5 After-School Activities Your Kids Will Enjoy Doing At Home

The school curriculum may have changed this year, with home-based learning becoming more prevalent these days, but one thing remains the same - children's after-school routines need constant updating to keep them engaged with activities that are both enjoyable and rewarding, as well as keeping them busy until dinnertime.

Some families have figured it out, and use this time to try new activities or re-introduce them to forgotten favourites. Whether you have successfully managed to plan out after-school activities for your kids or are unsure where to begin, we have curated a list of activities to occupy your kids with! From coding classes for kids to opportunities to design their own games, it's amazing how much they can do in a few short hours.

Learn to Code

For kids who want to learn coding, there are a variety of areas to explore. These opportunities include programming their own interactive stories, games, and animations on Scratch programming for kids - and sharing their creations with others in the online community, engaging in online coding courses, or even giving after-school classes in coding schools a shot.

Design their own games

If you're worried about your children's screen time, you'll be glad to know that video games actually aren't all that bad for them. The fact is, they often come with a number of advantages, especially when kids have the opportunity to design their own games. Games also provide entertainment for your kids, which is their primary purpose! Like everything else in life, moderation is key.

In terms of educational and entertainment value, these are some of the best computer games for kids. Kids can gather with friends, or make new ones while engaging in Minecraft's Sky Wars or battling it out with Minecraft Bed Wars in new online after-school programs that are held virtually.

Do a scavenger hunt

Besides enrolling them in a coding holiday program, consider organising a home-based scavenger hunt for your kids if you want them to take a break from technology. This will get your kids’ creative juices flowing. If you don’t have the luxury of time, create something based on the current state of your house, providing creative references to your basic household items. For instance, “I get hot, and work two ways, on top and within, but not on spinning trays” for your stove or oven.

Virtual Reality Gaming

These days, game-based learning is all the rage and young students find it motivating and engaging because it is fun. There are many things that can be accomplished in a virtual environment that are impossible in real life. The visual and kinesthetic experiences kids gain from gaming in virtual worlds also contribute to their ability to learn and absorb information more effectively.

If your kids enjoy VR gaming, they might appreciate learning the basics of Virtual Reality gaming at our coding school. Here at Roboto, they can learn to combine engaging design elements with creative block-based coding, VR using the user-friendly software, CoSpaces. VR with CoSpaces makes learning coding fun by providing a deeply immersive virtual environment where students can interact with their code.

Read a book

Make reading books before bedtime part of your daily routine with your kids. Then, take them on field trips as an extension of your shared readings. Consider a visit to a construction site, a museum, a festival, a music event, or perhaps something poignant and meaningful. In addition to that, kids love voicing their opinions. Give a simple thumbs-up, down, or somewhere in between, or go more elaborate with a book review notebook. Ask them questions like "Would you change anything in the story?" or What should happen next?” to engage them even more.

Get enrolled in a coding school

After-school time is the best period to get your kids involved in new opportunities! Encourage them to try something new if it has traditionally been a struggle, and to learn more about a specific school topic if it is something that they are having trouble understanding at the moment.

Whether it’s through daily reading time, or our coding holiday programs, be ready to embrace the challenge and push yourself and your kids to come out of it better, stronger, and smarter than ever before! If you are keen on roping your kids into learning to code, sign up for a free trial today!