Babysitting Games to Entertain and Educate
Babysitting doesn’t have to just be a minor job for pocket money. You can get some fun out of it if you’re willing to make a little effort with the kids you’re looking after. Playing games with the kids is a great way of entertaining both them and you. Playing games will help put the children at ease and can settle them down for bed, which you can also do with some craft activities or through reading them stories. What’s best about games is that you as the babysitter can also have fun while getting to know the kids and develop rapport.
Traditional Games
There’s nothing wrong with playing a few tried and tested games like Simon Says and Hide and Seek. Most children know the rules so you can play these games without having to explain to tired children what to do and where they’re going wrong. Simon Says works best for tiny tots under the age of three because it teaches them where their hands, toes, shoulders and head are but that won’t be of interest to school age children. Hide and Seek might be fun for a while with older kids but if you want to play games that will keep them entertained for a longer, you’ll need to try something new.
Giant Scrabble
If you want to exercise the children’s minds, why not try a game of giant scrabble? This game will help children’s language skills and it’s easy to put together. You’ll need to boot up your PC and type one larger letter for each page. Press print and then pick up each of the 100 pages representing the 26 letters of the alphabet along with the two blank tiles you get in an English language Scrabble set. Now set them out on the floor and let the child’s imagination spark as they spell out the words they know.
Lip-sync Battle
Sitting the older kids means more time entertaining them as they’ll go to sleep later than small kids so you’ll want to play games that will last a while. What about a few rounds of lip-sync challenge? You’ll need to select songs that are appropriate for children so check out the lyrical content of the tunes before you go for them. This will get the kids excited as they play air guitar and bash pots and pans instead of drums and cymbals.
Indoors Treasure Hunt
Kids love to find things and a treasure hunt can spark a little friendly competition without causing rivalries to develop. Put some things up high for the taller kids to find and other stuff down low for the little ones to stumble across. If you hide treats, the kids will really enjoy the game but you could also hide stuffed toys. Hide things all around the house so the kids go into every room and you’ll tire them out nicely before bedtime.
Plastic Bottle Bowling
This last babysitting game idea is one of the cheapest you can put together. All you need is plastic bottles and a tennis ball. Arrange them on the flattest and smoothest floor you have in the house or out in the backyard and then let the kids compete. This is an ideal game for children to get out all the excess energy they have after school but it can get a little bit competitive so perhaps don’t take score.
