Fun Babysitting Ideas To Keep Your Kids Engaged

When you are looking for a babysitter, you want to be sure you have activities on hand for your babysitter to do with your child. While it is okay to allow your babysitter to come up with some fun activities, you know your child more than anyone, especially if your babysitter is new. Need some fun and engaging activities for your babysitter to do with your child? Here are some ideas.

Scavenger hunt

Scavenger hunts are fun for kids of all ages and you can adjust the difficulty and theme based on your individual child. Have your sitter hide certain items throughout the house and tell your child to locate them. You may even decide to do this with certain books. Have books with various themes and characters and have your child and sitter read these books as your child finds them. This encourages reading in your child in a fun and engaging way.

Board games

While video games and computer games are popular, you may want to limit your child’s screen time, especially if they get a lot of screen time with you or even at school. Having board and card games available can be a fun way to engage your child in a fun way and have them be hands-on with creating strategies for winning the game. You may even have various picture puzzles on hand to allow your child to put a puzzle together with their favorite characters or places without using screens to access these.

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Cooking and baking

Depending on the skill level and age of your child, your sitter may have the opportunity to either cook or bake with your child. Not only is this fun as they get to eat their creations, but it also allows them to learn culinary skills and master math skills such as measuring and addition. Sit down with your child and talk about what they would like to bake or cook and choose something based on their skill level that they can do. Make sure you have the ingredients on hand so your sitter is not left having to pull them together when trying to take care of your child.

I Spy

I Spy is a game that can be played indoors or outdoors in any kind of weather. Simply ask the other player(s) to spot an object base on the description of the item itself.  You may offer a list of suggestions for your sitter of things you know your child can guess easily depending on their age and developmental stage. There are even I Spy books and activity sheets that you may want to have on hand just in case the sitter and the child run out of ideas for what to suggest.

Freeze Dance

Freeze dance is a fun game that is engaging and teaches kids how to pay attention and listen. Someone controls music, either on a device such as an iPod or a phone or using a CD player. Participants dance to the music, and when it stops, those playing have to freeze in their current position. If they move, they are out of the game. If you use music you find on YouTube or Apple Music, some freeze dance songs have the freezes pre-programmed so that your sitter can play too without having to worry about messing with the music. Save these songs to a playlist and make sure the sitter has access to the playlist.

Crafts

Kids of all ages love crafts, allowing them to express themselves while learning new skills. You may want your kids to focus on seasonal crafts or just organize a general craft day for your child and your sitter. Make sure you have any needed supplies on hand or let your sitter know ahead of time what they need to bring. If you have your sitter pick up supplies, you may opt to compensate them for the purchase. There are so many different crafting options for any and all age groups and skill levels. You know where your child’s skill level is, so be sure to have a few options on hand so your sitter and child can choose what they want to do.

Karaoke

Kids usually love music, so they will love being able to do karaoke. There are karaoke versions of popular songs on YouTube that your sitter can pull up and have a sing-a-long with. To be safe, you may make a preapproved playlist of songs to choose from so that your kids do not get exposed to any songs that are explicit. There are also karaoke machines you can get that are specifically designed for kids to use. They come equipped with a microphone and all. Allowing your kids to sing brings out their creativity and allows them to increase their confidence.

While your kids may complain of being bored after school, having fun and engaging activities lined up for them and your sitter can help give options for them to do while helping them learn and increase their confidence.