Activities To Keep Your Children Busy Indoors

5Jan2013

Christmas is finally over! For the longest time it felt like it would never get here then it just flew by. But now that it is out of the way I am counting down the days until my daughter goes back to school. Every single minute that passes by I feel like I am losing more of my sanity. I feel like a horrible mother saying that but it really is true. Normally my daughter goes to Preschool 3 days a week. With her being home with me 7 days a week for the last month I am sadly losing my mind.

A 4-year-old shouldn’t be that hard to keep busy but nothing really keeps her attention for more than 10 minutes. Naps are hard to come by at her age too. I have found that if you keep them busy enough they are more likely to take a nap. If they don’t take a nap don’t let them go to bed too early! Made that mistake a couple of times and I was up way before the sun was even thinking of coming up.

Here is a list of activities that I go through pretty much every day to keep my daughter entertained – hope it works for you too!

  1. Reading a book – yes, the same one over and over.
  2. Coloring – see how many times you say to stay between the lines.
  3. Workbooks – we are currently practicing writing our uppercase letters.
  4. Games – card games don’t work for us yet but we do have Humpty Dumpty, Connect 4 and a whole bunch of other games with way too many pieces and that make way too much noise.
  5. Puzzles – these aren’t so bad since I actually end up doing them myself and I enjoy puzzles.
  6. TV – yes I will go there but I am not talking all day. Watch a 30 minute show twice a day or if your child can sit down long enough 1 movie.
  7. Computer games – we have a paid subscription with ABCMouse.com and it is totally worth it. I let her get on there for about an hour unless she tires of it sooner. She plays educational games and learns tons of new words.
  8. Toys – remember these things? You bought them for your child for Christmas and yet they are not played with. Let your imagination run wild and play with your child!

Still have some sunlight left? Start from the top again and hopefully when you are done it is bedtime!

This post written by Aprile Mazey from The Steady Hand. SAHM of 1 who loves to crochet, read, eat sushi & drink coffee. Stop by my Facebook page and say Hi!