Strengthen Your Bond: 5 Activities for Parent-Child Connection

The early years of your child play an extremely relevant role in determining how healthy and happy they are likely to be later in life. That’s why it is so very important to provide a safe, stable and loving environment for your child. To a large extent, their physical, mental and emotional development depends on it. Becoming a parent is a life changing experience as it is no longer just about you, every decision and action of yours is geared around your child. You are now responsible for another human being whom you have to take care of, raise, nurture and build a close and loving relationship with.

Every parent wants to raise a happy and healthy child which plays a significant role in the development of their future behaviour, traits and values. Try to spend as much quality time with your child that you can and have fun together. These are the things that set them up for future success. We have put together some bonding activities for parents and children that will strengthen the connection and help their mind to grow at the same time.

Reading Bedtime Stories Together

If you are wondering how to connect with your child, reading bedtime stories is a great start. Encourage them to participate rather than doing the reading all by yourself. You can make it more interactive and interesting by asking them questions in the middle of the story — ask them to repeat the names of characters or ask them what they think will happen next. You can also mimic animal sounds and use different tones for different characters. Children love role play and is the way to connect with your child over some quality time. You can also ask them to mimic you or pretend to be an animal while you are reading to them. This teaches them how to imitate and they learn how to use their imaginations.

Take Them Out to Eat

You can also bond with your child over food, so take out some time to spend with your child. You can ask them to choose a place and take them out for ice cream or a pizza. You can also take them to a park or garden for a picnic with their favourite food. If you are taking them to a fancier place, they can have lots of fun dressing up for the occasion.

Join Them During Playtime

If you are wondering how to connect with your child emotionally, children love it when you join in their playtime. It might be made believe with dolls, cars or video games, they really enjoy your company while they play. It is not a bad idea to schedule game time with your kids, at least once a week and play a different game every time. You can also take turns to see who gets a chance to choose the game for that day.

Sometimes, you can also just sit quietly with your child on some cushions and talk to them or just listen and answer them positively when they ask you something. This gives them a sense of calm and security and is one of the great bonding activities for parents and children.

You can take them outside the house and hear the sounds of different animals and birds. They can guess which animal is making the sound and also imitate it. They can also mimic and identify the sounds.

Cook a meal together

Another way on how to connect with your child emotionally and strengthen the parent and child relationship. Identify simple and easy recipes that you can make together. Look for recipes that require just a few ingredients and have easy processes. It doesn’t matter how much of a mess is made so long as they are enjoying the activity. You can make a pizza together and ask them to help you make the dough. Allow them to choose the toppings and place them on the pizza. Cupcakes and cookies are also an excellent way to bond with each other. It not only teaches them some basic life skills, it’s also a great way to connect and have loads of fun.

Doing Art and Craft Together

Children love to use their hands and get them messy. In fact, the messier it is, the more they enjoy it. That’s what makes arts and crafts the perfect activity. They don’t need to do it alone, they will love it if you join them. You are sure to hear squeals of delight as you get your hands dirty with them and play with paints, playdough and clay. Encourage them to get as creative as they want and look around the house for objects like paper cups, plastic bottles or newspapers that they can use or recycle to make their masterpieces.

You can also give your child some pencils and ask them to draw various family members. You can draw along with your child and add the family pet and your home. This gives them a better understanding of family, develops dexterity and creativity and encourages them to talk about family.

Old, discarded socks can be used to make socks puppets which can then be embellished with buttons, string and wool. You can use the puppet to talk to your child in different tones to tell them stories. This is great for their imagination and is how to connect with your child emotionally. This is one of the many great activities on how to bond with your child and create a strong connection.

One cannot overemphasise the necessity of spending quality time with your child. It is so important to build memories with your kid as they will not only cherish it forever it will also nurture the parent and child relationship. When you’re interacting with your child make sure you are completely there and let everything else go. Building a deeper and healthier emotional connection with children is a very crucial part of parenting and requires a good amount of time, effort and patience but it is well worth the investment. Try and visit the EuroKids website as it will give you a lot of insight into the bonding activities for parents and child that you can take up to build a strong relationship with your child.