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It seems like kids constantly need to be entertained. We live in culture that moves quickly, offers tons of diversion, and requires us to keep us on the go. So when you are sitting at home with the kids, it can sometimes be difficult to decide what to do with them to keep them entertained.
The old stand-by is the television. Unfortunately, while it can make a great "babysitter" for a short time, in a pinch, we usually do not want our kids to grow up zoned out in front of the TV.
The best thing we can do with our kids, is PLAY with them ourselves.
Obviously the age of your child(ren) drives what you can do. But it is easy to get stuck in a rut. Playing with them takes work, usually, and it is much easier to plop them down in front of the "idiot box" (as my late grandfather used to call it). However, if you have a list of ideas that you keep handy, it will help you remember that there are other options.
For example, my kids love to play hide-and-seek. It costs nothing, takes no effort to setup, and can be played for as long or as short as we want. Frequently we will just start counting really loudly, and they know to go hide. Tag also works well if you have enough, although it tends to be a little rowdy for indoor play.
Here are a few ideas, for both indoor and outdoor play that is free and easy!
Indoor:
- play a board game (age appropriate) or card game
- hide-and seek
- color with them. You can find tons of free coloring pages online that you can print out
- play charades, adjusting the rules to fit 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 "getting warmer, getting colder" method of helping them
- Tell a story, making it up as you go. Start an adventurous story, and then ask them for a word to fill in, and customize the story from there. Like, "Once upon a time, there lived a princess, who had a very special..." (ask one child what the princess might have had) They might say something like "DRESS!" "Ok....she had a special dress, and whenever she wore it, she was able to..." (ask the next child) "Shoot lasers from her eyes!" (that would be my son). You get the idea. Continue the story, and keep asking for input from the kids.
- Build a fort from sofa cushions and blankets and have rubber-band wars
Outdoor:
- tag
- hide-and-seek
- Frisbee
- Outdoor "Easter egg hunt" (again, using whatever you want)
- Chalk-draw 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, are interactive with the kids. (Any parenting guru will tell you that interacting with the children via a game is so much better than having them watch TV.) Sometimes we just need to have someone else give us ideas to help.
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