It seems that children need to be constantly entertained. We live in a culture that moves fast, offers tons of fun, and requires us to keep moving. So when you’re sitting at home with the kids, it can sometimes be hard to decide what to do with them to keep them entertained.
The old stand-by is television. Unfortunately, while it can be a great “babysitter” for a short time, in a pinch, we usually don’t want our kids growing up apart in front of the TV.
The best thing we can do with our children is PLAY with them ourselves.
Obviously, the age of your child(ren) determines what you can do. But it’s easy to get stuck in a rut. Playing with them takes work, usually, and it’s much easier to drop them in front of the “idiot box” (as my late grandfather used to call it). However, having a list of ideas on hand will help remind you that there are other options.
For example, my children love to play hide and seek. It costs nothing, requires no effort to set up, and can be played for as long as you like. Often we start counting too high and they know to hide. Tag also works well if you have enough of it, though it tends to be a bit noisy for indoor play.
Here are some ideas for both indoor and outdoor games that are free and easy!
Inside:
– play a board game (age appropriate) or a card game
– Hide and Seek
– color with them. You can find tons of free coloring pages online that you can print
– play charades, adapting the rules to their ages.
– “Easter Egg Hunt” with anything besides Easter Eggs. Take a deck of cards and hide them around the house, or a handful of their favorite toys or dolls. Use the “warm up, cool down” method to help them
– Tell a story, making it up as you go. Start an adventure story and then ask them for a word to complete and customize the story from there. Like, “Once upon a time, there lived a princess, who had a…” (ask a child what the princess might have had) They might say something like “DRESS!” “Ok…she had a special dress, and every time she wore it, she could…” (ask the next kid) “Shoot lasers out of her eyes!” (that would be my son). You get the idea. Continue with the story and keep asking for the children’s opinion.
– Build a fort with sofa cushions and blankets and have rubber band wars.
Exterior:
– hashtag
– Hide and Seek
– frisbee
– Outdoor “Easter Egg Hunt” (again, using whatever you want)
– Draw with chalk on the sidewalk or driveway
– throw a ball
There are so many things that we as parents can do that are fun for us and the kids, but more importantly, they are interactive with the kids. (Any parenting guru will tell you that interacting with children through play is much better than having them watch TV.) Sometimes we just need someone else to give us ideas to help.