8 Hobbies You Can Teach Your Kids To Pursue At Home
Kids these days are tech-savvy and tend to spend most of their time glued to various electronic gadgets, video games, and the television. While all these may not necessarily be harmful, it is somewhat important that you encourage kids to take up a hobby, which may expose them to the outside world, bring them closer to nature, or serve as a tool to nurture their interests and creativity.
A hobby may help to shape your child’s personality by making them self reliant, independent, and more confident. It also improves their ability to think and instils in them a dozen other qualities, such as patience, compassion, and team spirit – all of which, in turn, moulds them into responsible adults. Now that you have ample time at home amid the nationwide lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic, you can make the most out of it by encouraging your little one to pursue these hobbies –
1. Origami
If your child has a knack for arts and craft, or if he/she loves forming new shapes and structures, origami could be a great hobby for them to pursue. It is an ancient art of folding papers to create different shapes and figures. You kid can start with the simple and easy ones, like the shape of an animal or that of a tree. To teach them better, you can sign up for online classes for beginners, which will explain the procedure one step at a time. Soon, you will be delighted to see your child mastering the skill and creating new shapes and interesting designs every day.
2. Painting and sketching
Your child need not be an artist to draw or paint. This could be a learning process for children, as they learn to mix different colours, draw new shapes, create new shades, and experiment using sponges, brushes, even their hands. The main objective of taking this up as a hobby is to bring out their creativity and hidden talent while in a playful way. Eventually, the kid will learn various techniques – how to combine various colours to form a beautiful shade and how to bring out the most amazing effects with paintbrush etc. So what are you waiting for? Hand them their colouring books and crayons or set them free to use the wall as their canvas, and watch them unleash the Picasso within!
3. Scrapbooking
Preserving each moment and turning them into memories is an essential part of life. This could also develop into a hobby – scrapbooking! Little kiddos may not understand the purpose of having a scrapbook today, but years later, they will enjoy flipping through the pages and admiring their childhood efforts. As a parent, you can lend them a hand – teach them how to create paper books and show them how to cut and paste images, stickers, and words. You can also encourage them to pen down their thoughts on something specific in the scrapbook.
4. Gardening
Gardening can be a fun and interesting activity for kids. They get to play in sandpits, make mud pies, sow seeds, and fill pots. Moreover, it teaches them a great many lessons. Gardening can teach your young ones how to be patient and responsible. They will need to water the plants regularly and measure how long they’ve grown. Once the plants are full-grown, they will achieve a sense of pride and self-satisfaction because of all the hard work they had put forward. Thus, through this hobby, they will eventually learn to be patient and realize that it all pays off.
5. Photography
Photography can be an excellent hobby for children. It adds value to their lives, as they learn and thrive by recording or clicking pictures of various places, people, objects, and events. What’s more, photography teaches the child to see and appreciate the beauty in everything around us. It allows them to show off their potential through creativity, provide them with the opportunity to be innovative and communicate their feelings, thoughts, and ideas. Hand them a Smartphone or camera to click pictures of anything that may appeal to them, and watch them discover their hidden skills.
6. Recycling
This should be a lifestyle and not just a hobby. Nevertheless, initiating recycling at home can have a positive impact on your child’s attitude. It is a great way to teach them to be conscious of where the usable materials come from and where they are disposed of thereafter. Here is what you can do –
- Make recycling bins around the house
- Ask your kid what they think of the material the object is made of
- Encourage the child to utilize both sides of the paper
- Come up with creative ways to reuse the recycled material
- Deposit scraps of food in an outdoor container
- Teach them about the things that cannot be recycled
7. Playing an instrument
Not only does playing an instrument seem like an exciting hobby but also it is great for your overall personality development. Studies show that learning any sort of musical instrument enhances one’s literacy skills, spatial reasoning, and verbal memory, such as learning of sequences of paired words and word lists. It could be any instrument – a guitar, a synthesizer, or a piano. Find out if you’re little one has specific interests in any of the musical instruments, and you can help them take it up as a hobby.
8. Cooking and baking
If your kid loves playing with his/her kitchen set, pretending to pour out tea and coffee for imaginary guests, consider teaching them the basics of cooking and baking. Start with simple and easy recipes – a sandwich, wrap, or a cupcake. Be there to supervise their actions and guide them throughout. This might require a few attempts before your child masters the skill, but teach them to be patient. Who knows, he/she might turn out to be the next Masterchef Junior in town!
Kids tend to imitate others, especially parents. Now is the best time to generate their interests by indulging yourself in some fun and exciting activities. When they watch you adopt these wonderful activities, they will likely join in and what may have started as a fun activity could soon turn into their favourite hobby!
