Hobbies And Interests
Toddlers
Toddlers are just beginning to explore their world and you can provide them with games and crafts to encourage their exploration. One of the best things about this age group is you can create a fun game out of any household objects. Try a basket toss where your toddler has to try to throw socks or washcloths into an empty laundry basket. Build a cave together and hide his favorite animals inside for him to find. Provide him with different size boxes to stack together while he explores the concepts of big and little. You can't be too ambitious with your expectations of craft projects, but toddlers can still learn through creativity. Provide him with stickers and boxes he can decorate. You can use the boxes to store his belongings. Cut up pieces of thin colored paper and help him glue them to a piece of sturdy plastic for a homemade window mosaic. Talk about the paper pieces in concepts of size, color and shape.
Preschool
Preschool-aged children are ready to begin exploring the world outside of their home environment and you can provide them with games to encourage their curiosity. Take kids outside and let them emulate different animals, such as slithering like a snake, prowling like a tiger or jumping like a kangaroo. This is a good stage to begin playing board games that teach counting skills and sportsmanship, such as Hi-Ho Cherrio or Chutes and Ladders. This age group is ready for more independence with craft projects, but still require some supervision. They can make their own puppets with paper bags, crayons, paint, paper cut-outs, glue, pipe cleaners and other supplies. They can glue together cardboard tubes and decorate them to make their own set of binoculars. Give them glue and popsicle sticks to create buildings, animals or anything they come up with.
Elementary K-3
When kids reach school age, they could benefit from outdoor games so they get exercise after spending all day in a classroom. Games like hide-and-seek and tag give kids plenty of exercise. Hide-and-seek also encourages them to think logically about the places a person might be able to hide. You can engage kids with educational video games that let them practice reading and math skills with a fun platform. Kids might enjoy making crafts that give them a sense of their own identity. Let them make photo frames for pictures of their friends using cardboard and old puzzle pieces. They can make a sign to hang on their bedroom doors by painting wooden letters. Paper plates, construction paper, scissors, glue and string are all the materials they need to make creative animal masks. Give them boxes and a variety of craft supplies so they can make their own doll houses and tunnels.
Elementary 4-6
By fourth grade, children's motor skills and brain development should be advanced enough for challenging games and crafts. This is often the age that kids start playing sports like soccer and baseball or take dance classes. You can introduce board games that challenge their minds, making them think strategically before making a move. Games like checkers, Battleship, Scrabble and Monopoly are challenging and fun for this age group. You could get a child of this age her own jewelry kit or soap making set so she can make homemade gifts. Tie-dyeing is an age-appropriate activity for older kids, allowing them to customize everything from T-shirts to pillowcases. Kids can make their own Native American rain sticks by filling a paper towel tube with beans or pebbles, gluing the ends shut and painting it with symbols. Kids this age could even start sewing or keeping a scrapbook.