Do you struggle to keep your kids entertained when stuck in the house? Are your children constantly complaining “I’m bored”? Today I am sharing some essential tips and strategies to have in your parenting toolkit to keep your kids happy and entertained at home.
Table Of Contents
Switch It Up
One of the main causes of kids saying “I’m bored” is being left to do one activity in one place for too long. An easy way to keep your kids entertained is to ensure that you are switching activities frequently.
During the lockdown, I’m following a home school schedule (which I will talk more about in a bit). The main reason that this works for us is that the children are not doing any one thing for too long.
Not a fan of structured routine? Even if you don’t want to use a strict routine, just set an alarm for an hour (or however long your kids stay engaged in an activity for, minus a few minutes). Every time the alarm goes off, stop what they are doing, put it away and get another activity out.
For example, you can move from the living room playing with cars to the kitchen to play with play-doh, which means that you have switched both activities and locations.
I’d suggest switching the activity before your kids are fed up with their current activity. The complaining that they are not quite done with what they are doing is likely to be less than the complaining when they are bored with the activity.
Doing just this one thing will make time at home go quicker and keep your kids happier.
Sort & Declutter
In order to successfully put one type of toys away and get another out, it is likely that you will have to have a bit of a sort and declutter of your children’s toys.
Believe it or not, having too much stuff can make it harder for your kids to know what to do or play with, especially if nothing is organised.
By organising your children’s toys into sets that can be brought out, played with, then put away, they are more likely to have quality engaged play time. It also means that you are able to activity switch (as we have already discussed) with ease.
One Box At A Time
As I mentioned in the video above, I use Drona storage boxes from IKEA that slot into the square Kallax shelves. These are ideal for toys and swallow so much stuff. Each box contains a different type of toys (cars, play food, characters, dolls etc) and the rule in our house is that we get one box out at a time. Once it is time to activity switch, everything is scooped back into the current box and put away before we get another out.
Toy Rotation
If your kids seem constantly bored and restless, the answer is often toy rotation. Rather than giving them the option of all of the things to play with all of the time, have a small selection of toys available at any given time, then put others away and out of reach. You could store the “out of reach” toys on a high shelf, in another room or even your attic or garage.
How does toys rotation work in practice?
Here’s an example.
Keep a box of car and vehicles, a box of dolls, a box of LEGO and a box of art supplies as your current toys. Bring one box out at a time, then when the time comes to switch activities, put away whatever your child is playing with before getting out the next box.
At the end of the week, put away all but the arts and crafts supplies and get out some different boxes, such as play food, another type of building toy, and a box of characters or teddies.
Swapping around your toys on a regular basis will help to keep all of the toys feeling exciting, fresh and new. It also helps to keep your children’s toys organised and avoid them all ended up in coxed boxes of mess.
Get Your Kids Moving
A great way to keep your kids hoary is to keep them moving. If you have a garden, get them out in it. If the weather permits, break up the day by going for a walk.
If going outside is not an option, there are some brilliant YouTube channels to get your kids up and moving. I have listed some more of these in my Educational Video Resources For Kids blog post.
Use A Schedule
My children, like many children, respond really well to structure and routine. When faced with long days with no routine, they often become restless and even a little stressed.
This is why we follow a Home Learning Schedule for periods where we are stuck at home for long stretches of time, such as during the lockdown. Check out the full details in my home learning schedule blog post.
Educational Apps
Another top tip for when you need to keep your kids entertained, especially when you have things that you need to get on with, is to load up their tables with educational apps. This way your kids get their screen time, they get a dose of learning time and you’ll have a few munites to get some things done around the house.
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