One of the trickiest parts of parenthood is learning how to keep your children entertained.
Children have notoriously short attention spans, making it nearly impossible to keep them entertained for long periods of time.
It is worth remembering that the way that you entertain your children will influence who they become as adults.
If you stick them in front of a smartphone or tech device all day, then there’s a chance that later in life they could be addicted to these things.
Similarly, if you enroll them in some kind of sport, then they could end up getting very into fitness and could live a long, healthy life.
This post will give you nine ideas for keeping your children entertained:
Table of Contents
Party
If your children have a special occasion coming up like a birthday, then why not throw them a party?
A party is a fantastic way to entertain your children.
One of the best party ideas for young children is taking them to an amazing indoor amusement park, which you can hire a specialist party organizing agency to find for you.
You should only throw parties for your children when they deserve it or if it’s a special occasion, as already mentioned.
If you throw your child too many parties, they can become spoiled.
Scavenger Hunt
Another fun activity that you and your children can get involved in is a scavenger hunt.
You can either make your own trail, or you can take your children to a professionally made and designed trail.
Around Easter, these hunts ramp up in popularity, though they are available year-round.
If you are taking your child to a scavenger hunt and it isn’t the Easter period, then try to find a hunt that’s related to your child’s interests.
If you can’t find one then make your own, with a trail of presents or gifts for them to follow.
Laser Tag
Laser tag is an activity that’s lots of fun but is suited to older children.
If you are interested in taking your child to laser tag, then you can either take them on their own or you can bring friends along with them.
Most laser tag facilities will allow small groups to attend and mix with the other people that are in attendance.
It’s good to book in advance so that you can book on a day that’s busy, where your child will be able to play with other people.
You can also book a laser tag venue for your child’s party, which a party arrangement agency can handle for you.
Paintballing
Paintballing is another activity that’s more suited to older children.
It would be very dangerous to take young children to paintball.
You would have a very hard time even finding a facility that would allow you to take young children in with you.
An alternative to paintballing is airsofting, which is just as popular, though is slightly more dangerous.
The reason that airsofting is more dangerous is that it involves firing plastic and metal projectiles at people, from high-powered weapons.
Airsoft guns are actually criminalized in some places.
Hikes
Hiking is a fantastic activity to take your children on, not just because it will keep them entertained, but also because it could instill a love for the outdoors in them from a young age.
If your children develop a love for hiking, then as they get older they will be more likely to take the activity up as a hobby for themselves, which will contribute to their physical and mental health.
Hiking is incredibly good for the body and for the brain.
Being exposed to nature can help to eliminate anxiety, depression and stress, and hiking builds muscle in the legs and body.
Swimming
Swimming is, like hiking, another activity that if taught to your children at an early enough age can result in them developing a love for it as they get older.
The best part about swimming is that it’s one of the world’s healthiest activities.
If your children are taught about swimming at a young enough age, then they could even potentially take it up professionally and begin making money from it.
Professional swimmers can earn an absolute fortune. Being able to swim is also a very good skill to have.
Sleepovers
If your children have lots of friends, then encouraging them to invite their friends over is a great way to keep them entertained.
Holding sleepovers at your house is a great way for your child to build stronger bonds with their friends and occupy themselves.
While your children are having their friends over, you will be able to sit down and relax, without having to watch them.
With that said, if your children are very young then you will have to monitor them when they are with their friends.
This is so that they don’t hurt themselves.
Theatre
The theatre is an activity that some children like, and others don’t.
Introducing your child to the theatre is a great way to teach them about forms of entertainment outside of television and mobile phones, but you shouldn’t force it on them.
If they express an interest in it after you have told them about it or taken them to a show, then by all means take them back.
You shouldn’t force them to go to any theatrical productions that they don’t want to attend, however.
The only thing that you will achieve by doing this is to make them hate the theatre.
Reading
Lastly, teach your children about the importance and the benefits of reading.
Reading can significantly boost your child’s intelligence and even increase their IQ percentile.
If you are going to give your children books to read, then start off light.
The worst thing that you can do is to give them a book that’s too challenging for them when they are just taking up reading as a hobby because you will wrongly make them believe that reading is difficult.
Let them pick a subject to read about.
Entertaining children can be hard, but with this article’s guidance, it no longer has to be.
As has already been mentioned in this article, if you are going to introduce an activity to your child, make sure that they enjoy it.
You shouldn’t ever force your child to get involved in an activity that doesn’t appeal to them.
