Holiday Tips From A Kids Marketing Agency
Over our years of experience working as a kids marketing agency, we’ve been surrounded by children’s media, products, brands and personalities and one thing, more than anything else, has cropped up time and time again. How do you keep the tykes happy during holiday periods, or any other extended period of time, that they’re away from school?
It’s a tricky conundrum – increasingly people are turning to tablets and screens for their kids as they offer a simple solution to keep them occupied. There’s nothing wrong with this, of course, and tablets and TV serve a great purpose most the time. Even children will want to do other things, however, and it’s important for them that they do. The team here at VerriBerri, a leading marketing agency for kids, sat down and got their home-crafted thinking caps on, to offer you some top holiday tips to keep the youngsters occupied!
Baking
Disclaimer: this will end messily, there’s no getting around this and you need to accept it as fact before moving on. Done? Ok, baking is the ultimate parent-child family activity. There are so many ways of making it fun, so much variety you can implement, and varying levels of access and responsibility depending on the age of the child – it’s scalable, if you like. Say you have a four-year-old, for them, pouring a bowl of something into a bowl of something else will constitute baking. As far as they’re concerned, the final product, no matter how complex, is a result of their endeavours and no one else’s!
On the flipside of this, if you have a tweenager in your family ranks, you can let them take the reins a lot more. The parents amongst our kids marketing agency regularly bake with their children, and they think that it’s a great way to get a smile spread wide upon their faces. Baking is also a good opportunity to try and encourage some healthier eating habits amongst your children. Instead of normal potato crisps, for example, try making some vegetable crisps (beetroot, parsnip and carrot) to show them that healthier food can still taste fantastic!
Arts & Crafts
This suggestion is an age-old-staple of parents everywhere. Get out the pipe cleaners, googly eyes, coloured card and Pritt stick and start making those crazy pieces of art. Nobody’s imagination matches that of a child in their element, you simply need to provide them the tools to get cracking. Whether it be drawings and colouring, stories or any other manner of creative project, it doesn’t take long for a child to be entranced by the world they’re suddenly creating.
I envy their creativity, I really do! On your part, to try and get more mileage out of these activities, implement recurring themes, get them to build whole worlds and series of stories that they want to keep coming back to, again and again. Indulge their silly, wild fantasy lands, no, enjoy them! Because they really are a privilege for any parent to behold. Arts and crafts activities are particularly good for holidays such as Christmas and Easter where you can do themed art activities. Our MD regularly brings in works of art that her children have conjured up, and it’s beyond lovely to see. Seeing things like that hammers home just why we work as a kids marketing agency in the industry that we do.
Use Technology In A Different Way
There are lots of cool, educational resources and opportunities online for youngsters that means they can still be in front of a screen, but watching something other than their usual cartoons or TV shows. At the moment, for example, some of the world’s leading museums are offering virtual tours, which with a little bit of imagination from the parents, can make for a really exciting couple of hours for the young ‘uns.
There are even coding books for kids (at quite an early age, no less) so that your kids can get a bit of a head start in what is now such a digital world. Our kids marketing agency can offer loads of tech-driven activities and advice for your children, should you want them to use technology in more proactive way.
Music & Dancing
Especially good for rainy days, dancing helps your children’s moods and also gets them moving. We all know how much expendable energy the bundles of annoyance, I mean joy, have every single day. If you don’t find an outlet for this energy, it can bubble up and lead to temper tantrums and problems with sleep that evening. It’s a good opportunity for you, the responsible adult, to get involved as well. For older kids, getting them learning an instrument is another great way of filling their time.
Instruments are perfect for the longer holidays where your children can really knuckle down and invest some proper time into playing around with them. Constant encouragement from your end will help traverse that initial sticky period where a lack of skill will often deter people from persevering. The ultimate combination is getting your older child to play some music on an instrument, and to get your younger child to dance along to it! There’s a fun challenge for you from our kids marketing agency!
Mix It Up
Whatever you decide upon, in terms of activities, make sure you keep it varied and interesting, wherever possible. Children have the attention span of gnats and so you’ve got to try and combat that by offering up regular change in terms of what they can do.
It can be incredibly difficult trying to think of fresh ideas to keep children happy, busy, stimulated (the list goes on) during holiday periods. Whilst half-terms may be easily managed, the lengthier periods, especially the summer holidays, are much more difficult. So, if you’d like to find out more about our kids marketing agency, then get in touch! Contact VerriBerri today on 01376 386 850. We’d love nothing more than to try and help you out!