3 Simple, Fun & Free Activities For Your Kids To Do At Home
(Brought to you by KidzMatters)
Now that circuit breaker is being extended till 1 June, there's no better time to enjoy these fun and free activities with your kids from the comfort of your own home. Enjoy the convenience of accessing specially curated home-based learning resources put together by five anchor operators with MOE Kindergarten and ECDA on KidzMatters.
Parents can access a range of home-based activities for your kids while picking up tips and techniques from accompanying parent guides on how to facilitate and optimise your children's home-based learning experience. Here are some of our top picks from KidzMatters to try with your kids today!
FOR 0-1 YEAR OLD
Cereal Finger Painting
Finger painting is a great sensory experience for babies, and you don't have to worry about them eating any 'paint' in this fun and safe activity. All you need is baby cereal and fresh fruits, and your little ones can create art in a fun and safe way! It could even be the trick to getting your baby to eat more fruits and veggies.
Benefits Of This Activity:
What You Will Need:
Instructions:
Step 1: Mix the baby cereal, water and juice in a bowl
Step 2: Whisk the mixture until it is smooth without clump. You can adjust the consistency of the mixture by adding more water.
Step 3: Separate the mixtures into 3 bowls and add the fruit juices to get three different 'paint' colours. Whisk until smooth.
Step 4: Encourage your infant to use his/her fingers, paper straws or plastic spoon to explore the colour mixture on the table mat / paper / paper plate.
Bonus activity:
You can also encourage your infant to try 'drumming' with their hands or the straw or spoon to exercise his/her muscles and coordination. Simple drumming encourages the exploration of sound and develops a sense of rhythm.
1 - 3 YEARS OLD
Tower Challenge
Dramatic play and make-believe allow a child's imagination to take flight, and nursery children can spend hours building and stacking with simple building blocks. Playing with boxes or toy building blocks lays the foundations of spatial thinking and logical reasoning, as they discover that the broader the base, the taller their towers can be.
Simply challenge your child to build the tallest tower with the materials given, and watch them enter their imagination and think like an engineer.
Benefits Of This Activity:
What You Will Need:
(Note: For safety purposes, use paper or plastic items only)
Instructions:
Step 1: Challenge your child to build a ‘tower’ or structure using the recycled items that you have collected over time.
Step 2: Let your child have a turn at stacking the recycled items to build a ‘tower’.
Step 3: Show your enthusiasm by cheering for your child to stack a tower. If the ‘tower’ topples, offer encouragement and urge your child to try again.
Step 4: You can play it differently with turn-taking – one place a recycled item on top of the other. If the ‘tower’ topples, the game starts all over again.
Step 5: During the turn-taking, be sure to say, “Now, it is my/your turn.” so that your child gets familiar with the turn-taking sequence.
Step 6: Encourage and praise your child for the effort, as it is not easy for your child to turn-take, for example, “Thank you for waiting.”
Bonus activity:
Once your child has learnt to construct a tower, you can introduce a new challenge by building a Jenga and take turns removing one block at a time from the block tower.
4 - 6 YEARS OLD
Delicious Ice Cream
Ice cream is an all-time favourite for kids. Instead of getting store-bought ice cream, why not try making your own! Homemade ice cream is perfectly easy for the kids to do, and you don't even need an ice cream machine. With just a ziplock bag and a few simple ingredients, your kids can serve up a delicious treat for the whole family!
Benefits Of This Activity:
What You Will Need:
Instructions:
Step 1: Invite your child to measure the sugar, vanilla and milk.
Step 2: Pour the ingredients in the medium-sized ziplock bag.
Step 3: Release as much air as possible and seal the ziplock bag well.
Step 4: Place the ziplock bag with the mixture into another medium-sized zip lock bag for added protection.
Step 5: Place the doubled-up medium ziplock bags into a large-sized ziplock bag. Add ice.
Step 6: Add salt to the ice and seal the ziplock bag.
Step 7: Shake the bag for 5 minutes until the cream is thick. Add more ice if required.
Step 8: Remove the medium-sized ziplock bags.
Step 9: Cut off a corner of the ziplock bag and squeeze out the cream like soft-serve.
Bonus activity:
Set up an ice cream decorating station with an assortment of toppings (colourful sprinkles, cereals, fruits & nuts) and hold an ice cream decorating contest.
Looking for More Fun Ideas For Your Kids At Home?
KidzMatters is a one-stop portal with interactive home-based learning resources for preschool parents. You can sign up for a free account on KidzMatters to gain access to all their activities & printable materials that are available in English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil. What's more, KidzMatters will also be uploading new content daily. Stay inspired with a package of activities and educational lessons to keep your young ones engaged and curious during this circuit-breaker period.
Created by SEED Institute that draws on 30 years of training early childhood educators in Singapore, KidzMatters presents curated content that is proudly brought to you by:
KidzMatters also covers content that informs and inspires your parenting, from coping with a fever to developing specific traits in your little one. One of their key partners includes KK Women's and Children's Hospital, which contributes a wealth of expert information on early childhood development and parenting matters.
The website is easy to navigate and has content sorted according to various ages - from infants up to 6 years old. There is even a dedicated portal with resources for parents.
