12 Things Parents Can Do Everyday With Their Children

5. Read To Them

Reading is a life skill that your kids will love best if they start young. Encourage them to read and you’ve got a simple,�educational form of child distraction. Just one storybook everyday can light a fire of learning in your child, so try and make time for some reading today. Read a picture book, a book of funny rhymes, or your favourite book from when you were little.

Read and then act out the story, read outside in the park, read inside by the heater when it’s cold, read snuggled up in bed or early on a Sunday morning. Read something you hate, but they love, and keep it going their entire lives.

6. Listen And Talk With Them

Kids can be loud, so in trying to get everything done during the course of the day, parents can find it easier to shut kids out. That’s fine if that’s what it takes, but make sure you set aside at least a little bit of time to talk to them and really listen to what they’re saying.

Take time to sing with them, to listen to what they’re saying in the car, to unpack what might really be happening in their lives. Sometimes,�it’s only through really conscious listening that we can figure out what’s happening with our kids, and help them work through it.

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Clare Whitfield Chief Editor

Clare Whitfield is the Editor of Stay at Home Mum and a recognised voice in practical home management for Australian families. Based in the northern suburbs of Sydney, she balances editorial leadership with life as a stay at home mum to two school age children. Her background in home economics and more than a decade of experience in recipe development, family budgeting, and household systems inform her work.

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