Today I want to make a suggestion – Plan for an ART FAIR in August! [I originally shared this article with a group of Childcare Providers in my area. Yet I know it would be a wonderful thing for a family to do... especially if you find a couple of neighboring families or friends with children who would like to get together on a regular basis during the summer. So gather a group of kids however you desire and give this some thought.]
Today I was hanging out for a couple of hours with the grandson. One of the things I LOVE about hanging out with kids is they remind me what play is all about… how spontaneous and joy-filled life can be if we are willing to lighten up and shift our attention from those 0h-so-pressing grownup things going on in our life.
The school year is coming to an end up here above the equator… and summer is just around the corner. And THAT means kids looking for things to do!
I promise not to go on and on today as I wrap up this series on playing with your child. I have to confess I cringed when glancing at my very lengthy last post… the thing is… play is super important to me. (obviously LOL)
Today’s post promises to be much shorter. Now that you understand the role ‘play’ holds in life… I thought I’d just share a few ideas to get your imagination moving along playfully. In fact, below you’ll find a link to several suggestions of things to do. When you’re running out of ideas it might be handy to have on hand. Continue reading
People are all different. That’s hardly news but it means not every game or every play style will appeal to your child. Or you for that matter. So if you’re tempted to give up on having fun playing with your child consider the idea that playing something else might be the answer. After all, it’s unrealistic to think you have to enjoy all the same games with one another.
Yet a word of caution here… don’t be tempted to get in a rut with your kids playing only the familiar games. Sure, some kids will find certain kinds of games more challenging that others. Some more boring than others. That’s okay… and you do want play that is fun (after all, it’s hardly ‘play’ if it doesn’t have an element of ‘fun’). But do your best to find a way for your children to build up skills in new areas too. Variety is the spice of life. Continue reading
For some reason the topic of playing with children has come to my attention quite frequently lately. In just the past two weeks I’ve had 2 different friends, who happen to be young mothers with young children, comment that they seem to be ‘play-challenged’… meaning they just don’t really know how to actively ‘play’ with their children. And I heard the same conversation going on while listening to the women of CBS’s daytime show The Talk.
I can empathize… at least to a point. For whatever reasons, and I suspect there are several, I find it quite easy and natural to play with kids. However, there certainly are times I simply don’t feel like it. And I wonder if parents who think they don’t know how to play with their kids might be confusing ‘being comfortably able to play’ with ‘feeling the desire to play with a child at any given moment’. Continue reading
Maybe I don’t get out enough but the department store doll aisle is seriously creepy.
Last night the grandson dragged Mom over to pick me up for a quick trip to Target. This seven-year-old had developed a sudden need for a travel alarm clock. (Who knows? Maybe he’ll clue us in on his travel plans soon.) Since he’s at that age when telling time is becoming a valuable skill it seemed like an innocent enough request to fulfill so off to the store we went.
The grandson’s birthday is this week and it’s just inspired a very downstream idea!
As kids get older the birthday parties get more and more crowded. That’s to be expected. But while I look forward to the ‘Cosmic Bowling’ party for a first-grader, it occurs to me that I could have a blast… and get some great one-on-one time… by spreading out the celebration of those special kids in my life by celebrating their HALF BIRTHDAY! ;-)
Admittedly, this January birthday girl always yearned for a summer birthday so that may contribute to some of my enthusiasm here… but the more I think about it the more full of ideas I get. In fact, I’ve updated my calendar right now and I’m ready to celebrate in March and July with all things HALF.
Today is a Musical Monday… Set to Bette Midler’s Blueberry Pie I’m dedicating my newest video to my granddaughter and her cousin - two girls in the blueberry patch (do blueberries grow in patches?!?)
Here’s a bit of irony for you… today I wanted to talk about ‘kids gone wild’… and how much I love seeing a bunch of children playing wildly and with abandon (sadly, an all too rare sight these days) and then I ran across a comment someone made about receiving a note from their apartment management stating that if they don’t immediately clean up their children’s sidewalk art they would be fined for ‘tagging’!!!