8 Interesting Hobbies You Can Do with Your Kids

During lockdowns, school vacations, and long dark winter evenings, it can be difficult to keep your kids entertained and occupied. If your family spends too much time stuck in their rooms glued to their screens, it’s time for a change!

Get creative with these eight interesting, fun, affordable hobbies that the whole family can enjoy taking part in.

Rock Painting

Rock painting is a fun, easy hobby that everyone can enjoy, even if you’re nobody’s, Da Vinci!

Get the kids to spend an hour searching your garden for rocks of all sizes or go for a walk along the beach or in your local park, picking up a few stones along the way. Next, take a trip to a local craft store and choose some colored acrylic paints and glaze.

Now, let the shape of the rocks inspire you!

Use your imagination to create emojis, unicorns, animals, flowers, even fairytale houses. You can keep the rock art indoors or add your creations to your garden or decking.

Drawing and Painting

Kids of all ages enjoy some form of art, whether that’s coloring, finger painting, sketching, or simply painting by numbers.

Take a family trip to your local art or craft shop to stock up on paints, crayons, paper, and perhaps oils and blank canvases, too, for older kids. Even the littlest members of the household can have fun splatter-painting – just make sure you choose somewhere that a little mess won’t matter!

Why not give your budding artists a theme to inspire them and choose a wall in your home where you can display the family’s efforts?

You might even consider selling some of your kids’ artwork to your family and friends to raise money for local charities.

Learn to Play a Musical Instrument

Most kids enjoy listening to music, and many parents learned how to play an instrument at school, even if that was just a humble recorder.

Learning to play a musical instrument is an excellent way of encouraging your child to express themselves. Anyone can take part, and, even if you didn’t make the school choir, you don’t need a good singing voice to play in a band.

You can pick up a secondhand guitar, keyboard, recorder, or another instrument relatively cheaply online through eBay. A trip to your local thrift store may yield a few music books containing the music for popular songs, and there are plenty of free online music tutorials to get you started.

Who knows, your family could be the next rock sensation!

Keeping Betta Fish

Keeping a betta fish is a fun and rewarding hobby that’s educational for kids and needn’t cost a fortune.

Betta fish are beautiful, characterful little creatures that can make a wonderful interactive pet for kids. Bettas love to play, and it’s highly entertaining to watch your fishy friend exploring the underwater world you’ve created for him. Choosing tank decorations and aquascaping the environment is a super-fun challenge that your kids will love, and because a betta tank can be small, maintaining it is not a huge task.

While having fun, your kids will learn how to take responsibility for the care of their pet, including how to feed him and clean his tank. There are chemistry lessons, too, as understanding how the nitrogen cycle works and why it’s so important for fish health is crucial for all fish owners.

Sadly, betta fish don’t live forever, and owning one also teaches children how to cope with loss when the time comes for their fishy friend to pass away.

Cooking

Cooking is a valuable life skill that kids of all ages can learn.

Whether it’s preparing veggies, weighing out ingredients, or understanding how to read a recipe, there’s plenty to learn.

Once they have a grasp of the basics and are confident in the kitchen, older kids and teens can take on the challenge of cooking a full meal for the whole family. That’s a fun way to learn about teamwork, time management, food hygiene, and much more.

And, having your kids cook dinner occasionally also means you get a well-earned break, even if you will probably finish up doing the dishes as a thank you!

Jewelry Making

Designing and making jewelry is excellent fun for kids of any age.

Take a ride to your local craft store or shop online for beads, crystals, and all the necessary tools and accessories that you need to create unique pieces of gorgeous jewelry. If your child loves making simple necklaces and bracelets, you can splash out on more complex kits as their skills develop.

The sky really is the limit when it comes to what you can create. The only thing holding your child back is their own imagination!

Growing Vegetables

You don’t need a garden or a lot of outside space to grow a few herbs and veggies! Your kitchen windowsill or a tiny balcony can make the perfect sunny spot to grow mini peppers, chilis, basil, parsley, and more.

Kids love to go through the whole process of choosing seeds, planting them, and nurturing the plants as they grow to fruition. Again, this is a fun hobby that is an excellent way of teaching children where their food comes from and how things grow.

Magic Tricks

Everyone loves to watch a skilled magician at work!

Kids of all ages can learn simple magic tricks to amaze and mystify their friends and relatives, and adults will want to get in on the act, too. To get started, invest in a cheap, beginner’s magic kit like this one, and check out some of the awesome YouTube tutorials to discover more advanced tricks.

Once you and your tribe have perfected your sleight of hand and illusions, why not put on a virtual show? You could be the next Tiktok star!

In Conclusion

With all these great ideas for new hobbies, there’s no need for your family to be bored next time you’re all stuck at home.

Whether your kids enjoy quiet creativity, bashing away on a drum kit, or cooking up a storm in the kitchen, you’ll find something for everyone on our list!