Get creative with the kids this golden season.
Most babysitters will have a bank of games and activities that they can fall back on to pass the time in enjoyable and fun ways. As autumn sets in and the evenings become shorter, many of these activities must be moved indoors.
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While the kids may be sad to say goodbye to the outdoors for another season, there are plenty of wonderful crafts and hobbies to be enjoyed indoors. And, as the babysitter, you can enjoy the cosy warmth with unlimited cups of tea while fostering the little ones’ creativity.
Here are 5 craft ideas for you and the children you babysit this autumn:
1. Colourful leave posters
Roam the garden or nearby parks to collect the most beautiful, shapely leaves you can find. Dry them out inside and then paint them with colourful paints. The leaves can then be glued onto a cardboard box or white paper. In the end, the children will have made a colourful picture for the nursery or as a gift for their parents.
2. Make and play with dough
The recipe for dough is quick and easy and will provide hours of creative fun for both you and the kids you look after. In a bowl mix 250g flour and 125g salt with 125ml of water until it comes together. On a floured work surface, roll and cut the dough into your chosen shapes. Pop the shapes into a low-heat oven for 3 hours. When the have cooled, have fun painting them in the kids’ favourite colours.
3. Decorate tealights
Tealights can be the perfect, pretty backdrop for homemade decorations. For this, the children cut out their favourite shapes from sugar paper. Cut a hole slightly larger than a tealight in the middle of the shape and voila, your tealight decoration is ready!
4. An autumn tree
Roll a tree trunk out of brown cardboard. Afterwards, the children can hop outside to collect real leaves and glue them to the top of the cardboard trunk. And then you have your autumn tree!
5. Greeting card for parents
Again, not much is needed to make this fun craft. Use sugar paper for the simplest version. Fold an A5 piece of paper down the middle to make a card. Depending on the child’s preference, use markers, pencils, glitter glues or whatever their favourite writing tools are. A few decoration ideas: cut a square window in the front of the card and stick different coloured tracing paper in it. Or, cut out the shape of an autumn leaf which they can stick in the fold of the card so it sticks to both sides.
Do you have any autumn crafts that are a hit with the kids?
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