Best Hobby Ideas for Tweens
Do you have a tween in your family that is interested in trying a new hobby but not sure where to start? Whether your tween is interested in music, crafts, outdoors, or gaming, there are easy ways to encourage the love for hobbies even at a young age. Having a hobby is a great way to manage stress and provide a source of enjoyment for a lifetime. Give your tween the tools and resources to pursue new hobbies.
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Best Hobby Ideas for Tweens
Music
Guitar and drums are common instruments for tweens to become interested in learning. Set them up for success by offering smaller versions for younger tweens. The ukulele is a great string instrument because of its smaller size, lighter strings, and portability. Budding drummers can learn rhythm and accompaniment skills by starting with a mini-Cajon (box drum). If a tween is interested in reed instruments, suggest a recorder for early learning. All of these musical options are great ways to jump into a musical instrument with a lower price point and commitment level but still deliver great opportunities for creating beautiful music.
Cooking
Learning to navigate the kitchen and create tasty recipes is a lifelong skill that everyone should pursue. Offer your tween a cookbook that is geared toward their age by children’s cookery author Annabel Karmel that is filled with fun, tasty and easy-to-make recipes to get the family cooking together.
Inside, you’ll find everything from Hidden Vegetable Bolognese to Teddy Bear Burgers, as well as nutritionally balanced snacks and sweets like oat and raisin cookies and fruity ice pops. Recipes include child-friendly versions of food from around the world, such as stir-fries, paella and kebabs. The recipes cater to all dietary requirements, featuring swaps for gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian, and vegan versions.
With simple, step-by-step instructions, fascinating foodie facts, top cook-along tips, and beautiful illustrations, it’s the perfect way to encourage budding little chefs to join you, teaching them essential cooking skills that will last a lifetime. It’s time to put the FUN into food!
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Stargazing
If your tween loves to look at the stars and is fascinated by the weather, then give a book that will help spark their imagination. Skygazing is a double-sided book full of information, fun activities, and beautifully illustrated scenes to enjoy.
Discover why the sky is blue, early experiments in flight, and how helicopters stay aloft, before flipping the book to read all about the night sky. Find out how to read the stars, spot the night’s flying creatures and see the colors of the aurora borealis.
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Lego Building
Many children have grown up building with LEGO bricks. Did you know you can subscribe to Brick Loot and have a new box of bricks delivered to your mailbox each month? With a different theme each month, your tween will have a new challenge every few weeks. This month’s box is building a working miniature air hockey table and retro pinball machine.
What a great idea for grandparents to send to kids in the mail as a fun surprise! You can choose to send for one month, three months, or even up to every month for a year. You pick your plan.
Travel and Exploration
Our family loves to travel and explore new areas. Give your tween a book that will put the world at their fingertips. Explore all the countries, explore different cultures and the best things to see, do and taste on this planet.
Packed with facts, stats and flags, The World Book will teach you how to say ‘good morning’ in Maltese, the most popular dishes in Colombian cuisine, and where you can see over 60 species of hummingbird. Seek out the tallest mountain, the longest river, and everything in between.
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Yarn Crafts
Some yarn projects are too detailed and time-consuming for typical tweens. But if your tween is interested in yarn crafts, then plastic craft may be the perfect starter hobby.
Gardening
Gardening is a skill that can bring enjoyment and fulfillment for a lifetime. Get your tweens started early with a love for growing with a new book geared just for them. Stanley Jr. Gardening is Awesome!: Projects, Advice, and Insight for Young Gardeners provides tweens with a complete basics section on vegetables, fruits, flowers, trees, and shrubs. Help your tweens learn how to make super soil and keep plants happy with the right amount of sunlight and water.
- Gardening How-Tos shows you how to test soil drainage and start plants in an egg carton.
- Great Bed Gardens sets you up for success when planting a row garden, a colorful summer flower garden, and more.
- Container Gardening shows you how to grow strawberries in a 5-Gallon bucket and create a beautiful bulb box.
- Raised Bed Plots feature a square foot garden, uplifted herb garden, and even a vertical garden!
What hobbies do your tweens love to try? The fun thing about hobbies is that they change with seasons so give these a try and see if they stick. And if you decide to ditch the hobby and try something new tomorrow, you lose nothing. You might just find something you love!
