Creative ideas for fun

15 Fun and Exciting Creative Activities for Kids

As any mother would know, it is hard to keep your child occupied for long periods of time. Children usually have a notoriously small attention span, making it difficult for their caretakers or parents to breathe in peace. It is especially beneficial to have some activities lined up for your child if you crave some time to yourself and also want to help your child improve in the meantime.

Video: 7 Fun and Exciting Creative Activities for Kids

Activities for children have to be chosen carefully, as a lot of their mental and intellectual growth depends on what they do during the formative years. An exercise that can work the brain while also intellectually stimulating the child can have a telling effect on their development. Therefore, it is imperative that parents choose the activities that their children do with great care.

Fun Creative Activities for Children

Here are some of the best creative activities for children:

1. Cut and Glue

Using scissors is an activity that all children take some time to learn and is an important motor skill too. This is one of the creative craft activities for kids which helps them build their creativity and also create memorable pieces of art.

What You Will Need:

• A pair of scissors
• Coloured paper with predetermined shapes
• Glue
• Drawing paper

How To Perform:

• Encourage the child to cut through the predetermined shapes on the coloured paper.
• You can start with simple shapes and make them complex once your child gets a hang of it.
• Let him stick the cutouts on the drawing paper to create an artwork.

2. Sticker Fun

Stickers were some of the best aspects of all our childhoods, and they also have beneficial effects on the child. Stickers help build motor skills, as the child concentrates on peeling it off without damaging the paper body, and it also teaches them to be patient.

What You Will Need:

• Stickers
• Drawing Paper/ or a book

How To Perform:

• Give a wad of stickers to your child, and encourage him to peel them off and stick them the way they like in a book or on a drawing paper.
• This helps build their creativity, and the resulting artwork is sure to be one to keep for ages.

3. Raised Salt Painting

A tried and tested favourite among children, salt painting is ridiculously fun to do and also an activity that helps improves the child’s creativity. Salt painting can bring out a real potential for art among children, no matter how disinterested they seem at first.

What You Will Need:

• Epsom Salt
• Food colour in varied colours
• Glue
• Drawing paper
• Pencil
• Paper plates

How To Perform:

• On a paper plate, add a few drops of food colour on some Epsom salt and mix. Repeat this process for all the colours the child wants.
• Let your child draw his favourite shapes and patterns on the drawing paper.
• Help him apply glue on the designs and then pour the coloured salt over the glued areas.
• Let it dry.

4. Drawing With Oil Pastel

Although it is not strictly an activity meant for children, oil pastel painting is highly stimulating and also fun to do. Encourage your child to draw various shapes on a canvas, and fill it in a variety of ways.

What You Will Need:

• Oil pastels
• Drawing paper
• Baby oil
• Cotton buds

How To Perform:

• Let your kid draw his favourite things on a drawing paper with the oil pastels and fill in the colour. Encourage him to make as many shapes as he wants.
• For a fine, painting-like art effect, give him some baby oil and help him smear it on the painting with a cotton bud.
• The baby oil can make any art look vibrant and deserving of being hung on the refrigerator.

5. The Back-And-Forth Drawing Game

Creative games for kids, such as this one, require active participation from the parent, and can greatly help in bringing your child closer to you. This game involves drawing a common image alternatively, so children are forced to think on their feet and make stuff up as the game progresses. This stimulates creativity in your child, as the game becomes harder with each step.

What You Will Need:

• Colour pencils/ crayons
• Drawing paper

How To Perform:

• Start by drawing an unassuming picture on a paper, and pass it onto your child.
• The child is to add something of his own accord to the image.
• Both of you then proceed to build on the drawings of the previous person.

6. Playdough Modelling

Playdough has been a mainstay in toy stores for ages. Not only is it cheap, but it is also a highly fun and creative item to play with. Creative art activities for preschoolers, like this one, are simple. Just provide some playdough to your child, and let his imagination take over. Soon, the child will be seen making shapes of increasing complexities. Playdough easily stimulates the brain and makes the child think hard to make different shapes.

What You Will Need:

• Playdough
• Poke-ins
• Playdough mats

How To Perform:

• Give your child some playdough and let him make shapes of his choice.
• You may sit next to him and assist or have fun making your own shapes.
• Encourage him to use poke-ins, and playdough mats to make textures on his shapes.

7. Marble Painting

Marble paintings are fun to do and great to look at, so your child is sure to not get bored with this activity any time soon.

What You Will Need:

• Watercolour
• Drawing paper
• Some marbles

How To Perform:

• Encourage your child to dip the marbles in the paint and draw shapes on the paper.
• The child can roll the marbles to create interesting patterns or hold them in between his fingers and carefully draw his favourite shapes.

8. Water Balloon Painting

Water balloon painting is another great way to add new textures and techniques in your child’s activities. With this activity, your child can learn how to play with textures.

What You Will Need:

• Some water balloons.
• Watercolour
• Paper plates
• Drawing paper/ canvas
• How To Perform

How to Perform:

• Start with getting your child to fill some water in the water balloons. You may help them tie the opening so that the water doesn’t spill while he is painting.
• You can have him fill different amounts of water to give him more sizes to experiment with.
• Remove your child’s favourite colours on different disposable paper plates.
• Let your child dip the water balloons in the colour. He can dab the balloons or drag and roll them as he pleases on the drawing paper.

9. Elephant Toothpaste

Elephant toothpaste fits the bill perfectly as one of the best creative thinking activities for kids. Watch your child curiously play with jumbo-sized toothpaste-like substance, which is created out of harmless ingredients.

What You Will Need:

• Safety goggles
• Dry Yeast
• A plastic bottle
• Liquid soap, preferably dish soap
• 6% peroxide
• Edible colour
• Warm water

How To Perform:

• Help your child put on the safety goggles.
• Take some 6% peroxide in the bottle.
• Add dish soap and colour.
• Stir the bottle.
• In another container, take some yeast and add warm water to it.
• Add the yeast mix to the bottle with peroxide, dish soap and colour.
• Step back with your child and watch the mixture lather up and flow out of the bottle in wonderful shapes and forms!

10. Shaving Cream Playdough

For a more interactive creative game for kids, you can choose to make dough out of shaving cream along with your child. Colour the dough in various colours, and watch your child thrive creatively.

What You Will Need:

• 1/2 cup of cornstarch
• 1/2 cup of shaving cream
• Food colour

How To Perform:

• Help your child mix and knead the cornstarch, shaving cream and edible colour together.
• The dough would still look crumbly after a while but will be able to hold shapes.
• Let your child then create desired shapes and patterns with this dough.

11. Making Masks

Making masks can help kids truly think out of the box and use their imagination in creative ways.

What You Will Need:

• A construction plate
• A pair of scissors
• Glue
• Watercolour/ crayons
• A pencil
• Two rubber bands

How To Perform:

• Get your child to mark areas that need to be cut out on the construction plate (for your eyes, nose and mouth).
• Help him cut the plate as per the markings.
• Now, let your child colour the mask his way.
• Poke two holes on opposite sides of the plate.
• Tie a rubber band on each side, leaving a loop to put on the mask around the ears.

12. Finger Painting

Finger painting has traditionally been one of the messiest activities a child can do, but also one of the most creative.

What You Will Need:

• Watercolour
• Paint palette
• Drawing paper or canvas

How To Perform:

• Spread some newspaper on a table before your child starts painting.
• Remove all the colours he wants and let him paint shapes and patterns of his choice with his fingers.

13. Playing School

Playing school at home may not seem appealing, but believe it or not, your child will turn out to love it soon enough.

Things You Will Need:

• Some stationary
• A roll-up blackboard/ whiteboard
• Some chalk/ whiteboard markers

How To Perform

• Let your child play the roles of whomever he likes; let him choose if he wants to be the teacher or the student, or the principal or the school nurse.
• Make him alternate various roles until he is satisfied with the dialogue and the outcome.

14. Glowing Dough

Children seem to have an attraction towards anything that glows, and glowing playdough is no different. This activity is advisable for older children who can handle being around the stovetop and are exposed to some amount of cooking. Nonetheless, you need to be around them at all times to prevent any accidents.

What You Will Need:

• 4 to 5 cups of water
• 5 cups of flour
• 2 cups of table salt
• 2/3rd cup of vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoon of cream of tartar
• Edible colour
• Glow in the dark paint
• Blacklight

How To Perform:

• On a stovetop and on a medium flame, mix all the ingredients except the edible colour and the glow in the dark paint.
• Let the mixture cook till it starts coming together like a gooey dough.
• Get it off the stovetop and let it cool a bit.
• While it is still a little warm, add the food colour and the glow in the dark paint.
• Knead the dough properly.
• You can store in a ziplock, and whenever your child wants to play, he can have some fun making shapes with the dough with some blacklight.

15. Toy Excavation

To make for a truly memorable evening for your child, excavating toys are a great idea. This can improve their motor and reasoning skills.

What You Will Need:

• Some plastic toys
• Utensils
• Water
• A dropper
• Some saltwater
• Brushes

How To Perform:

• Take enough water in the utensils and drop the toys in them. You may choose to drop one toy in each utensil or all of them in one large utensil.
• Keep the utensils in the freezer and let the water freeze.
• Then, remove the utensils, loosen the ice and drop it in a tray.
• Make your child excavate the toys carefully with the help of some saltwater, a dropper and some brushes.

These creative activities will help you keep your energetic toddler happily engaged for long. By trying out these creative activities, his motor skills, reasoning skills, and observational skills will develop. If your child shows interest in craft activities, you can also get him craft kits too. The activities in the craft kits can help your child nurture his talents.

If you’re looking for a box full of activities that can not just keep your little one busy but also provide hours of learning through fun and play, subscribe to Intellikit, a monthly activity box subscription for kids. With interactive activities that ensure all-round development in kids through various types of play, your child will learn something each day while having fun. Subscribe to Intellikit and receive a unique box of fun learning at your doorstep every month!

These interesting activities can truly help your child have fun, learn something new, and also improve their cognitive and motor skills.

Also Read:

Fun Brain Games for Kids
Waste Material Craft Ideas for Kids

50 Cheap, Creative Ways to Have Fun

“Never let lack of money interfere with having fun.” ~Unknown

Back when we were young we may have asked our parents for money to do things, but more often than not we found creative ways to have fun without spending a dime.

At least I know I did.

My cousins and I turned their bulkhead cellar doors into a slide—and the main attraction of our DIY amusement park.

We turned cardboard paper towel rolls and rice-filled soda bottles into instruments, and entertained ourselves for hours on end. Okay, maybe not hours, but you get the point.

We didn’t wait for overtime or vacation weeks to have fun. It didn’t really matter what we did. All that mattered is that we were together, and we were fully committed to enjoying ourselves.

I highly doubt I’d spend one of my adult Saturdays banging on a homemade coffee can drum, but there’s something to be said for getting a little creative with your downtime—especially since a lot of us spend a great deal of time immersed in routines and technology.

If you’re looking for some cheap, creative ways to enjoy the weekend—or perhaps an upcoming weekday you’ve chosen to liberate—I recommend:

Have Fun Outside

1. Take a “flip the penny” hike in the woods. Assign each side as right or left, and then when you come to a fork in the road, flip to see which way you go. (Just make sure you keep track of where you’re going so you don’t get lost.)

2. Host a modern scavenger hunt, using technology.

3. Have a picnic in the park and ask everyone to make something from scratch.

4. Make your own kite, then head to the beach to fly it.

5. Take up urban foraging—the act of picking free fruits, vegetables, and edible plant life around your city, where sanctioned.

6. Start a nature collection—collect interesting shaped rocks or shells—and spend the day getting it started.

7. Start a garden on the cheap using some clever ideas from TheStreet.com.

8. Download a bike map app for your iPhone and explore a new area.

9. Have a nostalgia hunt at a flea market. Look for GI Joes, My Little Ponies, Cabbage Patch Kids, or anything else you loved as a kid.

10. Go geocaching—a “high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers.”

Have Fun with Food

11. Swap family recipes with a friend and make each other’s to enjoy together.

12. Make ingredients gifts for upcoming birthdays and events—get a jar, decorate it, and then layer cookie ingredients inside.

13. Have a cookie swap party. Everyone makes a dozen and goes home with a dozen of all different types of cookies.

14. Take turns hosting dinners with friends. It’s much less expensive than going out to eat, and it gives everyone a turn to host.

15. Host pot luck dinners based on food themes. Everyone brings something Italian, and the next time Thai, and the next time Chinese.

16. Have a food art party—everyone needs to bring something that’s both edible and creative.

17. Have a budget food contest. Everyone has to cook a dish spending no more than $5 or $10. Eat and vote on the best budget dish!

18. Start your own Julie and Julia project—grab a cookbook, start working your way through it, and blog about it as you go.

19. Make a recipe book of all your favorite dishes to give to someone you love.

20. Have an ugly cake contest. Have all of your friends make a desert, and then before you enjoy them together, vote on which is the ugliest!

Have Fun with Entertainment

21. Have a karaoke night using the YouTube karaoke channel.

22. Look on Craigslist for your area to see if there are any free concerts going on in nearby parks.

23. Have a movie marathon with one or two friends where everyone brings their favorite DVD.

24. Have an independent-film marathon, watching free indie videos online.

25. Spend a day looking for free street performances in the nearest big city. In the summer particularly, there’s a ton!

26. Host your own open mic night and invite all your most talented musician, comedian, and poet friends.

27. Have a culture day—visit a museum on a free day, listen to classical music on the way, and watch a classic movie in the evening.

28. Call your local theater to see if they take volunteer ushers. Many theaters give free tickets to volunteers who either seat guests or clean up post-performance.

29. If you have children, host a family barbecue where the adults catch up while the kids come up with a little show to perform later in the evening. (My favorite childhood memories all involve a show with the cousins!)

30. Use Facebook to get a group together for a flash mob. You’ll need a lot of people—and undoubtedly, this requires work—but it can be a ton of fun to prepare and carry out! Here are 15 flash mob videos to get the creative juices flowing.

Have Fun by Trading

31. Host a clothes swap day where everyone brings clothing and accessories they no longer want, and everyone goes home with something new. (This may be more for the ladies.)

32. Exchange homes for a night. When you’re staying at your friend’s high-rise condo and she’s decompressing in your claw-foot tub, a relaxing night in will have a whole new sense of excitement.

33. Trade gear—let your friend use your bike while you learn to rollerblade.

34. Trade books with a friend and then get together to discuss the most insightful, helpful, or entertaining parts.

35. Have a board game night where everyone brings their favorite game. (Okay, so this is more sharing than trading).

36. Trade your services for someone else’s. Offer to help your painter friend set up a website in exchange for painting your bedroom. It will be a fun, free, productive afternoon!

37. Have a no-money garage sale on a sunny afternoon. List on Craigslist everything that you have that you’d like to get rid of, and include a list of everything you want in exchange.

38. Trade ideas. Ask your friend to share his or her favorite way to spend a day off, then you share yours. You can either do them separately and report back to each other, or do them together on two respective off days.

39. Trade videos with a loved one who lives far away. Each of you plan a day of fun, without telling each other what it will entail. Then go through the day with the intention of creating a joy-filled video to send the other one later that evening.

40. Trade blogs. You host your friend’s blog for a day and let him or her host yours. If you both write about different niches, this is an incentive to try something new so that you can write about it.

Have Fun by Giving Back

41. Create a digital product about something you enjoy and donate the proceeds to charity.

42. Host a free webinar sharing something that you’re passionate about.

43. Sign up to be a volunteer dog walker through the SPCA. (You can also help organize fundraising events, provide general animal care, and assist with grooming, among other things.)

44. Call your local children’s hospital and see if you can host a sing-a-long or come dressed up as a clown to spread cheer. (Contributor Harriet Cabelly did something similar through Patch Adams international clowning trips.)

45. Volunteer to help with events at your local zoo. Some zoos require an extensive time commitment, but others take short-term volunteers for specific events.

46. Be an unofficial park volunteer for a day. In between relaxing and reading books on the grass, pick up litter to keep the area clean.

47. Use Charity Navigator to find a local charity that you can trust, and then get involved starting today.

48. Help an elderly neighbor with her garden, or with another chore that you generally enjoy doing.

49. Lead or participate in a midnight run to help the homeless.

50. Have a bake sale with friends in your neighborhood, then donate the proceeds to your favorite charity.

Have anything to add to the list?

About Lori Deschene

Lori Deschene is the founder of Tiny Buddha. She’s also the author of Tiny Buddha’s Gratitude Journal, Tiny Buddha's Worry Journal, and Tiny Buddha's Inner Strength Journal and co-founder of Recreate Your Life Story, an online course that helps you let go of the past and live a life you love. For daily wisdom, join the Tiny Buddha list here. You can also follow Tiny Buddha on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

See a typo or inaccuracy? Please contact us so we can fix it!

Creative entertainment ideas for a birthday party

It is not always possible to celebrate a birthday or anniversary magnificently , for example, in a restaurant. But, at the same time, wants to make the holiday interesting so that guests will definitely remember it. For this, a little is enough - just your imagination and small material investments. Today we will analyze entertainment ideas for a house party that can make your task easier.

So, what can you think of for entertainment for birthday guests ? The following interactives can be used for the welcome zone: friend)

Newsreel (you need to organize a platform where there will be photos of the birthday boy, relatives from different times. You will get a small photo gallery that will serve as an excellent incentive to discuss some events together)

Options for entertainment during the evening:

• Event quiz (you need to prepare questions on the topic, where each team tries to be distinguished by intellectual readiness and answer all questions correctly. You can also use interactive board games )
• Who is better? (you can arrange a competition in some game, for example, tic-tac-toe, checkers, etc.)
• Room detective (house quest where you need to find a thing using the birthday boy's clues)
• Through the mouth of a baby (the child must explain simple words / concepts. But it is important that you need to record a video in advance, and during the evening the birthday boy and guests must guess the hidden words from the already filmed video)
• Evening birthday person (the birthday person sits next to him any guest during the evening, with whom they remember or discuss common points, the rest can take part, as in a TV show)
• Cyber ​​party (computer game competitions by teams)
• Dance master class (invite a dance teacher and learn to dance)
• Perfume party (hold a master class for guests on how to make a perfume)
• Drink-draw (art therapy with an artist. You can paint a general picture in honor of 's birthday or set a theme for everyone)
• Smak with a birthday man ( arrange a culinary evening at the birthday party and cook some delicious dish)

These are the ideas we got. Of course, you can come up with a lot more entertainment, based on your imagination, space, budget and other aspects. The main thing is to approach everything creatively and in an original way, and then the guests will definitely appreciate your efforts!

And if you have a lot of ideas, but do not have the time and energy to implement them, then we will be happy to help you organize the celebration of your dreams!

1161

• Face painting for a children's party

  32

  Of course, every adult and child has seen and knows how great it can be to transform by painting your face with paints to complement the costume for a matinee or just arrange a thematic painting for a birthday. All this can be realized with the help of paints and skillful hands of a professional. Face painting for a birthday - something that can perfectly occupy your ...

  Tags: holiday, birthday, artists

• How to spend your birthday economically?

  32

  Today, the topic is very relevant in the context of global processes associated with both the pandemic and the economic sphere. Over the past few weeks, everyone has halved their spending and it is not known how much longer this situation will stretch. But after all, people born in April, May want to make their holiday memorable, even in the current conditions. Therefore…

  Tags: birthdays, games, arrange, holiday, come up with, use, for example, artists you always want to add a bright character that will charge you with the right mood and plunge all guests into the festive atmosphere. Who could it be? Of course, the ideal character is a life-size puppet, which can be in the role of any hero you like . ..

  Tags: celebration, birthday, guests, artists