Basic and Cheap Ideas that Kids Love

Try to choose activities that appeal to your child’s senses of taste, touch, sight, hearing and smell. This is how they can learn about the world around them.

Some ideas of activities that stimulate each sense are included in this article.

Playdough Recipe

• 2 cups plain flour
• 4 tablespoons cream of tartar
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 cup salt
• Food colouring
• 2 cups of water

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan. Cook and stir over a low/medium heat until playdough is completely formed and is no longer sticky. Allow tocool slightly before storing in an air container or zip lock bag. For something different try adding glitter to change the way the playdough feels when squished or add a small amount of scented oil (vanilla essence or an essential oil) so it smells nice. The playdough is non-toxic so if your child does try to eat it don’t worry! It tastes quite salty but won’t hurt them. Keep in an air-tight container in fridge for long lasting playdough.

Balloons and Bubbles

Balloons and bubbles are great fun for kids, they are great for developing hand-eye coordination because they are slow when thrown giving the child time to react and try to catch it!

Books

Read books to your child as much as you can and talk to them about the story and talk about what items are in the pictures. Even magazines, anything particularly pictures of things we use everyday, point and say what it is, ask your child to copy you, and use the same pictures until your child can identify lots of different things!