These educational kids activities are proven successful and will help in all aspects of learning. What’s more is that they are easy to do, fun and inexpensive! The activities are known to improve hand-eye co-ordination and fine motor skills as well as spark that imagination.
Educational kids activities that are easy, fun and inexpensive!
1. Pottery
What you will need:
- Air drying clay.
- Strong fingers.
- A good imagination.
- Paint and paint brush.
Squeeze the air drying clay in your hands to make it soft and movable, then you can make any shapes, we have made a leaf with the letter of my daughter’s name on it, and then we made a pencil holder, just make holes in the clay using a pencil, and push through the clay and when it dries you can use it as your colour in pencil holder. Use your imagination and make any design or animal you wish then leave it to dry for 24 hours and then paint it!
EXTRA: Create a space to show off their trinkets! If you like, ask them to create a You Tube or other didgital video explaining step by step how they’ve created these ornaments. You can also get them to make a personal gift for every member of the family, which you can add to Christmas gifts!
2. Pencil drawing
What you will need:
- Pencil
- Paper
- A picture and an imagination!
This drawing exercise helps work on concentration and takes patience and time. Choose an object or any picture and copy it on a piece of cardboard using pencil, no colours. We copied a picture from a zoo, you can copy anything even your garden, use your imagination and take your time.
EXTRA: Lets get talking! Use the loadshedding time to tell stories about the picture. In this example you could speak about your recent visit to the zoo or even the Kruger park – or just imagine youve been there! It is also a good time to talk about animals and holding them in captivity etc.
3. Making dough ( and a surprise thereafter)
Now its time to get messy.
What you will need:
- One cup of flour
- Water. Yes that’s all, and don’t forget about the surprise ending: every kid will love this!
This exercise is great for building strong fingers like in Occupational Therapy. AND, after making and playing with the dough you can make your very own home made pizza!
Remember to wash hands before touching food. Just add a little water to the dough and make sure you can roll it into your hands. Moms can help too. If its too dry add more water and if its too wet add more flour. Then, roll it and knead it will you knuckles and fingers. Now use a rolling pin and make your own shape for the pizza dough. You can try this ghost shape, add tomato sauce on to it and then finally the cheese. Mom will put it in the oven for 12 minutes. Eat and enjoy!
EXTRA: once you’re done eating, you can discuss with your little ones different toppings for pizza, their favourites and develop recipes for the next batch! Try out a banana and nutella one! Also talk about food nutrition, grocery shopping and remind them how privileged they are to be eating pizza- show them pictures of poverty, and maybe use this as an exercise to be thankful to God and also an opportunity for marketing or a feeding scheme!
4. Noodle Jewellery
What you will need:
- Different shapes of macaroni.
- And string.
Thread the macaroni on to the string and make mom a necklace, or bangle. Mom will never forget these little treasures! These educational kids activities encourage using the fingers and good eye co-ordination.
EXTRA: Get creative! Paint the noodles in different colours and leave them to dry, then thread the string through! A piece of art for every outfit!
The most important thing to remember is to have fun while learning new ideas.
Note: If you enjoyed this article, and would like to keep updated with more, you can:
- Subscribe to our free weekly Jozikids newsletter for parents in Gauteng
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
