Playing with children helps strengthen the bonding among family members. Often, the parents are at a loss when it comes to figuring out what to do when they’re in their children’s company.
Parents want to spend quality time with their children. But due to busy schedules, most parents find it tough to do anything much. Either they’re busy on their own social media networks or they’re forced to bring work home.
The conflict is that children want to be jumping around all the time. And parents don’t want to leave the bed or the couch if it’s a holiday, or if they’re home.
This seems to be a tussle of energy levels.
However, while children want to indulge in fun activities that manifest in physical excitement, they need to exposed to a variety of activities.
Here are 9 fun ideas for playing with children.
- Rhymes and Songs
Who said singing and reciting isn’t fun? Children love to sing along.
Parents who build time around music with children develop a lifelong habit of doing things together.
- Role Play
If the mother is the king and the father is the queen, or if the sister is the police and the mother is the burglar, the possibilities are endless.
Acting out situations makes them come alive. Even using a teddy bear or a doll or an action hero or even a pillow adds drama to any situation.
- Anything to Do with Balls
Kick, catch, throw: it’s a joy to watch children do wonders with these round bouncing objects.
Most parents feel amused that infants and toddlers pick up the ball and carry it to another place instead of kicking it away. How children handle balls of all shapes and sizes depending on their age.
- Treasure Hunt
There are times when searching for something together makes a team out of everyone.
It could be finding a delicacy or a toy at home. Or it could be finding shells on the beach. Children love the state of anticipation when they’re in the process of finding something.
- Stories
The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about stories is books and reading time.
However, stories come alive in various ways: making up stories with children is one of them. Listening to audiobooks is another. And listening with children when the grandparents narrate stories is fun too.
- Puzzles
Puzzles are nothing less than stories. They have the same elements of imagination and mystery as stories do.
Apart from looking forward to the solution, children learn a lot about problem solving and persistence.
- Art and Craft
Beading, cutting (using safe scissors), and sticking – children get creative and develop a sense of beauty too.
Doing art and craft with children helps them make sense of colours and shapes, and also develops a sense of order and patterns.
- Fun with Animals
Playing with animals, especially pets, involves different experience of sensory touch.
Children learn to communicate better and understand non-verbal communication better. They also develop new capacities to empathize.
- Building Work
Any activity that involves building something afresh like building blocks, clay dough and dough sand requires planning, thinking and strategy.
There’s also a sense of satisfaction associated with making something new. Unlike puzzles, which mostly have only one solution, building things has many possibilities.
Read also: A to Z Activities for Kids and Parents to Enjoy Together
The fun part is that all of them are fun. Each of these playing ideas stimulates multiple sides of the brain. So that even when parents and children are not doing any physical activity, the children still see it as action-packed, well, fun.
