Keeping kids entertained has never been the easiest task. They’re insatiably curious and tremendously awkward, and they can go from content to upset in seconds. One modern solution is to invest in expensive gadgets, retail therapy, or visits to amusement parks — but this isn’t the best year for those things. The economic downturn has hit disposable income levels hard.
At least the new school year will start soon, right? That’ll keep kids a lot busier. Well, though schooling systems around the world have returned to something approaching normal operation after shutting down for months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s no guarantee that they won’t be forced to close again in the event that infection rates skyrocket.
To help you keep your kids from getting bored and causing trouble at home, here are four budget-friendly tips for entertaining them:
Provide some in-depth activities
Being budget-friendly isn’t about cutting out spending entirely, of course. It’s about keeping costs down, and about maximizing the overall return on your investment — and when that’s the goal, you should look to spend your money on providing activities that have enough depth to keep your kids occupied for many hours.
This is the great thing about subscription boxes for kids. When you commit to something like the Sagominibox, you get a lot of value from every delivery, with each box having a wide range of tasks that can keep kids busy for long periods of time (and challenge them in various ways). Compare that to renting or buying a movie that’ll be watched once and forgotten about, giving you two hours of peace at most, and it’s clear which is the better option.
Turn chores into challenges
Within reason, kids should always have chores, because chores cultivate discipline and responsibility. The problem is that chores are often boring — and when they’re not innately boring, the kids will find them boring because they don’t like being told what to do. But you can turn things around by turning your chores into challenges.
Take something like cleaning the backyard. Instead of placing a regular request, challenge your kid to clean it within a certain time, telling them you don’t believe they can do it (the opportunity to prove someone wrong is a powerful motivator!). In addition, you should dangle a mild incentive — such as a candy bar — to further increase their interest. You could even try the 30-Day Chore Challenge (courtesy of AllMomDoes).
Get them into storytelling
Kids love stories, which is why good parents read to their children for many years. You’re missing a trick if you’re only concentrating on the stores they consume, though, because you can spark their innate creativity to great effect. If you start making up a story for them, you can leave gaps in it and task them with filling those gaps.
What happens next to your protagonist? What does the villain do? Is there a happy ending? They get to decide — and for a kid, that’s incredibly exciting. In the end, you can both have a great time coming up with some ridiculous stories. If you’re interested, Scholastic has some good tips (and toolkits) that can help you along the way.
Experiment with cooking
Whatever your budget, you have to put money towards food, and cutting food costs will typically push you towards spending more time in the kitchen. You can take advantage of that by getting your kids involved in the cooking process. You can task them with learning how to make standard meals, or you can handle that part yourself and give them more fun projects.
You could give them a set of leftover ingredients and ask them to make something edible. They might succeed, demonstrating some culinary talent. They might utterly fail, producing something disgusting that constitutes a safety hazard. In the end, it doesn’t really matter. The only thing that matters is that they have fun!
