Give in and play with your children LIFESTYLE
SWITCH off the television, forget about scheduling play dates and expending energy, and give in.
We gathered a stash of creative ideas for the holiday from Pat Rumbaugh, founder of the non-profit organisation Let’s Play America, and Rachelle Doorley, blogger at TinkerLab and author of the book, TinkerLab: A Hands-On Guide for Little Inventors.
Think of what you played when you were a child, or pick and choose from these fun ideas:
Toddlers
Play with Play-Doh Play-Doh, or some other type of modelling compound, is “a very soothing thing”, Doorley says. “It’s fully immersive for the body and mind. It’s meditation for the physical senses.” If you don’t have any on hand, try Doorley’s recipe that uses flour, salt, water, cream of tartar and oil. Don’t worry about getting it perfect. Use tools from the kitchen to cut, press and roll.
Create with stickers and stamps You might be surprised at how fully absorbed toddlers can get by a sheet of stickers and a piece of paper. Doorley suggests drawing a background on the paper, if you want to make it more engaging. Try stamps and stamp pads, too, for a similar experience.
Make tape roads If you have a child who likes toy cars, make them an expansive roadway with blue painter’s tape throughout your kitchen. Draw roads and tracks on the tape with permanent markers.
Experience a sensory bin There is no end of things you can do with a plastic tub. Fill it with water, a baby doll and sponges, and let your toddlers give the baby a bath. Or try funnels and washable water colours. For a dry experience, try scooper and bowls with wheat berries, rice or beans. Sensory bins don’t require a lot of mental activity and they’re calming.
Scavenger hunt Go through the house looking for everyday items to exercise that wiggly energy that can’t be got out on the playground.
Preschoolers
Give them drawing prompts Give a child a tray or a squishy desk that they can use in bed or on the sofa, plus some colouring pages (try Doorley’s Camouflage Colouring Pages) and crayons, coloured pencils or markers. Let them use their imaginations or give them art prompts: try drawing one part of an animal, letting them draw the next part, and so on. Doorley has an example of these, too, on her blog.
Play exquisite corpse Try this surrealist game from the 1930s: you take a piece of paper, fold it into thirds. The first player draws a head and then passes it on to the second person, who draws the middle. The next person draws the legs. “It’s a silly, fun thing to do,” Doorley says.
Put together an art caddy Try to build up your own art caddy. Put supplies such as glue, tape, crayons, yarn, buttons and more into a container and let them be inventive. You can introduce new things, as time goes by.
Make a collage “Preschoolers like gluing things,” Doorley says. Give them a bits and bobs box, with whatever you can forage from around the house: pieces of magazines, feathers, strips of aluminium foil, cotton balls, etc.
Try Kinetic Sand Kinetic Sand has similar sensory qualities as modelling compound, and can be used in a sensory bin with scoops, bowls and sand toys. You can buy the regular beachlike Kinetic Sand, or try colour or sparkly versions. There’s sensory sand sets, too. And there’s also the DIY alternative: cloud dough.
Make a blanket fort The best kind of story time for my son right now is one in which we’re hiding in a cave (his dark room) and reading by torch. Maximise this wonder with a blanket fort in the living room or family room and break out some new books from the library or otherwise.
Write on the body The holiday is the perfect opportunity for using temporary tattoos and tattoo pens. Nobody will see them for days! And the kids will get a kick out of it.
Primary school children
Sculpt with oven-bake modelling clay Clay is soothing, just like Play-Doh, or kinetic sand, but oven-bake modelling clay makes the activity a little bit more mature. Encourage them to make whatever they want and bake it in the oven. “They can create a sculpture while they’re at home,” Doorley says.
Make collages Same activity as collages for preschoolers, but let the older kids have scissors and a magazine to cut up as they wish.
Play drawing games “You can do more drawing collaborations with older children,” Doorley says. Show them how to do tic-tac-toe, or introduce them to Pictionary. There are many books out there that teach drawing, too, such as How to Draw Flowers and How to Draw Planes, Trains and Boats, and lots of sophisticated colouring books to let older kids try. Maybe with a new set of coloured pencils?
Get some fresh air If the stir-crazies are setting in, bundle up for a walk to the corner coffee shop. Or just try a walk around the neighbourhood with the promise of hot chocolate at home. Fresh air does wonders.
Time for a spa day Rumbaugh says to give kids a soothing spa day. Let them take a long lavender bath with toys and dry them with a warm towel. Paint their nails, if they’re interested, and warm up a tube sock of beans in the microwave to soothe their neck and shoulders.
Look at family photo albums Children are often a captive audience for stories from their family history. Bring out those photo albums and wow him or her with pictures of Mom or Dad as a kid.
Listen to an audiobook Sometimes, it’s too hard to do anything. That’s where audiobooks and stuffed animals come in. Cozy up your child to something great, like Little House in the Big Woods, or even Peter and the Wolf.
Movie marathon Yes, this idea uses screens – but let’s not forget that, as Doorley says, “TV is a great tool”. To give screen time some novelty, try a movie marathon with popcorn and warm tea. – The Washington Post