Fun, Educational Activities for In-Between Times

Have a handful of activities ready to keep the kids busy during phone calls, in waiting rooms, and more.

Folding origami and learning to tie useful knots are both activities that can fill some in between time. Biba Kayewich

Life is unpredictable. A simple chat with a friend on the phone can become a lengthy conversation. A neighbor may stop by unannounced. Or maybe you just need to take care of an essential task. How do you keep your kids actively engaged during these short breaks?

Gather educational goodies that your kids can work on independently, and keep them in a closet or up on a shelf so they’re ready for those in-between times. It’s a good rule of thumb to switch the activities every so often to keep your kids interested.

Here are some tried-and-true activities that helped keep my two kids actively engaged when I needed to attend to something else.

Tie Knots

Do you know what a clove hitch, a butterfly loop, and a bowline are? My kids do. When they were younger, we discovered this amazing gem at our local library—”40 Knots to Know” by Emily Stetson. Tying knots kept them actively engaged for hours.

Knowing how to tie a variety of knots is not only fun, but also practical. Think camping, boating, and hiking. Also, knots can create art, secure loads, and save lives.

Make Puppets and Put On Shows

Puppet-making is a great creative outlet for kids. And there are a variety of ways for kids to make simple puppets quickly. Just give them old, gently used socks, mittens, or gloves; wooden spoons, popsicle sticks, or paint sticks; paper cups; and buttons, pipe cleaners, and scraps of fabric, and let the show begin.

If you have an old sheet or beach towel, drape it across two chairs for a makeshift curtain. Or cut open a big appliance box and shape it into a U to act as a stage.

Isn’t this a clever way to upcycle all those miscellaneous items around your house?

Make Things From Paper

A single piece of paper can go a long way to entertain and engage your kids. When we were homeschooling, our kids made paper airplanes, folded origami masterpieces, and created original greeting cards. My daughter made me a cute little paper box for my birthday one year that held coins equal to my age. It sits on a shelf in my home office with other cherished mementos.

Make and fly paper airplanes. There’s an art to making the perfect paper airplane. I should know, because my paper airplanes barely flew and usually nosedived directly into the floor. It’s not for lack of trying, because my kids took me under their wing (pun intended) and tutored me, but alas, I’m all thumbs.

Encourage your kids to set up challenges such as longest flight, highest flight, best aerial trick, and more. Challenge them to create a new airplane design with a single caveat—it must fly.

Grandparents, siblings away at college, and faraway relatives will be delighted to receive homemade birthday and holiday cards. Keep old greeting cards, construction paper, magazines, and art supplies such as markers, stickers, glitter, and more in a large ziplock bag.

For inspiration and help, kids can design and print free greeting cards on sites such as Canva, Greetings Island, and BeFunky, then pop them into an envelope and send. Oh, and FYI, your kids can also make their own envelopes; Puddleside Musings and All Crafts offer free, printable envelope templates.

Tangrams

Tangrams are challenging and creative puzzles that have countless educational benefits for your kids, and they’re also great fun.

So, just what is a tangram? Simply put, a tangram is composed of seven flat polygon pieces—tans—arranged into a specific shape, such as an animal, objects such as a house or a car, or people in various positions.

To start, the specific goal shape is shown as an outline or a solid shape, and your kids, through trial and error, have to figure out how to arrange all seven tans to look exactly like the desired shape. You can purchase a wooden tangram set, make one if you’re handy, or print out a set on cardstock and cut out the pieces.

The website ABCYA offers free digital tangram puzzles, and Education.com and ESLVault.com have free printable tangram puzzles. The puzzles range in skill level from easy to hard.

Miscellaneous Activities

Coloring is always a big hit with kids, especially young children. My mom spent countless hours coloring with our kids through the years. Sometimes there would be chatting. Sometimes it was quiet. You can print out coloring pages that supplement a current theme, maybe in history or science, or buy inexpensive coloring books at dollar stores.

Add a deck of playing cards, a dice game, a book of logic puzzles, Bananagrams, a yo-yo, juggling balls, or a small jigsaw puzzle to your basket of educational goodies.

The magic of these educational activities is their adaptability. Yes, they come in handy when you need your kids to occupy themselves for short periods, but keep some in the car for road trip adventures and in a tote bag for medical and dental waiting rooms.