Hunt
A spectacular activity that your child will truly enjoy and that has the potential to turn your home upside down.
How to Play?
Hide a bunch of things around the house in non-traditional places. Give your kids some clues as to what object is and where is it that they can find it. You can guide them vocally by just saying if they are close to it or further away.
What Does it Teach?
By focusing on visual strength and mental acuity, your children learn to translate the clues into actionable decisions and work accordingly.
4. Animal Behaviour
One of the best rainy day activities for 7-year-olds, it works best when paired with some great snacks.
How to Play?
Each child picks up a piece of paper which has a name of an animal on it. Each player is supposed to enact his animal without making any sounds. If the other children can guess the animal, then the one who was enacting gets a sweet snack as a prize.
What Does it Teach?
Understanding other aspects of animal behaviour and working on non-verbal cues helps your child with improved communication.
5. Chinese Whispers
Watch how a simple sentence can change into a comical one by the end of the game.
How to Play?
Get everyone to sit in a line. Whisper a long, convoluted sentence in the ear of the first child. That child needs to repeat whatever he heard to the next child. There can be no repetition at any point. The last child stands up and says the sentence out loud, which will almost always be something else altogether.
What Does it Teach?
This gets downright hilarious at times and also lets the children know how certain simple words can be easily misinterpreted.
Outdoor Activities
Get your child out in the open and let him get involved in energetic and exciting activities with complete freedom.
1. Snake Bites
With a lot of kids, this can easily be one of the most intense physical activities for 7-year-olds.
How to Play?
All kids hold hands and should not let them go. The first in line is the head of the snake, and the end is the tail. The head’s task is to bite the tail and the tail needs to escape, without any of the kids leaving their hands.
What Does it Teach?
Kids learn how to work with each other and use the existing space effectively.
2. Egg Spoon Balance
Do this in an open area which can be hosed down with water quickly.
How to Play?
Let each child hold a spoon in their mouth. Balance an egg on it and let them race with each other to reach the finish line without dropping the egg. First one to complete it wins.
What Does it Teach?
Your child learns to establish a balance between speed and stability all in a single go.
3. Water Balloon Attack
There’s no better way to get your children to take a bath than this.
How to Play?
Split kids into teams and hand balloons to each one of them. Let them fill the balloons with water and then throw them on kids from the other team. The group that has the least wet kids wins.
What Does it Teach?
Kids learn how to work as a team towards a common goal and protect each other.
4. Supermarket Search
Shopping doesn’t have to be a single activity for parents alone.
How to Play?
Draw up a list of all the items you need from the supermarket. Let each kid take his trolley and bring those items to you. The one to get all the items first can get his favourite chocolate as a gift.
What Does it Teach?
Children learn to spot items quickly and find the shortest way to complete the requirement.
5. Catch The Ball
No better way to get your kids to pay attention and be ready for the rush.
How to Play?
All kids stand in a circle. With you in the centre, throw a ball high in the air. When it is at its peak, call out the name of a random kid. He needs to rush in and catch the ball before it hits the ground.
What Does it Teach?
Attentiveness along with springing into action at a moment’s notice can be learnt quickly with this activity.
With a large variety of activities for 7-year-olds at home and outside, keeping them engaged won’t be much of a problem. Beyond that, these activities make sure that your kids end up learning something new and pick up a skill that they might not have had earlier.
