Ways to Keep Your Only Child Entertained
Some parents may have concern that their only child will feel lonely when they are not with friends. While other children with siblings always have a playmate around at home, only children experience an entirely different family dynamic. With some fun ideas and imagination, your only child will always have something interesting and entertaining to do when he’s not having a playdate. Here are a few options to explore with your child. Let the fun begin!
Create a Scrap Book
A scrap book is a wonderful way to collect and organize memories of life’s special moments. You can help your child make his very own scrapbooks – something he’ll look back at time and time again and treasure for a lifetime. You can use a photo album and insert drawings from class, photos from family vacations and outings, postcards and letters from family and friends, and even tickets from movies and plays, certificates and awards from activities, and cutouts from magazines and newspapers. You can make a new scrapbook for various occasions, holidays, and milestones. Organize your child’s scrapbooks on the bookshelf to look back at the memories as he gets older.
Create Recipes
Kids love to experiment and create goodies in the kitchen, but when there’s more than one child in the mix, things can get a little crowded. That’s why helping out in the kitchen is a great idea for an only child. Your child can help prepare meals with you and even come up with new twists on recipes. He can help pack his lunch and snacks for school too. Kids tend to be more inclined to eat what they’ve made, so it’s the perfect time to introduce new fruits and veggies or other foods your child’s been reluctant to try in the past. Your child will show great pride in his kitchen creations and may even desire to pursue something in the culinary world one day.
Get a Small Pet
If your family doesn’t have a pet or you are not ready for a larger animal like a dog, a nice addition to the family is a small pet, such as a fish, gerbil, or hamster. Caring for the pet will be an important life lesson for your child. He will learn to be gentile and compassionate. He will also gain skills in responsibility and maturity as he must feed, clean, and take care of the pet. Your child will never feel lonely when he has his special friend to play with. Caring for a small pet will let your family know if you want a larger pet in the future too. Don’t forget to take photos of your child and his new pet for his scrapbooks!
How do you make sure your only child is entertained? We’d love to share your tips. For more information like this, please visit All My Children.
By: Melissa A. Kay
