Whether you’re planning to head to the beach, share a roast in a mate’s backyard, or just put your feet up and relax, we hope you manage to take a break this holiday season. You deserve it.
We know some of you are planning on keeping your laptops firmly closed for a few days – good on you!
But we’ve also heard from lots of learners who want to keep their momentum going during the holidays, even if this means studying for an hour or two when you get the chance.
Today’s blog is dedicated to all the parents in our online learning community who want to steal some study time each day while keeping the little ones entertained.
Here are twelve, low-cost inside activities to keep your tamariki happy while you study!
1. Create a treasure chest with activity ideas to beat the boredom
At the start of the holiday, find an old shoebox and decorate it together. Then, help your kids brainstorm some activity ideas and put them in the box. They can pick out one of their own ideas before you begin studying!
2. Tempt them to be your study buddy with a fun activity book
Check out the cool (and free!) ten–page printable activity books on this blog. We like the colour by numbers and spot the difference activities for the littlest ones, and these cut and paste puzzle games for older kids. Don’t have a colour printer? They can colour in the activity books too.
3. Set up story time while you study
Check out Audible’s range of free audiobooks for little listeners through to teens. They sound even cooler when listened to in a pillow fort!
4. Set a Lego challenge
If your kids love Lego, use these 30 ideas to set a Lego challenge. The challenges can keep kids absorbed in creative play for hours.
5. Visit the library from the comfort of your home
Get your tamariki reading with Project Gutenberg’s library of eBooks – they have thousands of free books suitable for different age groups and interests.
6. Add some colour to the holiday season
Ah, colouring in, the classic inside activity! Check out Crayola’s free colouring in pages – there are lots of festive designs for those who celebrate Christmas, and plenty of other awesome templates too.
7. Kindness rocks
The Crayola website also includes step–by–step instructions for kindness rock painting – the perfect holiday activity to spread kindness this year. All you need are some stones and some paints or felt-tip pens. You can gift their beautiful creations to friends and whānau or drop them in your neighbours’ letter boxes to spread the love.
7. Celebrate with a bang
Ask your kids to decorate the house for New Year’s Eve with these creative fireworks paintings.
8. It’s boogie time
Get your kids up and moving with this hip hop dance tutorial on YouTube – suitable for ages 4+. Tell them you’ll watch their show once you’ve finished your study for the day.
9. Explore your inner superhero
Do your kids love comic books? Download or draw some blank comic books pages and ask them to come up with their own superhero story.
10. Watch and learn
Guide your tamariki towards quality, educational television programmes with this list of educational programmes available on Netflix
Remember, you can’t win them all!
Is it just one of those days when your kids are just too restless to commit to an activity for longer than two minutes? Don’t worry, you can’t win ‘em all, and the team at eCampus NZ know that whānau come first. Shut off the laptop and try again another time!
We hope we’ve given you some ideas, but this is just the start of the conversation. Why not connect with other parents in your course and share some of your ideas?