7 Hobbies You Can Do With Your Elementary School Age Kids

I love doing activities with my kids. I mean I absolutely love it. I like to find hobbies we can all do together so I don’t have 3 different projects going on at one time. When I see their little faces light up and hear their giggles as they craft away the day, I can say to myself, “Finally! I’m getting good at this.”

Making Time For Family Fun

Finding the time in a busy week to gather the family together is the hardest part. Work, school, sports, and birthday parties always seem to be in the picture. While those things are inevitable and important, when I think about my childhood, those things were not as important as the family outings and games we played. I want my kids to have good memories of family time too.

When I was younger, my parents decided to make it their mission to take us to every Imax theater in the continental US. Now that isn’t technically a hobby, but it was fun with the family and I still remember it to this day.

Hobbies Build Skills For Their Future

One of the reasons I like hobbies so much, is because of their impact on their overall development. Attention to task, fine and gross motor skills, sharing, imagination play, and planning are just a few of the lessons they can learn from a hobby.

Not to mention, kids get bored sometimes, as evidenced by the picture below! I’d much rather them have fun with a hobby than spend time on electronics, throwing food around, or sitting down for a long time. 😀

Some skilled people turn their hobbies into careers. In my family, there a few of those lucky ones that have had success turning their ability to build or mold into profitable ventures.

Just like sports, acting, or music, a good skilled hobby can be a passion that may take your kids far in life. I actually can’t imagine anything better than having my kids grow up to do something that makes them happy.

7 Hobbies You Can Do With Your Children

The list could be a mile long because there are so many activities to get into as a family. Don’t let age or location hinder you from doing new things with your kids. Even if the experience isn’t perfect, you will have fun making memories together. And as they get older, it will all get easier.

1) Adventure Hiking

This hobby is so versatile. We like to find a park or good trail in each state to hike on. It’s nice to see the country this way and allows your children the chance to enjoy nature while appreciating the differences between locales. Kids love to explore the trails. Letting them see the difference between the mountain side versus the beach side or a coastal state is educational as well as fun.

2) Building Anything

With the crazy amount of pallets available nowadays, making things has never been more accessible. Benches, tree houses, planters, decorations, and bird homes are projects that are easy to find directions for and will bring future entertainment to your life.

(my little guy, building a treehouse with his Dad!)

Carpentry skills involve math, spatial relations, planning, and detail to task. All things that can come in handy with a multitude of jobs. I want my children to know these skills even if they have a desk job, so they can be handy at home.

3) Painting

Painting is so relaxing – it’s a perfect hobby for anyone to do throughout their lifetime. This weekend we painted as a family. Everyone in the family grabbed a rock from the garden, and we painted them however we wanted. Now our garden has some beautiful painted rocks that we can enjoy for months and (hopefully) years to come.

My grandmother was an amazing watercolor painter and has dozens of paintings hanging in the homes of family members. Even though it wasn’t her main job throughout her life (she was a high school math teacher), she would run art classes out of her home and earned a nice side income from that. So you never know – a hobby your kids get into when they’re young could turn into a money-making activity in addition to being just plain fun.

4) Pottery

Ceramics and pottery were another two of my grandmother’s art hobbies. She could craft things that were beautiful and functional from balls of clay and her hands. The Pottery Cool Studio is a great way for beginner potters to develop a love of the art.

It’s real pottery that your kids can actually do themselves. Smartphone speakers, jewelry holders, pencil holders and dishes are just a few things you and your children can make with ease.

I am simply fascinated by pottery. Something about the way the artists can make the clay move and finish in the way they want is intriguing, and I want, no I need, to learn that skill.

For more info on the Pottery Cool product, check out the this tutorial:

This is the perfect gift for your little one that has a hard time sitting still. It is simple to use, just place the clay on the turntable, spray it with water, then let it spin and take shape using only your hands and gravity. The kids can set it up themselves! My kind of activity. 🙂

The focus it takes while still moving your hands will calm down almost any child for a bit due to the concentration required to mold the clay. That is just the first part. After it dries, the painting begins.

I’ll have to say – if your children are a lot younger than the girl in the video, then you can expect it to be a fun experience! Our creation didn’t quite turn out like the video tutorial but we had a blast making our cupcake pencil holder! They were having so much fun setting it up themselves, I didn’t help them with much of it at all.

My 8-year-old, especially, had an absolute blast with Pottery Cool! She loved working with her hands and creating something unique. The beauty about pottery it’s so easy to clean up. Even if you feel like you got messy, everything wipes up with a towel and water. We did our craft outside just so I didn’t have to worry about clean up at all.

Keep in mind that you won’t be perfect at it and everyone will create something different based on their skills and preferences. I love how imperfectly perfect our her cupcake pencil holder creation turned out! It’s just precious! Completely age appropriate and not bad for a first time attempt at pottery, if you ask me! They’ve already started using it as a crayon holder.

I’m glad I’ve introduced this hobby to my girls because I know the younger they are when exposed to various activities, the more likely they are to pick it up later. If you would like to pick up this cool activity for your kids, you can now purchase Pottery Cool at Walmart!

5) Family Band

I really want to try this one. I just need to learn how to play something first. How awesome would it be to have a jam session with your kids? Even if there is one on the harmonica and another on the recorder, it will sound either amazing or crazy, whichever way it will be an experience! 

6) Fishing

If you like the outdoors then this one is a blast. You can make a lifetime of memories from the bonding time and conversations that come out of fishing with your family. Both fresh and saltwater fishing are fun and offer different environments to appreciate as well.

We like to go to the local rivers and ponds to cast out with the children. My husband likes to fly fish on the rivers, but that turns into a whole day activity and the kids don’t have that many hours of fishing in them yet. Half the fun of fishing is catching the bait! Kids love to get out their flashlights and buckets to dig for worms or use a net to catch minnows.

7) Turning Food into Batteries

It doesn’t seem like something that could be a long term hobby but it is. Making a battery out of produce is challenging and can lead to some pretty advanced thinking.

I really want to try this one out on different objects and see how strong I can make it. Anyone can power a clock, but can I get one to charge my cell phone or run the coffee machine. Once I start, I think it may take over our lives, so we’re holding back for now.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.