Fun babysitting games and activities

You have created a rainbow pen! Drawing a rainbow in one simple arc with your rainbow pen! Try drawing other things too: hearts, stars, patterns and write your name! Cut out wing shapes from thick paper or cardboard and sticky tape them to the sides of an empty plastic bottle. Make a cardboard propeller with a hole in the middle that neatly fits over the bottle opening, screw on the bottle cap to hold it in place.

Find a big piece of cardboard then cut out a rectangle that is slightly smaller than your artwork. Cover your frame with aluminum foil to make a fancy silver frame. Draw patterns over the top with a black marker.

Use stickers to create a picture on paper and draw in extra parts. Try decorating something by covering it with lots of stickers.

Check your fruit bowl, most fruit comes with special fruit stickers, or make your own from sticky tape and markers. Next, decorate the wall by putting up lots of drawings, photos, and paintings with blue-tack so it can be removed later. They will be so proud of their creations. Kids love getting their fingers into playdough. Make a dinosaur or a mushroom house, or a turtle. Make it in 3 minutes with our easy playdough recipe. Get out your paint set and paint a beautiful picture. Try setting up an easel outside and paint a landscape from life.

Next, draw a basic shape in every second square, eg: circle, spiral, star, heart, letters or numbers. To play the game the child tries to copy each shape as closely as possible by drawing it in the adjacent square.

This is an excellent way for children to learn shapes and practice fine motor skills. Make the grid smaller and use more complicated shapes for advanced kids. All you need is some paper and you can create a whole fleet of aircraft. Try different designs for speed, stunts, or gliding. Who can fly theirs the furthest? Find a tree or favourite pot-plant in the backyard and make it a magic tree by decorating it with special things. Sprinkle glitter or confetti around the base of the trunk and hide small toys and trinkets in the branches.

Tie ribbons or coloured string to the leaves so it flows with the breeze. Next, prepare the food, make celery and carrot sticks, cut sandwiches, get a selection of fruit, and maybe even some chocolate for dessert!

Start by cooking flat pieces of gingerbread. Decorate your house with icing flowers and little animals. Take turns mixing with a wooden spoon. Kids love decorating cakes. Start by collecting a variety of yummy toppings, eg: fruit, chocolate, sprinkles and nuts.

Finally, create beautiful patterns and designs with your toppings, you could even make a picture. Spike potatoes with a fork, cover them in butter and wrap them in silver foil.

Next, put them in the hot coals of a bonfire once the flames have died down a bit for 30 - 60 minutes. Add your favourite toppings such as capsicum, salami, mushroom, pineapple, ham and olivies.

Add a layer of mozzarella cheese then put it in the oven. Start by finding lots of different drinks and extras from your fridge, eg: fruit juice, coconut water, sports drinks, milk, strawberries, oranges, berries and mint. Use different coloured icing, currents, chocolate chips, nuts and sprinkles to make the most amazing creations.

Fruit ice blocks are so nice in hot weather. Experiment with different juices and add pieces of fruit for a wow factor. Alternatively make fruit ice blocks in an ice block tray and add them to drinks.

Fresh salad sandwiches are delicious and healthy, learn how to make them together. Recommend ingredients:. A healthy salad where all ingredients start with 'C'! Start with a cous cous base then include any of the following:. Let your hair down and rock out. Feel the music flow through you as your hands move like lightning across the imaginary strings. Take turns being the deejay and play all your favourite up-tempo music while everyone dances. Practice special moves.

Have a dance-off! Find three things to juggle, eg: balls, balloons, screwed up paper balls, handkerchiefs, wooden spoons, or sponges. Start by selecting a fun song to dance to. Play the song bit by bit and make up moves that match the sound of the music. Try acting out words to help tell a story. When the music is playing everyone dances like crazy with wild movements, twirls, jumps and spins. When the deejay stops the music everyone has to freeze on the spot!

Take turns telling scary stories in the dark while shining a torch up at your face. Tell strange but true stories that really did happened to you. Tell 'what if' stories, eg: What if I won the lottery, what if I entered a surfing contest, what if I was a horse.

Try telling funny jokes see our best kids jokes , wearing funny clothes, accidentally falling over, or be silly and make a fool of yourself. What way works best for you? Find all your musical instruments or make your own. Use two spoons to make a tapping sound, pots and pans as drums and cymbals, or make a guitar from a piece of cardboard and string.

See our huge list of over funny kids jokes and pick your favorites to make a comedy show! First make a puppet stage, try moving the couch out from the wall so you have space behind it to operate the puppets without being seen by the audience.

Next make up a fun show, eg: fighting action with robots and dinosaurs, romance with Barbie and Ken, or an animal adventure. Start off slow and then get crazy. Move the legs and arms in time with the beat, do spins, somersaults, the splits or breakdancing.

Tie a string across the room and place a sheet over it to make a net then play tennis by batting a balloon to each other with your hands. Get in a big circle so everyone is the right distance away. See how many times you can fly it to each other without dropping it. Basketball is a fun game kids love to play. This is a fun game to play with music. Two kids can hold a broom or place it on something like a chair to get the right height. All you need is two kids and a ball.

Start off close together, throw it to each other and when you catch it, take a step back. Run in a group or take turns and time each runner on your mobile and see who gets the lowest time.

The best thing about putt putt golf is it can be played almost anywhere with household equipment. For older kids who are interested in science, dismantling broken toys can be a fascinating experience. Before throwing a toy away, take it apart to see how it works on the inside. You can find lots of interesting parts like, electric motors, gears, wires, switches and lights. You can even use these parts to make something new.

This is a fun learning experience for babies. Find lots of safe household items that have different textures and surfaces and let them explore. Just make sure they don't eat anything!

Here are some good suggestions:. Writing a story can be very exciting because you can include all of your favourite things. You decide what happens and there are no limits! There's nothing like brain teasers to pass the time and keep the mind sharp.

How many bedrooms do you want? What about a pool inside with a waterslide from each bedroom? Make sure you have room for a garage or rocket launching pad! Spread out the pieces on a table and turn them all face up to begin. Start by finding the edges and corners and build from the outside in. Try a variety of operations such and addition, subtraction and throw in a few negative numbers too if they're advanced enough.

The learning dinosaur game starts out as a fun DIY project that you can easily build with recycled materials, then the game begins! It is fun to play for babies, toddlers and even older kids. See our complete instructions and how to play guide including pictures! There are unlimited worlds to discover in books, and kids who read regularly can get a better head start in life. For these reasons, reading is one of the best activities for thirsty, young minds.

If your child is too young to read by themselves, then read for them. Ask what their favourite books are and enjoy the stories together. See our reccommended kids books for babysitters for iconic stories along with activity ideas that follow-on to keep the kids entertained.

Do you have a magnifying glass, a microscope, or a macro lens that clips over a mobile camera? These tools are great for exploring the tiny world around us. Look at the fibres in a piece of cloth up close, find interesting leaves, feathers, or bug wings and see them in extreme detail.

You will be amazed at what you can find. Just make sure to keep off the road. Do you have any unused wood or panels in your back yard, or maybe branches or large pieces of bark? Find a good spot, eg: the bottom of a tree or in a bushy area with lots of branches and then start building walls.

Make two holes in the sides of each can near the top and tie string loops to them. The seeker closes their eyes and counts to fifty or any decided number while the others hide.

After the countdown is complete, the seeker goes looking for the other players. Another variation can be one where the person babysitting hides a specific toy, and all the children hunt for it together. Puzzles are engaging and keep children occupied for several hours while their parents are away. When you are babysitting, you can pull out a stack of games the children already possess and love to play. They will jump at the chance to do so with you.

Alternatively, you can bring a few with you. New games and activities might excite children. Puzzles are engaging, educational, and rewarding. Take a square box, and write the name of an animal on each side. Throw in a dice to mix things up. The number that faces up is how many times the child has to perform that movement or sound. Such games bring about multiple opportunities for learning while having fun, too.

They also help build vocabulary, improve listening and social skills, and encourage them to follow directions. This interactive game helps children open up, develop social skills, cooperate with others, and build vocabulary. Ever spotted your child standing in front of the television and singing their favorite tune or making use of different household items as a mic?

If yes, the perfect game for a babysitter and children is a lip-sync competition. Set up karaoke on the television with kid-approved songs and let them sing away.

To add to the fun, you can even bring out pots and pans or use a broom as an air guitar. To play the game of charades, divide the children into groups of two members each, and choose a couple of kid-friendly topics. Plus, it works as both an outdoor and indoor game. This is a fun activity wherein everyone draws a picture on a piece of paper. Then you go ahead and swap your drawings with the person to your right. This person tells a story based on the drawing they have in their hand.

Not only is it an excellent game to help you bond, but it also helps children improve their interpretation and visualization skills and stimulates their imagination. Everyone loves chalk. From fun learning activities to doodling, chalk art possibilities are endless.

Older kids can try twister, foursquare, or hopscotch, while younger ones can indulge in drawing and coloring. For an educational twist, get them to write letters and numbers. The rules are pretty straightforward and depend on the number of children and the age of the players. Bring home some carnival fun with the homemade version of this jolly game, paper plate ring toss.

This is a brilliant activity to help relieve boredom, build hand-eye coordination, develop gross motor skills , and improve spatial perception. Bubbles never fail to fascinate children. Go outdoors with the children, blow bubbles into the air, and tell them to pop as many bubbles as they possibly can.

All the children can pop the bubbles together or take turns. Bubble games help develop visual skills, improve gross motor skills, and boost eye-hand coordination.

Add to the fun by spreading a blanket on the floor and having lunch and dinner in your fort. Just make sure that the fun is all cleaned up before Mom and Dad get home! Help the kids come up with an idea for a play, such as an old fairy tale or a popular television show. Look for costumes and even music. Make sure there are roles for every child — even the youngest can have a walk-on part. Another idea that is popular with older kids — especially girls — is to choreograph a dance routine.

Younger kids also love learning magic tricks to perform a magic show. Rock Band — This game is great for both tiny tots and older kids. If actual kid-sized instruments are not available, use pots and pans, buckets, lids, and brooms and put together a living room rock band.

You can make this even more fun by raiding the closets for costumes. Puppet Show — It is a good idea to bring a few supplies for this game. Paper bags, socks, buttons, markers, and yarn are all good choices.

Have the kids use the materials to make puppets that they will later use to put on a show. If so, these are always a big hit:. Water Limbo — Put the kids in their bathing suits and grab the hose. Aim a steady stream of water horizontally at different heights and see if the kids can limbo underneath it. Water Paint — This is another great hot-day activity. Talk about easy clean up! Bedtime and Restaurant Games Sometimes you might need to dial down the energy a bit!

Gather some small objects such as coins, small toys, utensils, and pens. Place seven or eight on the table for the kids to see — give them 10 to 20 seconds to try to memorize what is there.

Quickly remove one of the items and cover the rest with a towel.