Activities Parents Can Do With the Kids

• Do some baking. Kids love helping in the kitchen, they even love helping with the washing up when the baking is done, so not only do you get to have fun baking you are teaching them to have responsibility in cleaning up after themselves too!
• Get them out in the garden. There are loads of things you can do in the garden with your kids from weeding to planting vegetables to building a fairy garden. Time together in the fresh air will be good for everyone.
• Go to the park. Kids love to play in the park, you could pack a picnic lunch and make a day of it. And half an hour pushing your child on the swing may not seem like the most exciting activity or the best way to spend your already limited time, but the joy your child will experience will be worth every second.
• Go into the backyard and just play with them. This may sound ridiculously simple but taking an hour or so out of your day, putting aside the washing and the ironing and the bookwork and ignoring the phone and just playing whatever it is your child wants to play can be as fulfilling to your child as a day spent at an expensive theme park or the movies.
• Go visiting. Get out of the house and your daily routing for a couple of hours and go visit a friend or family member. Perhaps a friend who also has children, then the kids can play and you and your friend can have a coffee and a chat.
• Go on a bike ride. There are loads of parks and bike trails available for this sort of pastime. And once again you get the benefits of the fresh air and exercise, all while spending quality time with your child.
• Start a new project/hobby. You could begin a new project with your child. Whether it be taking a vegie garden from design to building to planting and maintaining or building a billy cart from the ground up or doing a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle together. The hours spent over the days, weeks or months that it takes you and your child to complete your project will become a much anticipated routine. Try making it on the same day every week or at the same time everyday, that way your child knows when to look forward to the next session.
• Take up a Cause. You and your child could get involved in some kind of community service. If its animals you love, maybe you could go down to your local RSPCA and lend a hand every so often. Or you could volunteer to help take an elderly member of society out shopping. Or you could lend a hand helping out at your local Salvation Army sorting through donations. Of course some of these will not be practical with younger children, but if they are old enough getting your child involved with these sorts of organizations teaches them about social responsibility from a young age.