Before Dinner
Activities for Before Dinner.
This is the worst half hour of the day in most households: everyone is hungry, you are holding a pan, and the children are at their least reasonable. These activities are designed for exactly that, which means they run without you.
They are all set up in under two minutes, need no supervision beyond being in the same room, and stop cleanly when dinner is ready. Several of them happen at the kitchen table or on the kitchen floor so you can keep talking while you cook.
A few are genuine kitchen jobs. A child who is washing potatoes is a child who is not asking when dinner will be ready.
Activities
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Real Kitchen Jobs a Small Child Can Actually Do
Washing, tearing, stirring and sprinkling. Eight jobs that are genuinely useful on a busy cooking day.
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A Pouring Station
Two small jugs, a tray, and water. Absorbing, genuinely useful, and a child can do it entirely alone.
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Getting the Energy Out in a Small Room
Four ways to wear a child out indoors without breaking anything or annoying the neighbours downstairs.
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Counting the Stairs (and Everything Else)
Not really an activity — a habit. Counting things out loud all day does more for early maths than any worksheet.
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Threading Pasta Necklaces
Dry pasta tubes and a shoelace. Quiet, absorbing, and one of the best things you can do for a small hand.