Keep the family busy with these creative kids competitions!

Are you stuck with bored children at home? Creative kids competitions are a great way to keep them busy – but will also put their brains to work. Here’s a few fun kids competitions they might like to try… don’t forget to check the comments too as you’ll find more comps there!

If you live near a Smyths or The Entertainer store they also have entry forms and colouring sheets in store, especially during the Summer and Easter holidays, so do pop in to check!

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Win a trip to Japan

The Japan Society are running their haiku contest again in 2023, with the theme of ‘family’. Entrants must be UK residents and aged under 15 on Monday 15 January 2024. The haiku must be three short lines, can be typed or hand written and must be accompanied by hand-drawn or hand-crafted artwork on the same page, using A4 or letter sized paper, and glue the application form to the back.

Winners of the Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards will win a Canon camera and be invited to an award ceremony in Tokyo. Each will receive ¥100,000 as grant money for travel and accommodation expenses in Japan, plus round-trip air tickets (economy class) to Tokyo for two.

Find out more at www.japansociety.org.uk/haiku-contest-2023-2024 – closing date is 15 January 2024.

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Win a £100 Home Bargains voucher and craft hamper

UK children between 5 and 11 are invited to design a Christmas card for the Home Bargains competition – entries must be square and submitted on the entry form before 31 January 2024, and using mixed media is encouraged! The 12 winning designs will be manufactured and sold in Home Bargains stores for Christmas 2024 with all profits going to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital PLUS each winning artist will receive a £100 Home Bargains Voucher and a craft hamper for their school!

Find out more at www.homebargainscompetitions.co.uk

I regularly recommend www.toppsta.com as a fabulous place to win kids books, and you have a better chance of winning if you add reviews to your child’s account. Ask your children which books they’ve read recently – older kids will be fine to type up their own reviews, but for younger children you could ask them questions about the books and then type up the review yourself based on their answers. Help them expand their vocabulary and ask them to think of different adjectives – exciting, thrilling, fascinating, etc. – to describe the story and characters. Try asking Google or Alexa for synonyms!

Find out more about kids book competitions in my blog post Competitions for bookworms. 

Other comping fun for kids

• If you don’t mind giving them a phone or tablet, set the kids to work on some instant wins! My son Ryland loves playing ‘spin to win’ free instant wins online, or the games on the Coca-Cola app. Check my list of instant wins for the latest comps! 
• If your child loves to write, there’s a great list of current UK writing competitions on the School Reading List website – which also includes public speaking competitions too.
• Moma.co.uk lists some nice arty kids competitions! 

Do you have any more tips for keeping the kids busy comping while they’re stuck at home? Let me know in the comments.