Working from home with toddlers is never easy. Check out 10 ways to keep kids busy when working at home…

Working from home without childcare is always a challenge when both parents are working professionals. It’s important to keep kids busy so that you can concentrate on your work. In this article, you will learn about clever ideas to keep kids busy. This definitely should be an important chapter in your parenting handbook.

Read: 10 Reasons Why You Should Quit Your Job and Go Freelance

We all should be thanking our parents a thousand times for bringing up us in the best possible ways. But now its no more those good olden times, where parents had a lot more time for their kids. So, while you are busy with your work at home, its important to think of fun activities to keep your kids busy.

Let’s see a selected list of 10 simple and effective ways. You might be knowing most of them. But I am trying to describe the right way of doing each of these. Hope you find these useful.

Tips on Keeping Kids Busy While You Work from Home

1. Keeping Kids Busy Tip #1 – Get Lots of Coloring Books and Colors

This is a pretty common activity used by most parents to keep kids busy. Still it’s very effective in entertaining a toddler at home. It doesn’t mean you just give the colors to them and leave them for themselves. Make sure you guide the kids properly and when they get busy with the activity, you can slowly move to your works.

This activity has added advantages apart from keeping a kid busy while working from home.

• This helps in sowing early seeds of creativity in your child.
• Appreciate them for what they do and, in this way, you could boost their confidence at these early ages.
• And most importantly, this keeps your kids busy and you can attend to your client calls.

2. Keeping Kids Busy Tip #2 – Get Lots of Toys

Buying a lot of toys for toddlers is a pretty straight forward tip for working from home with a baby. But there is much more to it. Let’s see some points to be kept in mind to effectively plan fun ideas for keeping kids busy at home using toys.

Keep the toys in your custody and give them a new one each time. This way your kid would not lose interests in the toys you have. You can keep them engaged always by giving them some toys to play with.

• Keep your kids safe. Make sure the toys that you buy are suitable for their age group.
• Lego toys are a good choice for keeping your kids busy. More than that, it helps in improving their creativity and problem-solving skills.

Always make sure the things which you give to your child are suitable for their age group. If the child is less than 3 years old, you should be careful about things with small parts as there is risk of the kid swallowing it.

3. Keeping Kids Busy Tip #3 – Give Them Books to Read

Reading is a habit that has to be cultivated from childhood. By effectively selecting books that suit their age group for your child, you can prepare your child for his future as well as it’s an effective activity to keep preschoolers busy.

Reading is for children who are 8 years and above. Make your elder kid read out to the younger one. If they are too young to read, give them books with lot of catchy pictures. This could improve their creativity.

• You can also get help of audio books, which can read out stories to your children. These are some effective ways for keeping your toddlers busy.

Related: 10 Tips on How to Develop a Lifetime Reading Habit

4. Keeping Kids Busy Tip #4 – Educational Games

I don’t suggest the use of visual media – Television, smart phones, tablets or computers for keeping your child busy. You cannot risk your child getting addicted to any of these. But that doesn’t mean you have to keep them completely isolated from any of these.

There are some exceptional educational games available for download in your smart phone and tablet which could help in enriching the analytical and thinking capacities of your child.

• As a parent, you should choose wisely – what is good for them and what is not good.
• It need not be a digital one always, you can teach them simple fun games so that it keeps them engaged.

5. Keeping Kids Busy Tip #5 – Dedicated Play Area

Have dedicated areas for everything at your home and train your children to follow it. Have a work area for yourself, play area for your child and so on. You can’t expect your child to follow the rules you set from the very next day. But eventually they will get used to it.

So once the ground rules become a habit, you could comfortably work at your work place while your child will be busy with his stuff in his play area.

A better arranged house helps your child to grow disciplined. Discipline is never something which you learn overnight, it’s imbibed through practice.

6. Keeping Kids Busy Tip #6 – Delegate Small Works

You can even involve your child in your work. If you are having a single child and no maid to take care of him/her, you will have to give him/her more attention.

Make them sit with you and give them small works like arranging papers or some trivial work.

You can even create some tasks for them to do, while you are busy doing the real work.

• Appreciate them for their work and make them feel that they have contributed something really important to the task in hand.
• Gift them for their contribution, an outing, chocolate or a toy – any small gift will do.

Whenever you make your kids do something, it’s a good idea to reward them with something which they like. Kids really value such gifts, you can train them like you wish with such gifts.

7. Keeping Kids Busy Tip #7 – Nap Time

Regular naps are very important for children. Working from home with kids works really well when your child is having a sound sleep. Schedule your works such a way that it goes in parallel with your toddler’s sleep. It might be difficult in the beginning, but soon everything will fall in place.

Though I added this among the last few points, sleep is very important for your kid. Apart from giving you some free time for yourself, sleep aids in the mental and physical development of your kid too.

8. Keeping Kids Busy Tip #8 – Camping Inside House

How about gifting your child with something unique? I got this idea from one of my friends. Build a camping tent inside your house and fill it with your kid’s favorite toys and books. This could work out amazingly well.

In my friend’s case, the kid got so much involved that he spent most of his time managing things in his small house. While my friend comfortably worked on his projects.

9. Keeping Kids Busy Tip #9 – Arranging Stuff Game

How about some tips to keep your children busy and at the same time growing a habit of discipline in them?

Sounds interesting right?

Yeah this is one commonly suggested parenting game which you can try at home.

Train them in arranging stuff in some selected part of your house. For example, their play area. Instruct them with step by step instructions, how stuff should be arranged and kept neatly in the selected place.

• Whenever you got some work to do and need to keep your kids busy, just ask him to take care of the place. Reward them for their efforts after the task has been completed.
• As I already mentioned, this activity could grow a habit of discipline in your child which could be really helpful for his future.

There is no fixed manual for parenting. Every child is unique in their own way. So, the first lesson is understanding your child. Once that is done everything will fall in place.

10. Keeping Kids Busy Tip #10 – Let Them Explore Outside

It’s not always about the indoor. There are much better things to do in the outdoors.

 

Your child should be given chances to feel the air outside, see the sights outside rather than staying indoor always. Make sure there is always someone to escort them unless they are school age and above.

Wrapping It Up

So far, we have discussed some really effective ways to keep kids busy while you work from home. It does not mean that you will have to do each and everything in our list. We have listed out the above tips after studying the behavioral patterns of a large sample of students. But after all this, your child needs your presence, support and guidance. So, make sure you find enough time for them in middle of all your work.

We all know each child is different and has to be parented in a unique way. It’s up to you to discover the ideal way for bringing up your child. I believe this article could serve as a guide for all work from home moms in taking care of their children.