Activities to Keep Little Hands Busy During Read Alouds

I often get asked how I manage to get my young children to sit still for family read alouds, and the answer is that I don't. Young children are wiggly and fidgety by nature, so I don't expect stillness out of them. Instead, I offer them quiet activities that allow them to move and keep their hands busy while I read. The key is to pick activities that are fairly quiet and that are simple enough that your kids can still follow the read aloud, but engaging enough to keep them from getting off task. Below, I share some of my favorite activities for keeping little hands busy during read alouds.

Simple Art Activities

Simple art activities like sketching and coloring are usually my go-to activity during read alouds. They're simple and my kids are all pretty artsy, so it's usually an easy activity to sell them on.

Sketching- Encourage your kids to draw a scene or a character from your read aloud, or just allow them to free sketch.

Coloring sheets- If the book we're reading has any black and white illustrations I often will copy them with my printer so my kids can use them as coloring sheets. Other coloring sheets or coloring books make a great read aloud activities as well.

Watercolors

Air dry clay

Building Toys

Building and construction toys are great for read alouds. You could even encourage your kids to build scenes or characters from the book you are reading.

Legos

Wooden blocks

Marble run (this one might be a little loud depending on your kids and your personal noise tolerance level while reading)

Magna-Tiles (these are a favorite in my household)

K'nex

Lincoln Logs

Handicrafts

Handicrafts are perfect for curling up on the couch with while you listen to a good book.

Making bracelets with embroidery floss

Threading beads onto cord

Finger knitting- Check out this tutorial if you don't know how (it's pretty easy to learn): Finger Knitting Tutorial from WikiHow.

Knitting or crocheting

Needlepoint

Simple sewing projects

Lacing boards- Lacing boards are great for younger kids who aren't quite ready for more complicated handicrafts.

Perler Beads (this one is better done at the table than on the couch)

Sensory Activities

Sensory activities are great for keeping younger kids busy and quiet(ish) during read alouds.

Playdough

Kinetic sand

Sensory bins- Check out this blog post from Little Bins for Little Hands for ideas: 25 Awesome Sensory Bin Ideas.

Outdoor Activities

The backyard offers so many great activities to keep your kids quiet and busy while you read.

Swinging- my kids love swinging on our saucer swing or just kicking back in our hammock while I read.

Sandbox play

Water table play

Blowing bubbles

Sidewalk chalk- Maybe encourage your kids to draw a mural inspired by your reading!

Miscellaneous

Snacks- Snacks are always one of my best homeschool life hacks. When all else fails, break out the food.

Puzzles

Rubix Cube

Paper or magnetic dolls

If you enjoyed this post, check out:

Ways to Support Interest-Led Learning

Using Notebooking in Your Homeschool

Follow me on

Facebook

Instagram

Comments

Water Relay Races For Kids

I don't know about your kids, but mine absolutely love games involving water and getting wet in the summer time. In this post I share 5 of our favorite water relay races to play with friends. These are perfect for birthday parties, homeschool get togethers, and other group events. Sponge Relay: For this relay you will need: - 2 teams of several kids each -2 large sponges -4 small buckets or containers of some sort Divide your participants into 2 teams and have each team line up single file at a predetermined starting place. Hand out a sponge to the first participant in each line. Set a bucket of water by each team. Set an empty bucket about 20 ft away from each team. The two empty buckets should be the same size and should have a "fill line" marked half way up. On a count of 3 (or ready set go) the first participant in each line should dip their sponge in the bucket of water, run to the empty bucket, squeeze the water from their spo...

STEM Art: 21 STEAM Project Ideas

My kids love STEM projects and we're always looking for ways to add more art to our homeschool days, so I decided I am going to try to dedicate one morning a week this year to STEM art activities. In this post I share some of the ideas we're planning to try, plus a few favorites we've done in the past. What is STEM Education? STEM education is a blended and often hands on approach to teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which are some of today's fastest growing industries. STEM education offers students the opportunity to problem solve and work on real world problems and questions. Sometimes the acronym STEAM is used, to include the arts. Adding art to STEM education encourages creative thinking and problem solving skills. It can also help make the other included subjects more appealing to some students. STEM Art Projects Penny Spinners- Learn about centrifugal force and make your own spinning tops with this fun post from Teach Beside Me. Explo...

Make Your Own Mineral Identification Kit

One of my family's favorite hobbies is rock hounding. We love collecting and trying to identify neat rock and mineral specimens that we come across. You can put together your own simple kit for identifying rocks and minerals with materials you likely already have around your home. In this post I will explain how to put together your own mineral identification kit and how to use it to identify rocks and minerals you find on your adventures. Making a Rock and Mineral ID Kit Grab yourself a printable Rock and Mineral Journal for recording your observations here: Printable Rock and Mineral Journal , and then gather the following supplies: -A pencil -A coin -An iron nail -A piece of glass (an old pocket mirror works well) -A ceramic tile -A small watertight bottle or container -Some vinegar -A magnet -A magnifying glass -A dropper (optional) -Rock and mineral guide (optional) -A small container or bag to keep it all in Fill ...

Learning About Thailand: Activities and Resources

Thailand ended up being a really fun country to study. There are so many amazing Thai recipes to try and lots of neat buildings and monuments to learn about. My family's favorite part of this unit study was learning about Asian elephants, they are such interesting and intelligent animals! Basic Information Thailand is a country in southern Asia. It is boarderd by Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and the Andaman Sea. The northern region is mountainous while the southern region is hilly and forested. Capital- Bangkok Population- 69.6 million Size- 198,115 square miles Currency- Baht Type of Government- Constitutional Monarchy National Anthem- Phleng Chat Thai National Animal- elephant Flag Famous Places The Grand Palace- The Grand Palace in Bangkok was used as the official royal residence of Thailand from 1782 to 1925. It is still used today for ceremonies and state functions. The palace sits on the banks of the Chao Phraya River. It consists of many buildings and pavilio...

Learning About The Human Body Part 1: The Skeletal And Muscular Systems

At the end of each school year, I sit down with my daughter to discuss what topics she wants to learn about the next year. One of her science topics she picked to study this year was the human body. Instead of ordering a boxed curriculum set, I decided to put together my own human body unit. In this post I share some of the resources we used for learning about the human skeletal and muscular systems, plus instructions for a couple hands on learning activities. You can find my post about the human respiratory and circulatory systems here , and my post about the human digestive and nervous systems here . The Human Skeletal System Our skeletons are the frame of our body. They give us structure, without them our bodies would be limp like noodles. They also provide places for muscles to attach so our bodies can move. Why Does Your Body Need Calcium? Experiment: This is a simple experiment you can do to explore why calcium is important for our bones. You will need: -sever...

Search This Blog