The kitchen is one of the easiest rooms in the house to clean, which makes it the perfect place for fun activities for the kids. When it’s not being used to eat from, the kitchen table offers up the ideal surface for all kinds of arts and crafts to take place. It’s safe, sturdy, and quite used to the odd bit of mess now and then. Check out our top 10 activities for kids that utilise the kitchen table...
1. Potato printing
An absolute classic this one. All you need is a few potatoes, poster paints, some sheets of paper, and you’re ready to go. Simply cut the potato in half and then cut the shapes you want to print. For young children, it may be safer for them to draw the shapes onto the potato, and then you can cut the potato yourself. Once the potato is ready, just dip it into the paint and start printing it onto the paper. Quick, easy, and loads of fun!
2. Pumpkin carving
A Halloween favourite for kids of all ages, pumpkin carving is a great way to let your imagination run wild. You may want to work together on one big pumpkin or perhaps have one each. Taking care with a knife, cut holes in the side of the pumpkin for eyes, nose, and mouth, and then hollow it out. Once hollow, carefully place a candle inside the pumpkin, turn off the lights, and just try to resist making spooky noises, it’s almost impossible!
3. Collage
A collage is a piece of art made from different forms and materials. Making a collage is great for kids because they can cobble together all kinds of different things found around the house, to create something that is truly unique every time. Lay out lots of different materials onto the kitchen table, like photographs, cloths, coloured paper, tissue, even pasta shapes or pebbles. Then using a sheet of paper or card as a base, simply glue different shapes and sizes of the materials onto the base in interesting ways, and you’ve got yourself a collage.
4. Junk modelling
What better way to introduce children to the concept of recycling than through junk modelling. Instead of throwing out old toilet rolls, cereal boxes, and bottles of washing up liquid, all those items can be used to make models of anything from cars to unicorns.
5. Den making
If you have a good sturdy kitchen table, they make a great structure for creating dens or forts. All you need to do is take a large sheet, a bed sheet is perfect, and drape it over the table so it reaches the floor on all sides. As if by magic, the underneath of your kitchen table has been transformed into a fantasy world of your children’s imagination.
6. Cake and biscuit decorating
Kids love to add the decorative touches to all kinds of baked items like cakes, biscuits, or gingerbread. The kitchen table makes the perfect place to lay out the food and let the kids go wild with icing, hundreds and thousands, and all manner of other decorative flourishes.
7. Swedish heart basket
A Swedish tradition at Christmas is to weave these wonderful little heart-shaped baskets to hold sweets and other treats. All you need is two pieces of paper and some scissors. Watch a video here that shows you how.
8. Blow football
Who ever came up with this game should be knighted. All you need is a light ball, a ping-pong ball is perfect, and two straws. Each player stands at opposite ends of the table and attempts to blow the ball off their opponents end. Simple, energetic, and hours of fun. Not recommended for children with asthma or breathing difficulties.
9. Cards
Playing cards have been around since the 9th century and are still bringing hours of entertainment to people of every generation across the world. From Snap to Bridge, there are card games suitable for kids of all ages and attention spans.
10. Costume making
Making fancy dress costumes doesn’t have to involve lots of complicated sewing. Why not lay out different items of clothing and other materials onto the kitchen table and experiment by combining them in interesting and unusual ways. Don’t worry if the costume doesn’t look like anything in particular, you can always say it’s from the future, who knows what we’ll be wearing then!
Top 10s
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