Parenting hacks and fun activities for childhood development
World Children’s Day is an annual celebration and day of action for children. On 20 November 1989, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Since then, World Children’s Day has been a highly regarded day for promoting children’s rights and welfare.
At Anglicare Southern Queensland, we work with families to identify and make use of their individual strengths so that they can achieve their goals. Our Children and Parenting programs aim to enrich the lives of families and assist parents wanting to improve their child(ren)’s social connections and development.
Recently, staff from our Children and Parenting teams across Southern Queensland revealed their favourite hacks for busy parents of young children. A few even shared some cost-friendly DIY activities that can keep children busy while improving their development. Keep reading to learn more…
Hacks for busy parents
It’s normal for families to experience times of chaos. Raising children isn’t always smooth sailing.
At Anglicare, we know that parents want the best for their families and that’s why we’re sharing some of our favourite tips for busy parents:
- Seeing if your local council are running any free supervised activities during school holidays. This may be a great opportunity for you to take a few extra hours to do things that you need to do.
- Preparing food and freezing meals. This can be done on one of your less busy days of the week and ensures you have nutritious meals ready to go when life gets hectic.
- Creating a weekly schedule for your family. This helps everyone in the household to know what activities, chores and jobs need to be done. When creating your weekly schedule, make sure to plan some quality time to spend as a family.
- Setting aside some time (whether it’s daily or bi-daily) to support your children with their homework or extracurricular educational pursuits.
- Using the evenings to prepare your family for the next day. For example, cleaning your main living spaces, preparing meals, or laying our everyone’s clothes for the next day.
Fun activities for child development
Keeping the kids as busy as you can be a challenge. Here are a few of our staff’s favourite activities that support the cognitive and sensory development of young children, while giving them hours of fun:
Sensory Bin
Sensory bins allow children to explore different textures and colours. They are a great way to let kids play with things that would typically make a big mess since the mess is contained, and far easier to clean up. In just a few minutes, you can create endless hours of joy for your young one. Click here to find out how you can create a rainbow rice sensory bin.
Busy Board
Do you have a child who enjoys fiddling with household items like doorknobs, remotes, or locks? Instead of worrying about them ruining everything they touch, create a busy board with old items or cheap novelties from discount shops. This activity is great for refining their motor skills. Click here to see how you can make one.
Backyard Obstacle Course
By utilising items like hula hoops, pool noodles and frisbees, you can transform your backyard into a child-friendly obstacle course. The best part about this activity is that you can tailor the difficulty, depending on your child’s skill level and age.
Find out about our Children and Parenting programs
Anglicare Southern Queensland offers Children and Parenting services in and around Acacia Ridge, Beaudesert, Caboolture/Morayfield, Charleville, Gympie, Hervey Bay, Lockyer Valley, Maryborough, Rocklea, Roma, Somerset, Toowoomba Region and Warwick.
To find out more about these services, near you visit our children and parenting page.
