Babysitting Activities

• Fun Babysitting Activities
• Fun Babysitting Games
• Holiday Babysitting Ideas
• Inexpensive Babysitting Crafts
• Rainy Day Babysitting Activities
• Single Child Babysitting Activities
• Summertime Babysitting Activities
• Wintertime Babysitting Activities

There are a number of fun babysitting activities you can offer the children you are babysitting. Most activities will depend on your location and resources, as well as the ages of the children you are looking after and what the parents will allow them to do. If you are located in a rural area, you may be able to play games outside, fly kites or visit a barn with animals. A city location, on the other hand, may provide parks, museums or pet stores to visit.

If the weather is unpleasant or traveling is not possible, crafts and indoor games can be very enjoyable for kids. For very young children, this could be as simple as putting newspaper or a plastic mat on the floor and laying out toys for them to play with. For older children, you may consider playing boardgames, reenacting scenes from movies, or baking cookies with them.

Regardless of the activity you plan, make sure to run it past the parents first so that you can be assured of their approval. Some parents are more protective than others and may not feel that an activity is safe enough for their children to partake in. If you ask them and get their “okay,” make sure to uphold your responsibilities so that everyone has an enjoyable and safe time during the activity. Above all, keep a positive attitude while babysitting, and your smile will enhance the pleasure of any activity you have planned for the children you are caring for.

One of the most important aspects of babysitting is keeping the children happy and entertained. Babysitting games are an excellent way to accomplish this goal. The best part is, there is no limit to games that children can play or create. If you combine your imagination with that of a child's, you can make virtually any situation into a game on a spur of the moment.

It is always best, however, to have some games planned in advance. Boardgames can provide hours of fun, and families with children will generally have a wide selection of them to choose from. Classic children games, such as “Simon Says,” “Hide and Seek,” or “Marco Polo” are also fun games that can keep kids occupied and enjoying themselves. If you plan to play an active game like these, keep in mind that playing outside is often better in order to avoid injury or broken items.

Video or computer games can also be an option, although parents tend to limit the time their children are allowed to spend playing them. Some other ideas for fun babysitting games are having a treasure hunt, blowing bubbles, going bug exploring, acting out a musical, or building a castle out of pillows, cardboard boxes, and blankets. Regardless of your resources, you and the children you are looking after can have a great babysitting experience if you utilize fun games to keep them busy and content.

Holidays can be a great time to help families out by providing childcare and a good opportunity to make some extra money while you are at it. Children can be hard to keep entertained and under control on holidays, however, due to everything from the change in routine to potential sugar highs from excess candy and desserts. The best way to keep kids happy and content when babysitting them on holidays is to make sure they stay busy. Avoiding boredom and restlessness is key. Here are a few babysitting ideas for specific holidays that you may find helpful in keeping tears and restlessness at bay:

For Christmas, make sponge-painted wrapping paper with sponges, paint, and large sheets of paper. Use playdough or salt-dough to mold snowmen or other wintry characters as gifts for their parents. When they are finished, help the children wrap the figurines they made with the sponge-painted paper. Then have the children make Christmas cards for their parents using construction paper, colored markers, glitter and glue. Make the point that giving presents can be just as fun as receiving them.

For Easter, have an egg treasure hunt. Place clues in each plastic egg that will lead to the next one, such as "Underneath the kitchen table" or "Next to the bookshelf." At the end of the hunt, leave a plastic eggs for each child filled with stickers or other fun items.

For Thanksgiving, create fun looking turkeys on paper using colored markers for the body and decorative feathers for the tail-feathers. To keep in spirit with the holiday, play a "Who Is More Thankful?" game--see which child can think of three things they are thankful or happy about first. Make sure each child wins at least once to avoid tears or too much competition.

While some babysitting jobs pay more than others, very seldom do they provide the profit a sitter would need to spend extra money on crafts for the children to occupy themselves with. Fortunately, there are numerous crafts that are relatively inexpensive. Materials like paper plates, newspapers, popsicle sticks, and cereal boxes are cheap and they can be formed into everything from facemasks and paper hats to castles and log cabins.

Colored paper, markers, crayons and stickers are also relatively cheap materials that can be used for any kind of craft. Materials such as these will often be provided by the parents of the children you are babysitting, and as a result, the money will not even have to come out of your pocket. Many parents will also offer to reimburse you for the money you spend on crafts for their children. Just be sure to ask them first to make sure you have a mutual understanding. If you are looking for some ideas for inexpensive babysitting crafts, asking other babysitters or doing a search online can bring up many helpful suggestions.

Babysitting can be at its hardest when it is raining outside. Children become restless easily when there is no sunshine or room to run around and play. Although TV and computer games are often an option for entertainment, parents will generally ask you to limit how much their children engage in those activities. When rainy days happen, it is important to keep the children busy to the best of your ability. If children are kept occupied and distracted, their crankiness will be alleviated and you will end up having a much more pleasant babysitting experience. With this in mind, here are a few ideas for rainy day babysitting activities:

• Play indoor games. Have a treasure hunt, make silly faces in the mirror, put on a talent show, play hide and seek, or place objects in a paper bag and have the kids guess what is inside.
• Make fun crafts. Mold zoo animals with playdough, create facemasks with paper plates and popsicle sticks, or use thumbprints to make spiders and bugs on colored paper.
• Offer quiet, low-key activities. Draw pictures, make puzzles, build legos or read stories.
• Make sure to switch activities often so the children will not become bored or restless.

When your babysitting job consists of only looking after one child, your options for games and activities can seem somewhat limited. Group activities such as “hide and seek,” “tag,” and many boardgames become pointless. There are, however, many activities that can be done whether you are babysitting many children or only one. Games such as puzzles, treasure hunts, blowing bubbles, bug exploring and some boardgames can be enjoyed when playing with just one child.

Nearly all crafts can be done with a single child, including everything from creating playdough animals to making paper hats out of newspaper. Cooking is always a fun activity to do with a child. He or she will love measuring ingredients for cookies or spreading peanut butter over apples. Watching a cartoon or movie and then reenacting exciting scenes can be very enjoyable, too. Day trips to the children’s museum, park or pet shop can also be a fun way to entertain a child you are babysitting. As long as you keep the child entertained and busy, he or she can have just as much fun playing with you as with several other children present.

When the weather is warm and sunny outside, it is the perfect opportunity for getting the children you are babysitting out of the house. Summertime gives kids a chance to exert all the energy they have held inside all winter long. Rather than keeping them cooped up inside or allowing them to sit in front of the TV or computer, plan lots of fun outdoor activities. Play active games such as “Red Light, Green Light,” “Simon Says,” and “Hide and Seek.” Go on a bug hunt and catch fireflies in a jar in the evening. Have a scavenger hunt in the backyard. Take a short hike and have a picnic. Draw murals on the driveway or sidewalks with sidewalk chalk. Plant a small garden or make mud pies.

Consider taking the children on a daytrip to a park to fly kites, a museum to challenge their minds, or a pet store to see animals. If you are near a beach or lake, think about taking the children to swim and build sand castles. A neighborhood pool can provide water fun as well. Regardless of what outdoor summertime activities you plan, make sure the children wear adequate sunscreen and drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration.

When the weather is really cold or snowy outside, activities to do with the children you are babysitting can seem limited. There are, however, many wintertime activities that can provide hours of fun for both you and the children you are looking after. Begin with crafts to keep their idle hands busy. Use cotton-balls and glue or marshmallows and toothpicks to make snowmen. Create paper snowflakes—have the children color and decorate a piece of paper, fold it several times, cut pieces of the folded edge off, and then unfold the paper to reveal the snowflake shape. If you attach yarn or string to the snowflakes, the children can hang them around the house or near a window where light will shine through.

After craft time, play games with the children like “hide and seek” and boardgames. Additionally, have a snack time and allow the children to help you fix it. For example, let them spoon ingredients for cookies, spread peanut butter and raisins on celery sticks, and place pieces of cheese on crackers. Consider allowing the children to watch a short movie while they eat their snack. Finally, instead of shunning the cold weather and snow, take advantage of it. Bundle everyone up and go out for a snowy adventure. Build snowmen, go sledding, and have a contest to see who can hit a tree with the most snowballs. When you bring the children back in, make sure they warm up properly. Have them change out of wet and cold clothes, and offer them hot cider or cocoa with marshmallows.