Those who have kids know that they love to play, so it's just a matter of being creative to make fun happen with them and to be a part of that. For example, a book and a Tupperware and we have a launch ramp for cars and entertainment for hours. What ways to play do you invent?
A simple box with blocks to take out and throw in entertains my 11 month old for a long while. We have a play area loaded with all kinds of toys so there is an endless amount of fun that can be put in it. My older two kids are not easy to entertain. They want everything we don't have such as an iPad or iPod.
Yeah, mine also don't have electronic devices to play with. My 4 year old gets entertained alone for hours with his stuff, but the older one is harder. He loves to play with water though, I put him by the bathtub with some toys and he loves it there.
All my kid needs to be happy is a bucket. She will search the entire yard for the best thing to put in it. Once she decides what she wants she will spend hours putting it in the bucket then dumping everything out. Then puttingb it in the bucket again.
I don't have kids of my own but when my younger cousins were still in their diapers, I was often the one who babysat them. One of the things we did was play cat and mouse. It's the typical chasing game. We ran around in circles, from their house to our grandmother's house (just a door away from my aunt's house), while I pretended to be so slow and incompetent that I had trouble catching them. They liked to shriek a lot so I let them hide wherever they wanted to until they fell asleep.
I have two boys and they have only male cousins, so when we gather at my mother in law we organize football matches or drills, it's pretty exciting because they all have football (soccer I mean) practice, so they are turning into some little aces.
Inventing things to do with your kids is always fun and keeps your kids busy. My 2 year old loves to play with simple things like bowls and pots, she and I can make a fun game out of pretty much anything. I love it when she discovers new things and how they work, like buttons and switches(safely of course). A kids mind is a wonderful thing and it's to open their minds to new things and experiences. I think it's important to play with your kids and give your kids attention because if not when they get older, they will look for attention from any and everybody.
When my kids were young, maybe around 7 to 10 years old, we would always play word games, guessing games or just tell stories about anything. Sometimes, we play tag, hide and seek, catching ball, etc.. when outside. I didn't encourage my kids to play gadget games or computers when they were young. So we usually just play simple games that don't require toys or gadgets to have fun.
I usually do arts and crafts with them. I try to be imaginary and try to remember what I used to do as a kid when playing with dolls and such, but for some reason it is very hard to be creative as an adult. I think that's why I like to do arts and crafts because it's still creative but you don't have to come up with dialogue. You can just create.
Arts and crafts is something really cool Gin, I wish I could do that as well. Usually I play them just fooling around or with cars, riding the bike and playing football. My wife on the other hand has other more quiet ways to play, she's a calmer influence on them.
