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How do you entertain a 4 year old? Teach them how to dance or sing or make a puppet show and let them go wild. You can even make a splash by adding a few bubble bath toys to entertain them.
Oh, and if you are cooking or cleaning, let them assist you’s! Give them a job they can handle. For young children, that might be stringing beans or setting the table. For older children, that might be slicing vegetables, sweeping the house, or taking out the recycling.
Give them a task, and make it a really big deal. Tell them they need to make a block fort, or that they need to make a block fence. If they think it is an important job, they won’t complain about working on it independently.
If you have a children’s activity box, you don’t need to write down directions. Teach your children how to move about it using arrows, and even give them the freedom to move it around.
Don’t forget about the treasure hunt. If you’ve got some spoons and cups and want to get rid of them, give them a choice of colors. If they choose blue, throw away the spoons and cups. If they choose green, throw away the green container.
Give them a small bowl or pan and let them go wild with colors and shapes. They’ll be so excited that they get to be messy indoors that they’ll be willing to play independently.
Even the parent can benefit from this little break in the day. Take a walk over to assist your kid with some chores. Without asking permission, use the stairs or accommodate yourself by taking a walk over to help.
I don’t need to tell you that this is one of the most important things you can do for your kids.
How do you entertain a 4 year old? A trip to the park, a little story book, or a box of tissues?
Whenever I hear a child say they’re bored I tell them how wonderful that is and now I’ll put on some music and have a good movie and pretend to be the bored one.
Yay, I laid down a small “music table” and now the bard is singing along with the story!
Aww, I’m so glad you mentioned that. I think a lot of times when we’re bored and need something to do the only thing that comes to mind is to “bark”.
Yes, a lot of times when we’re bored we need to do something creative. Maybe you can help me think of something up that will get me thinking about things other than what I was doing in the house.
Thank you so much for this today! I am up early and cannot sleep because of all the exciting things going on all around me. I’ve been meaning to write this post since I got up so I’ll be sure to use it when the kids get up and get dressed for school.
Turn bathtime into an hour long water play session. Think outside the box with bath toys – rubber/plastic kitchen utensils, funnels, paintbrushes and rollers, small balls, robo fish, all sorts!
Get your child a new hobby. Handing them a bathrobe or raincoat and telling them to go exploring will keep them busy for hours, even if it’s raining outside.
Explode some of your favourite activities into one big go. For example, take a bath in cold water and play a water play game where you have to guess where the bubbles are coming from.
Do jigsaw puzzles together, maybe with an audiobook on in the background.
