The holidays are upon us, and these exciting printable activities for kids will be the source of sanity for many parents. For some, holidays are a breather. No stressed and early mornings filled with time management negotiations with sleepy children that move at glacial pace. For other parents, it becomes a difficult few weeks. The inevitable boredom creeps in. Children start craving to channel all that energy into something constructive. Fortunately, there are a number of exciting printable activities for kids online and we’ve sourced the best ones and compiled them into one blog post.
Printable activities for kids that are very young
At a very young age, children are not well-equipped to play alone, as yet. They require lots of guidance from an adult during activity times. Be prepared to use patience during the creation of the activities, but expect them to start playing alone once they get the hang of the activity.
Finger puppets
Find great images on Google. Animal themes are popular with children, so are family characters. Look for clear and bright images that the children will enjoy. We recommend these African animal finger puppets, which come ready to print at the correct size. They also come with handy little rectangles to secure to the back of the animal printouts, which loop onto your finger. Be sure to use stiff cardboard when you’re printing. Alternatively, you can print to normal paper and stick the paper to a thick card to get the animals to stand upright.
Jigsaw puzzles
You know your child best. That is why personalising printable activities for kids becomes empowering, you can tailor the skill level to suit your child. Jigsaws are fun and they help to exercise those brains. They’re also easy to make. Print the image that would most excite your child and trace the jigsaw pattern onto the paper. If you are unable to print onto stiff cardboard, glue your paper to cardboard, being sure to leave no gaps in the glue. You can then cut out the pieces of your jigsaw, which need to be fitted together to create the picture. If that sounds tricky, try this website for great jigsaw printables.
Boardgames
Get children to create their very own board games. Children have usually developed enthusiasm for certain topics - perhaps a movie, a book series, or a time period. The internet has a wealth of different types of board games - the perfect printable activities for kids that are smart. They’re educational and fun, especially if you choose a theme like this Egyptian Printable Board Game. While you’re at home, you can toss the rulebook and completely rewrite the rules of the game to keep things exciting.
Artsy fun
Get the children to decorate their own Christmas trees. You can adapt this activity to suit any skill level - the young ones love the tree against the wall. Older kids may prefer something more sophisticated like one of these 3D printable Christmas trees. Tell the children to make one or two as practice rounds and aim to make a whole forest-worth of trees to give as gifts to loved ones.
Printable activities for kids and teens
Full of shenanigans, the best printable activities for kids in this age group (pre/teens) involve doubling over with laughter. So, a degree of silliness is necessary! There’s nothing better than a game of the ridiculous “would you rather...” questions. Keep them fresh and funny with the printable questions here or simply make them up as you go.
Keeping the festive season fun with printable activities for kids
Get mileage out of each of these printable activities for kids, reveal only one at a time to the children. Help them to find new ways of using the same game to encourage creativity. Once they’re truly at the end of their wits, reveal another activity. You’ll be needing some ink to make the magic happen, so, be sure to stop by The Inky Shop, you can see what we have on offer here.