Fun and Free Educational Things for Kids to Do
Most children can be easily entertained if they are learning and it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg to fill their time with fun things to do.
Here are two educational and entertaining things to fill your child’s time:
Autumn leaves
The leaves are much prettier in the fall. You have beautiful yellow, orange and red leaves to preserve and scrapbook. And at the same time, your child can learn all about the trees the leaves come from.
Get a regular scrapbook and go leaf hunting with your kids. If you don’t have many trees in your neighborhood, try one of the local parks or perhaps take an afternoon walk to a rural area.
Help them find leaves from several different trees. You could even add things like pine needles.
Once you’ve returned home, let them keep their sheets on waxed paper and attach them to a page in their scrapbook.
They can then investigate the tree the leaf came from. If you have internet access this should be pretty easy. If not, maybe pay a visit to the local library where you can find some books for them on leaves and trees. Let them match pictures of leaves to their own leaves to identify the tree.
Ask them to write a short description about the tree under the page in the scrapbook. They could even add information about what that type of tree is used for, like railroad ties, kitchen cabinets, firewood, etc. Take note if the tree produces any type of berry, nut, or flower.
Fall Leaves makes learning fun and can also be a project for the whole family.
pipe cleaner dolls
I guess most people don’t have pipe cleaners handy, so this one won’t be totally free, but it won’t cost you that much either.
Get some tobacco pipe cleaners and fold them into stick figures. This could be dolls, dogs, cats, squirrels, etc. Please note that pipe cleaners come in different colors.
You can then dress them up or decorate them with things you probably have around the house. The cotton balls can become hair for our doll or a head for your dog. Use beads or buttons for the eyes and noses. For a fatter body, you can wrap a pipe cleaner around a pencil.
Use a small ribbon for ties or bow ties. Make a cane out of a pipe cleaner for your stick person. A ball of wool could be used to make hair for stick people and fur for animals.
Give it some thought and you and your kids can come up with lots of ideas to make your stick characters charming.