The good news is that children aren’t just glued to computers all day! They’re getting back to nature. Hobbies that bring children into the great outdoors as well as art-related hobbies are getting popular again.
Here’s a quick glance at current most popular hobbies for children:
Cooking
As chefs are being thrown into the spotlight in popular cooking and baking shows and achieving celebrity status (for instance Jamie Oliver and Mary Berry), an increasing number of children are looking to them as positive role models and have taken a keen interest in cooking. From sweet to savoury, make sure you get stuck in with your children and make some delicious food!
Nature-related hobbies
- Making birdfeeders & birdhouses:: This remains a popular nature-related hobby Children love the idea that they are positively impacting the natural world.
- Gardening: The process of planting a tiny seed and watching it grow into something beautiful (or yummy) under their care is a magical experience for children! If that’s not enough, the opportunity to get covered in mud without being told off is something all children find fun.
- Butterfly Gardens: How is it that a butterfly was once a caterpillar? Children (and adults) find it amazing to watch the day-by-day process of the butterfly transformation. From little larvae, to pupae, and then after the long wait, a butterfly.
- Geology: Collecting rocks is interesting and finding out what makes those rocks geologically interesting is even better. Children love to recognise patterns in nature.
Science-Related Hobbies
- Astronomy: Remains a fascinating science for children. Learning to identify constellations will never go out of style and mobiles of our solar system will always be fashionable bedroom accessories (and they’re fun to build too!).
- Meteorology: Or the study of weather, is booming. Gone are the days when the weatherman on your local news program just reported the weather. Meteorology is about science and weather events! There are quite a few weather gadgets out there of varying costs that allow children to predict the weather for that day.
Film and Photography
- With the digital revolution, videography and photography are easier than ever to master.
- Software allows children to edit their pictures and videos. If you are strapped for cash, your local public access TV station or library often has video equipment that children can use.
Collecting
- Traditional stamp and coin collecting is one of the age old hobbies for children — and it is still a favourite! See if they can collect a coin from every year since they were born, or collect as many limited edition stamps as they can.
- Collecting as a financial investment that will reap monetary rewards in the future should not be the point of encouraging your child’s collecting impulses.The point of having children collect is to have fun with them, to share in their enthusiasms, and to teach children how to properly care for the things that are precious to them.
Crocheting, Knitting, Needlepoint & Other Fibre Arts
There has been a sudden resurgence of interest in knitting among young people in the last few years. Everybody is talking about “fibre arts” these days, a term that was previously known only to people tapestries in art history class. Books on knitting are also gaining popularity.