5 Fun & Simple Ideas to keep your Little Ones Amused!

Children are often amused by the simplest things; and with bits and pieces found around the house. My kids loved all of these activities when they were little.

1. Pots and Lids

Give your kids a collection of jam-jars, plastic containers, or pots and pans, with the lids all mixed up.They have to find the right lid for the right container. They will probably enjoy it even more if they are allowed into the cupboard themselves!

2. Pretend Presents

Wrap up small toys (existing ones, not new ones) in newspaper and play ‘presents’! The thrill of opening a present (even if they wrapped it themselves) is wonderful for a 2 or 3 year old, and they’ll want to do it again and again! You can keep this simple, or turn it into a birthday party for your child’s toys or animals. How about some playdough birthday cake too?

3. Hole Punch

Punch holes around the edge of a piece of cardboard. Give your child a shoelace to thread through the holes. (If you don’t have a spare shoelace, use wool with tape around the end to make it threadable.) Older kids can punch their own holes, to make different designs, and use coloured wool to make bookmarks or placemats. My kids used to enjoy punching holes in scraps of paper just for the fun of it, too!

4. Shape Pictures

Cut circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, arches and semi-circles from old scraps of material or coloured paper. Children can sort the shapes into piles, either by shape or colour, and then arrange them on paper to make shape people, animals, buildings, cars, or just patterns. Glue to make a final picture. You could laminate the shapes to make a longer lasting toy.

5. Water Painting

This is an outside activity for warm weather! Give kids a bucket of water and big paint brushes (real decorating ones). They can ‘paint’ the outside walls of the house, the patio, garden path or rocks. When the walls dry, they can start all over again! This is a favourite and kept my kids occupied for ages!