Tag: parenting tips

Indoor Summer Activities for Kids

Posted on | by KD Novelties
Indoor Summer Activities for Kids

Indoor Summer Activities for kids – Summer usually coincides with outdoor fun like pool time and sports, or even camping and hikes. But sometimes, going outside just isn’t an option. Not to worry! There are plenty of fun activities kids can take part in from the comfort of home, no matter the weather or circumstances!

Tie Dye

Tie dye shirts, shorts, scrunchies and other items are often associated with summer camps and other outdoor activities. Even if your kids are stuck indoors or are limited to just the backyard, tie dye can still happen! Whether you buy a kit or make your own, tie dying old t-shirts and having fun with the designs is a great lesson in color theory and pattern making. Plus, seeing the end result is always fun!

Fresh Fruit Popsicles

With no ice cream truck to run to, you can always make your own popsicles, ice cream and other frozen treats! Using ingredients like fruit juice, yogurt, fresh fruit and other items like cream and food coloring, kids can create their own popsicle sticks or even create their own colorful ice cream. There are plenty of easy to make recipes available online, many of which are much healthier alternatives to the things your kids might choose at the ice cream shop – it’s a win win for everyone!

Indoor Camping

Just because you can’t go outside doesn’t mean you can’t go camping. Clear a space in your living room and set up a tent with flashlights and sleeping bags. Hanging out in the house has never been more fun! You can make the night even more camp-themed with s’mores and hotdogs, but you’re not limited to outdoor related activities only. Even playing board games or having a movie night from inside the camping tent can make a night at home feel more fun.

Sandy Crafts

Can’t visit the ocean? Bring the ocean to you! Plenty of craft stores carry sand, seashells or even special sands like magnetic sand, colored sand, or other sculpting sands you can play around with from the comforts of home. You can go beyond simply playing and create ocean-themed crafts as well. Create cool patterns with different colored sand in unique-shaped bottles, paint sea shells or arrange them in mosaics, the possibilities are endless!

Scavenger Hunt

This adaptable activity can be enjoyed all year round and can easily be changed to suit different themes, items and more. Whether you create your own rules or find a guide online, a scavenger hunt is a great way to engage kids’ imaginations and sense of exploration – all without leaving the house!

These indoor summer activities for kids will get your kids intrigued with what they can do indoors. It can truly create a bond and memories that will last a lifetime.

4 Ways to Helping Your Teen With Social Distancing

Posted on | by KD Novelties
Teens and Social Distancing
How to Help Teens & Tweens Handle Social Distancing

Helping your Teen with Social Distancing

Helping your teen or tween with social distancing is very important during these times. Social distancing has become the new normal. It’s important for all of us to stay home as much as possible, and to keep at least 6 feet away from others when we do go out, whether to do necessary grocery shopping or to get some much-needed fresh air and exercise. While it is important for the country and for our communities that we practice social distancing diligently, this can be tough on social middle grade and high school tweens and teens. As kids enter their teenage years, their worlds become more and more social, especially at school where they form different social relationships with their peers, which can be hard for them to handle in isolation.

Talk to Teens

It’s important that parents have open conversations about the virus and about social distancing. It may seem like a country-wide punishment of sorts, but staying home is the best way to make sure people stay safe. It is also important that parents dispel any misinformation about COVID-19 being an “old person’s disease”, which may make them feel like the rules don’t apply to them or that they don’t need to be included in precautionary measures. Make sure that your kids stay informed and up to date with the news without scaring them too much, though instilling just how serious the situation is can help them better understand our circumstances right now as well as their place in it.

Try to Maintain Structure

This is just as important for parents who are now either working from home or find themselves out of a job. Having some sort of daily structure can help the whole family stay sane, and it can especially help tweens and teens stay on top of any remote school work they have as well. If you are working from home or doing any other kind of work, try scheduling a family work time during the day to keep everyone on-task. You don’t have to keep the same hours as work or school, but find a rhythm that works for you and your family.

Spend Quality Time Together

Quality time is a one of the benefits of helping your teen with social distancing. With the whole family at home, spending time together can help you all grow closer, learn new things, and keep you all from getting too bored. There are plenty of things the family can do together, whether it is binge watching a new show, getting some exercise, reading together, or playing board games. There are plenty of ways parents can incorporate learning into family activities as well, such as teaching the kids to cook a family-favorite meal or teaming up to craft a dessert from scratch.

Relax on Screen Time Limits

In order to cope with the loneliness your kids may be experiencing in being away from their friends, it would actually help to be a little more lenient when it comes to time spent on their mobile device or using social media. We are lucky that we live in a time where connecting with others is as easy as it is, and it is certainly making sheltering in place much more bearable and overall less lonely. In addition to relaxing on your childrens’ screen time limits, also consider scheduling family video chats with aunts, uncles, cousins, family friends and others as well.

Helping Kids Learn to Write

Posted on | by KD Novelties

Helping Kids Learn to Write

Helping Kids Learn to Write

Writing is a valuable skill. Though formal letter writing on paper has died out, correspondence via email and other mediums is just as strong as ever. Helping kids learn to write well, or at least convey a thought or idea effectively, is necessary no matter what your profession.

For kids, learning to write well can be incredibly useful in their academic career. Especially since they will surely have to write papers and complete their homework effectively. However, writing can also lead to a hobby as well as increase their reading skills.

As we all know reading and writing are intrinsically linked. Being able to read well and understand concepts can help kids become better and more effective writers, and vice versa. With young kids, it helps to start small and simple, just like you would with reading. Here are some practical tips parents and guardians can try to get their kids into writing and make them better writers.

The Right Instruments

Just like how introducing babies to cardboard or fabric books can get kids acquainted with books as objects, picking out big, fun writing instruments can have the same effect.  You’ll first want to get kids acquainted with writing out or tracing letters. Safe options for younger children can include big pieces of chalk to draw with on the sidewalk or board. You can even get a little messy with paintbrushes or finger paints. Making this fun can be a great introduction to writing.

Start Small

Once your child has gotten the grasp of writing, they can move onto other writing tools. Golf pencils (smaller and easier to grip for small hands) or crayons are a great beginning. These tools are generally easier for kids to work with while they get used to the act of writing.

Personalized Activity Books

Getting the Hang of Things

As kids learn how to write out full sentences, they may need practice keeping their letters uniform and their spaces between words consistent. There are special kinds of paper that have traceable letters and other helpful tools such as personalized activity books for kids to get used to. To help with spaces between letters, they can use stamps, their fingers, or even colored crayons they aren’t using to act as placeholders while they write.

Becoming Better Writers

As kids get older, their homework may include instructions for providing long-form answers whether they be a single sentence to a paragraph. When kids are at this age or writing level, it helps to boost their communication skills. Encourage them to keep a journal or to write their own stories. This can help them develop effective communication skills via writing, and they can get used to expressing their thoughts, feelings, and ideas through written words.