The Best Activities for 'Take Your Child to Work Day' — Keep Them Entertained

"Bring a Kid to Work Day" is also known as "Take Your Child to Work Day" and is usually the fourth Thursday in April. This tradition gives parents and children a different way to connect — over the parent's job. If you're an employer or a parent, consider these "Take Your Child to Work Day" activities.

This special day can even be an opportunity to reach out to other children you know, such as nieces or nephews or a friend's child. It lets kids see adults in their workplace and learn more about what they do, and they might even be inspired about their own future careers and jobs.

For an employer, it's a good idea to host a meeting early in the day to welcome any children visiting. Parents might introduce their children to their colleagues and children can get to know the names of the boss (and employees or their parent's main team, depending on the size of the company).

One of the most obvious things to do with your child at the office is to give them a tour of the place. You might do this on your own as the parent, or if the company is welcoming multiple kids, the manager might wish to conduct a tour for all of them at once.

Someone in the office could create a scavenger hunt that the kids can do during the day. They might search for items easily found in the workplace such as pens or paper clips, coffee mugs, a water cooler, a fax machine, etc. Then have small prizes for the kids to collect after they turn in the completed paper for their scavenger hunt.

The entire workplace could do a service project together. Including the kids, their parents, and other employees will build camaraderie and help the kids feel accomplished. This might depend on the type of workplace, but there are many types of service projects kids could be part of.

If your company has a product that kids could test, have the visiting children be part of a focus group for it. You could also create a focus group just for fun, where the kids compare their opinions of something like the different kinds of pizza you order for lunch.

Creating a photo opportunity for parents and their children is a fun way to spark kids' interest. Plus, parents and kids will then have a memory of the day. You can put up a simple backdrop on a bulletin board or even bring in photo props related to the workplace, like hats people wear for different jobs.

This may require either older kids or an adult to accompany the children, depending on how accessible a coffee shop is. Put kids in charge of going to Starbucks or another local shop get coffee for the employees. This keeps them busy taking orders, going to the shop, paying, and delivering the drinks to the correct people.

While they're visiting, an employee might show kids how to create a good resume. They might even have fun making a joke resume for their parent, but still learn about the key points to include in a resume.

This idea depends a lot on the type of workplace, of course. Employers or parents can brainstorm activities for kids to assist with. For example, in an episode of The Office, Jim Halpert enlists one of the visiting children to help him sell paper. They call the girl's mother (a great idea to teach a skill and have fun).

Chances are, any teens or preteens visiting are experts in social media. You can put them to work making a sample social media post for the company (be sure they're supervised or get approval before posting, though).

Perhaps you work from home, and your child stays home from school to observe your work day. This can be much like going to an office. Be honest about how you spend each day, bring them along if you normally take breaks for errands or chores, and let them join in wherever appropriate.