Activities for Children's Quiet Time

Books and Reading

• Your child may be perfectly happy to snuggle up with story books -- and with you to read them, in the case of a child who can't yet read -- but some kids need enticement to enjoy reading. Find nonfiction books loaded with pictures that meet her interests, like books about cars or real historical princesses. Ask your child to write his own story and draw illustrations to match. Borrow audio books from the library and let him listen while lying in the grass or curled up in bed.

Art Projects

• A box of crayons and a pad of paper can get boring, even for the most artistic child. Try stocking her art corner with the materials to make specific projects. Provide small pots or cardboard storage boxes that she can decorate with stickers and containers of beads she can string onto yarn. Give her a stack of magazines and copies of family photos she can use to make a collage. Scour the sale racks at the craft store for projects such as kits to make jewelry, dream catchers or model cars.

Games and Puzzles

• Help your child build fine motor, reasoning and math skills during quiet time. When he tires of playing simple board games with you, try written games like tic-tac-toe and hangman. Create your own puzzle by cutting up magazine pages and asking him to reassemble them. Print out letter searches for young children and word searches or crossword puzzles for older kids. Make up a scavenger hunt that takes him all over the house looking for random items like five rubber bands and a copy of a particular book.

More Ideas to Try

• Creative play sometimes includes galloping like a pony, but it can be quiet too. Ask an older child to write a play for the family to act out later or make and decorate drums or a shoe box guitar to play with when quiet time is done. Lead your child in deep breathing and simple yoga moves while quiet, soothing music plays; once she knows some basic moves she can do yoga on her own. Provide her with healthy cookbooks that include pictures and let her mark the pages of recipes she'd like to try coming weeks, then make shopping lists together.