Games to do at home: ideas for children from 1 to 10 years

Games to do at home: ideas for children from 1 to 10 years

By Dr. Kyle Muller

Let’s discover some ideas of games to do at home for young and old children. A series of proposals to have fun together with their own supporting their desire to discover the world and the space that surrounds them

With the arrival of autumn, the return to school and work after the summer holidays, children and parents spend much more time within the home. However, we must always remember that, even with the bad weather, it is possible and important that the children spend every day in the open air. However, the moments spent at home will be greater in the winter and on these occasions there are really many games to do at home that we can prepare by resorting to objects easily available or purchasable at very low costs. For example, we can prepare game proposals inspired by the holidays or follow the course of the seasons. In this way children will not only be able to develop motorcycleconcentration, patience and theAttentionbut they will also be able to acquire knowledge about the life cycle of living beings and the succession of parties and seasons of the year.

We seek, however, of Don’t let us overwhelm from the tendency to Fill every “empty time” of our children. Some adults have a firm conviction that only by means of planned and structured game proposals, children can really learn and develop useful skills and skills. This leads them to overload children of stimuliwith often not very happy results.

The little ones have a fundamental need to free gamenot rigidly structured, and to follow the interest of the moment, independently choosing which games to do at home and with what to play. We do everything possible to encourage this type of activity by offering children Deskructured materials that encourage exploration and action.

Also boredomHowever, it should not be demonizedbut indeed welcomed as a unique opportunity: in fact it represents a real “activator” that allows children to know and learn to transform their resources and creativity into an action project.
When we see our child to get bored, we respect his right to fully live that boredom, giving confidence in his ability to find an autonomous and creative solution to it. Thus keeping well in mind what we have said now together with some proposals of games for children to do at home For children from 1 to 10 years.

Games to do at home for children from 1 to 3 years

At this age, children have one strong tendency to explore And they are eager to exercise and perfect their linguistic and motor skills. So here are some ideas of Games to do at home with small children that will allow to respond to these desires.

  • Explore and squeeze sponges: we can propose this activity already around the year of age. To propose this game at home, everything we need is of a waxed placemail, a basin with a little warm water, Marseille soap and 1-2 soft sponges. We show the child the sponge and let it free to explore her, then show him how to immerse her in the basin. Lift it slowly, leaving it dripping, then we squeeze decisively. Water has an effect deeply calming on children and allows him to enter a state of great concentration. It is therefore a perfect game for the days when we see them in need of relaxing.
  • Transfite: that of the labor is one of the most loved activities by the little ones. In its simplest version it can already be proposed around 15 months And as a game to do at home during the winter it is perfect. To organize it we only need: two large identical bowls, some elements to be troubled (for example large pasta, walnuts, cork caps …) and a tray of size suitable for containing all the elements. At the beginning it will be shown to the child how to draw the elements from one container to another with his hands. Over time, when his eye coordination skills and concentration have developed, it will be possible to introduce one Travaso tool (like a spoonful of decreasing dimensions or even a ladle, a pliers …) and offer the child increasingly smaller and ends to be transferred among the containers (for example lentils, couscous, polenta flour …).
  • Explore with spices or aromatic herbs: Often it is the elements that we most commonly have at home offering the richer game and learning experiences. Spices and aromatic herbs, for example, allow you to create many games to do at home with children starting from 1-2 years. To start, we can use them to create dyes to paint to offer to the little ones. Just mix a teaspoon of curry or turmeric with seed oil and water until the desired consistency is obtained. It is asensory experience Truly rich and engaging.

For the older ones we can, however, create a fans with the spices that are in the kitchen. We fill 3-4 couples of identical bags with spices or aromatic herbs and show him how to make the passionate by resorting to the smell!

Games to do at home with children from 4 to 6 years

Growing the interests of children The games to be proposed in the Hurry house are also starting to vary considerably and consequently. Many in this new phase of life begin to manifest strong interest in letters and numbers, it will therefore be important to follow the interests of our child.

So let’s see some Games proposals to do at home with children aged 4 to 6.

  • Fishing balls from Ping Pong: Even if the time outside should be unwillingly and therefore prevent us from playing outdoors, we can organize ourselves to offer children some simple games with water to do at home when it rains. Fishing the balls is an activity to be done in a fun and feasible in a few minutes. The suggestion is to carry out the activity in the bathroom, but we can organize ourselves differently according to our needs and possibilities. We will need two basins or buckets, water, some ping pong balls (but other floating objects are also fine!) And a slotted spoon or strainer. We show slowly and cared for the child how to fish one of the balls with the slotted spin from the bucket with the water and arrange it in the empty one. We then invite our child to try.
  • Large washes: always with the help of the water we can offer many other fun games to do at home, engaging and useful for development of concentration and up and big motor skills. I’m talking about the so -called “big washes”: washing a doll, dishes, handkerchiefs, a small table or stool. These are activities whose organization can be easily adapted on the basis of the space and objects available and that allow children, thanks to the numerous passages that make them up, to concentrate for a long time. Think only of choosing the most suitable place and objects so that your child can act suitably alone.
  • Stereognostic game: the “stereognostic sense” consists in the ability of recognize the objects palpating themtherefore through muscle and tactile sense. There are several proposals of games of this type that children can carry out with their parents: for example, we can create fabric bags containing objects of everyday use and ask children to identify them simply by keeping them silent. On the other hand, we can offer a bag containing couples of identical objects to older children and ask them to identify equal couples through the use of stereognostic sense.
  • Recognition of flavors and smells: It is a fun and useful game to refine the sense of taste and that of hearing. We prepare a box or a small tray with the vials inside. In the case of the game of flavors it will also be useful to have pipettes or spoons available. We can fill the vials of different flavors and smells (lemon juice, vinegar, chocolate, lavender, mint …). We begin by proposing to children simple recognition activities, and then propose them to combine the same flavors/odors.
  • Take lines, letters and numbers in corn flour: It is a perfect game for all those children who show interest in writing. Let’s take some rigid cards and trace on them lines, letters or numbers. These will serve the child as a model. We fill the bottom of a tray with a tall edge with corn flour and, after taking and placing the cardboard on its side, trace the figure in the flour with slow gestures. We slightly move the tray to delete what is traced and invite our child to try. With this simple but well -kept proposal we will help children a Take confidence with writing and to develop oculo-manual concentration and coordination.

Games to do at home with children from 7 to 10 years

In this age group according to Maria Montessori, children begin to be increasingly interested in explore and know the company and the world around them. Also at home we can organize and propose them gaming experiences that can represent, in all respects, opportunities for experimentation, development of creativity and growth. So here are some proposals for fun games to do at home for children of this age group.

  • Small scientific experimentsI: many scientific experiments for children can be made by resorting to materials and objects commonly present in our homes. We can think, for example, to make a volcano that erutta, analyze and understand the capillarity with the little ones by observing a flower immersed in water and coloring gradually dyeing, or still discovering why an egg floats in a bowl with salted water but sinks in the one without salt. All these game proposals allow children not only to have fun, but also to acquire notions Interesting, develop divergent and critical thought and concentration.
  • Organize a table of nature: if our child shows interest in nature and natural phenomena, we can organize a space dedicated to the collection and observation free of natural elements. Rock and minerals, shells, seeds, flowers … the child will be able to observe them, manipulate and analyze them with the help of special tools (magnifying glass, microscope, dedicated books) and thus expand their vocabulary, develop inferential thought and better know nature and the different ecosystems while having fun.
  • Board games: We can buy or make simple of them at home (like the classic game of the goose) depending on the interests of our child. Board games help children improve their own social and relational skills and to understand and respect the rules and shifts.
  • Plan and cook a meal for the family together: if well organized, activities in the kitchen can become beautiful play and learning experiences for children. Preparing food for themselves and for loved ones allows children to work with their own hands, but also of feel useful and responsible. On this occasion they will be able to choose which recipe to prepare according to the ingredients available and have fun cooking in a more or less autonomous way, depending on the skills and skills already in their possession, first, second courses and desserts and healthy desserts (gnocchi, homemade pasta, flanted, cakes …).

To have other ideas and suggestions for children’s games, we recommend that you read our article that you play buy a little girl or a baby?.

Kyle Muller
About the author
Dr. Kyle Muller
Dr. Kyle Mueller is a Research Analyst at the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department in Houston, Texas. He earned his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Texas State University in 2019, where his dissertation was supervised by Dr. Scott Bowman. Dr. Mueller's research focuses on juvenile justice policies and evidence-based interventions aimed at reducing recidivism among youth offenders. His work has been instrumental in shaping data-driven strategies within the juvenile justice system, emphasizing rehabilitation and community engagement.
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