How To Engage Your Kids During School Holidays
Last Updated on: 27th April 2026, 07:04 pm
School break is a great time for your kids to rest, enjoy fun activities and spend quality time with loved ones. However, they can also get bored easily and find ways to stay occupied. Including watching their favourite shows or playing video games. According to UK statistics, the average time kids spend behind the screen is 6.3 hours daily. Although your kids may enjoy some screen time, it’s important to know that excessive screen time can affect their physical and mental health. Therefore, it will help to find other ways to keep them occupied. Especially during the school holidays. Below we have a few ways to do this and to keep you sane.
Encourage physical activity
Before technology became popular worldwide, outdoor games were more common. Kids were spending time outside and finding ways to entertain themselves. They played games like hide and seek and did treasure hunts. Spending time outdoors can benefit your kids in many ways and encourage physical activity. Especially because it means a lot of running and varied movements. According to research, there has been a sharp increase in sedentary lifestyles. As more children spend time behind the screen playing games, and watching TV. Or chatting with friends on smartphones can lead to them getting out of shape.
However, you can restrict this during school holidays. You can limit the screen hours by getting your children to engage in physical activities. Consider enrolling your children in minors’ cycling or swimming clubs during the school break. The trick is to schedule healthy regular activities that occupy their active hours during the day. If your children are old enough and have a pet dog at home, you can entrust them to walk these furry companions daily. When you encourage your kids to get active and explain why, they may be motivated to do more. Get them outside where they can be creative and run around whilst using pavement chalk to create master pieces.
Plan social and educational outings
Research reveals that some children find educational outings boring because they haven’t been psyched enough for the trip or tour. For example, many children will enjoy a museum trip after learning about artefacts and other things to expect. The secret is to generate excitement and make them look forward to these trips.
With schools set to go on the longest break in the academic year, you can start preparing for summer camps and other social activities to keep them engaged while boosting their knowledge and building the necessary social skills. Sometimes, your children’s school may plan educational summer activities for the long break. If that is your case, you may want to take advantage of that to keep your kids busy with healthy activities.
Encourage Creativity During School Holidays
When children have more time, they get involved in all kinds of activities you can think of. Some parents say this often leads to mischief. Fortunately, you can direct these energies into more fruitful ventures. Creativity is one way to do this and reap excellent results. Writing, music class, art, or any other activity draws out your child’s creative potential.
If you already have a good idea of your child’s creative interests, it will be easier to pick a few activities to keep them engaged. If not, try to vary the creative activities or ask them which ones they prefer. The exciting part is that most of these activities can be done from the comfort of your home as long as you provide the necessary resources. Following up with your child’s creative activities and offering positive feedback and encouragement is also helpful. That will spur them on to do more; before you know it, their screen time has reduced drastically.
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