Keeping young children occupied, while hs elder children

by Devina

Finding ways to keep your young children entertained, without using electronic devices may be simpler than what we think.

Here are a few ways I keep my young children 2-4yo entertained, who are not in the school/registration homeschooling ages.

These are also great ideas to keep young kids busy while you homeschool your elder ones.

Busy bags:

Busy bags are a great way to create simple activities that are engaging and easy to keep on hand. The great things about busy bags is they are totally customisable to whichever age range/ motor skill/learning aspect you would like to cover.

Busy bags are generally made up of cheaper items, giving the child a purpose such as matching, using hand skills, fine motor skills. Also recognising and learning alphabet and/or numbers.

I love busy bags because they are made up of cheaper materials, I’m not too worried if my child has lost a piece.

They’re also great when you’re out and about and need to keep your child from bouncing around the place, ie waiting at the drs office.

(Check the comment section for a link to our Pinterest board for some busy bag ideas)

Sensory bins:

A sensory bin is usually a large container filled with a sensory item of your choice. Some use water, shaving foam, rice/pasta, leaves the choices are endless.

To a sensory bin you can then add, scoops, jugs, containers large spoons, anything you can think of to help your child engage in the sensory bin.

Sensory bins also gives you freedom to add alphabets or numerical pieces to help with recognition. Sensory bins are customisable, you can choose different themes like holidays, seasons and own child interests (trucks, animals etc)

Some other ways I keep my younger kids entertained:

- Stickers ! Can’t go wrong with stickers

- Playdo

- Snacks

- Any printed ‘work’ so they feel like they’re doing ‘school’ as well

- Clean recyclables/masking tape, this is easy for my kids to put together for some easy creative play. Masking tape is also good for ripping and not sticking (too much) to itself.

Hope this helps and gives you some ideas InshaAllah !