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!
Summer Fun for Kids
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Category Archives: fantasy play
Play Ideas
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
How Can I Play With My Child?
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
“Come Play With Me!”
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
The doll aisle is creepier than the Halloween aisle
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.
‘play dead’ to really feel alive
What do you do when when a six-year-old sheathed in plastic armor points a large shiny silver plastic laser gun in your direction and shouts… “Dissolve Creature!” as he pulls the trigger?
Naturally… you drop down dead in a puddle on the floor, that’s what!
So that’s exactly what I did. Despite the fact that I had a 10 month old on my hip and another at my feet.
Another six-year-old and a four-year-old ventured near with swords at hand and some ridiculous things on their heads for who knows what reason, and began poking me to check my level of deadness. (not to mention one of the twin babes sitting there bawling and the other curiously trying to poke me in the (thankfully) closed eye)
As I laid there inert (I can do that part for an amazingly long time, long enough that the three marauders went to the next room to confer and the crying 10-month-old stopped crying) I suddenly had a brainstorm…