It's Family Time: Playing, Painting, & Baking

Much of adult life revolves around stress, work, bills, and small moments of joy. Parents, especially, must juggle a mountain of emotions simultaneously working and handling the tumultuous experiences of parenthood. 

Parents are superheroes, but even you need help coming up with new activities to keep the family engaged and busy. 

Today, family bonding is even more difficult. Kids are remote learning, parents attend meetings on electronic devices, and keeping track of it all might feel like a nightmare. 

Playing

Picture by HaiBaron on Pixabay

It doesn’t matter if your kids are six or thirteen years old. Everyone has a little child inside of them. Treat them to a day of playing. Whether they prefer board games or hide-and-seek, declare the day a break from the routine. 

Have them decide the type of games that make them giggle and get closer to you. Make it more competitive by choosing prizes or incentives. Tell them to leave any electronic device inside a box that will be unavailable until the end of the day. It’ll be a delight to have your children involved in a game that strengthens your relationship. 

Painting

Picture by on Pixabay

Self-expression is an art itself. The best way to get your children accustomed to sharing their feelings is to let them express themselves. 

Ask them to paint a self-portrait or interpret a painting with a motion of a marker. Or, get your children to paint a landscape, let their imagination do the work, and limit your instructions. 

Self-expression is not limited to painting or drawings. Singing, knitting, and dancing are also activities to help your children help you. 

Just be warry about their surroundings, especially if you have flame effect electric fires. Don’t reprimand them for accidents. Prepare your house ahead of time by removing any furniture that may fall victim to slippery hands holding a brush or marker. 

Be patient, and most of all, let them show you their artistic side. 

Baking

Let your children get their hands dirty!

One thing is to cook around children, but another is to let them cook. Don’t leave your children alone in the kitchen without supervision. 

Avoid stressing yourself out and start small; bake something together. Pick from a list of the easiest baking recipes of the season. Fear not if you don’t know how to bake. Take this activity as a chance to learn how to bake surrounded by an audience least likely to see when you’re making mistakes. 

The kitchen might be a mess. The dishes and containers will require attention. All your clothes may be dirty but just roll with them. Let your kids know baking is the time to have fun. 

Best of all, you will introduce them to small concepts of life that can be useful in the future. Who knows? They might turn these skills into a career.