Fun Activities for Kids: Exploring Through the Senses

Every child loves to have fun. As a parent you can motivate, teach and empower children through the use of fun activities for kids. For children under the age of 10, there are many things that are fun for kids but at the same time teach them something useful or help them to explore their surroundings. A good way to do this is through using their senses.

The following activities are interesting, unique ways to help your child of any age to learn about their senses.

Exploring the Sense of Smell

For younger children, the sense of smell can be an amazing thing, something that they don't think about. The sense of smell is not just a simple sense. There are many ways to have fun exploring it. For example, blind fold a child and ask them to find a specific scent within a room. Place strong smelling items in various corners throughout the room. Let their nose guide them from place to place.

For younger children, it can also be fun to have a smelling contest where parents give each blind folded child something to smell and they have to guess what it is. Exploring the sense of smell can be a lot of fun and educational, too.

Using Your Eyes

For children, being able to see is something they take for granted. Take this away and your child is in a world that is completely foreign to them. After removing all of the harmful objects from a room, have the child close their eyes and identify certain objects. The other senses are heightened when they can't see.

For older children, purchase or find online a book of optical illusions. From moving surfaces to objects that look like others, this is a fantastic way to explain how the inner eye works and why the brain and eyes have to work together to understand the image.

Feeling Something New

There is nothing more fun than getting dirty and for this activity kids can get a bit messy. To teach them about the sense of touch, take an empty shoe box and turn it upside down, open side down. Cut out just a large enough hole in one end to allow the child's arm to reach in. Then, secretly put different items under the box and have them guess what they are. Try cold spaghetti, homemade slime and cold, round ice cubes. They are sure to be wondering just what you having them touch. This is a great way to get children to learn through play.

Hearing Something Fun

Kids learn through creative play. You can teach your child about their sense of hearing fairly easily. A fun kids game to play is to simply have them close their eyes and listen to sounds over various areas of the room. Or, head outside in a very safe area. Blind fold them and take turns calling the individual to come towards your voice. See how long it takes until they find you! Keep an eye on them to be sure they are safe, of course.

For younger children, boys and girls play can be as simple as guessing what sounds are from a recording. For older children, even teens, have the child listen to a chord of music and try to mimic the sound with their voice. Ba...ba.ba.ba....

Tasting They Will Love

Since children learn through play, a great way to help them learn the sense of taste is trying new foods. But, how do you get a child that is picky willing to taste new foods? There are several things to do here. First, invite them into the kitchen. Allow the child to help peel and cut (age appropriate and safe) and have them help with any other method of preparing meals. Encourage them to make their own foods, too. Perhaps they would like to make something with you, that they create. Good or bad tasting, they still get to see the transformation of taste in their mouths.

With older children, explore textures, too. The crunch of a carrot mixed with the softness of bread creates a unique texture in the mouth. What happens when vegetables are cooked instead of eaten raw? Explore each of these areas thoroughly with them.

Fun activities for kids can fall into that learning category, too. Kids love to explore new things and play games, especially when mom or dad gets to help them with it. Best of all, you will want to spend your time explaining why things happen the way they do. These kids fun games and projects are something you can do with your child!