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Things to do with toddlers and children- by Lydia Munyard
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Things to do with slightly older children
Things to do with Toddlers
- Finger painting
- Playing with play dough
- Biscuit baking
- Icing biscuits
- Cooking of any kind
- Colour sorting with Lego
- Dancing and Singing to music
- Colouring and drawing of any kind
- Blowing bubbles
- Hide and Seek
- Playing in the Sand box
- Singing
- Cutting and Tearing
- Bag in a Basket
- Playing Ball
- Instrument playing
- Playing "Somebody's coming" and hiding
- Feeding the birds
- Reading
- Puzzles
- Playing house
- Shakers
- Farms
- Sounds
- Pointing
- Collecting things
- Building blocks
- Picnicing
- Dressing up
- Peek a Boo
- Tea Parties
- Playing with water
- Sleeping animal
- Row your boat
- Throwing up in the air
- Drawing
- Chasing around the house
- Playing dolls
- Families
- Lego
- Hungry frogs
- Games
- Making cities
- Playing animals
- Picking flowers
- Playing babies
- Tearing, scrunching, cutting paper
- Playing in the garden
- Playing with pots and pans
- Playing shops
- Pretending to talk on the telephone
- Talk about the day before going to bed, try get thing in sequence,
talk about tomorrow and what you plan to do.
- Talk about things while you do them, explain what you are doing
and why. i.e. "lets put on your shoes, left foot first, now the
other leg. This foot is your right foot, Which hand is your right
hand?" and on and on.
- Play "What If" - What if the sky was green and the grass
and trees were blue? What if we all walked backwards? ...
- Feeling - put some things in a box with tissue paper or crepe paper
and try and feel what they are.
- Swimming
- have a picnic in the lounge, or in the garden.
- collect and listen to well constructed Christian music for toddlers.
- give name to all the cuddly toys (write the names down somewhere
so you don't forget years later)
- Throw bean bags with different hands crossing mid line of their
bodies.
- Picking up objects with a clothes peg.
Things to do with slightly older children.
- Just be with your kids, talk to them, relate to them. Remember you
can't make quality time it just happens if you spend long enough with
them.
- Play board games together as a family.
- Build up a collection of jokes and tell them to one another.
- Make up stories and tell them to one another, (I wish I had tapes
some of the ones we told each other)
- Making pizzas
- Puzzles
- Picking fruit and making jam.
- Cycling
- Bowling
- Swimming
- Ceramic painting - nice for the whole family
- Making a go-cart
- Build a tree house
- Teaching the children to lay the table - "chores"
- Teach Cross-stitch to young girls.
- Sewing
- Reading
- Invest in a swing ball and play together in the garden.
- Volley ball
- Get old toys and things and wrap them up in newspaper and play pass
the parcel to the sound of music, kids love getting there old things
back.
- Talk about money and how it works. Why is it important?
- See a show, first buy the video (eg. Joseph and his technicolour
dreamcoat), then see the live show, then by the music CD. The value
of your investment is repeated many times.
- Play computer games with your kids, ask them to show you how.
- Let them make up a story and you write it down for them, make your
own simple book.
- Play marbles.
- Write your own newspapers.
- Who, when, where homemade cards (eg. who - the postman, when - on
Friday, where - on the corner and then make up a sentence). As different
cards are put together some funny stories emerge.
- The shopping game - eg. first person starts, I went to the shop
and bought an apple, seconds person repeats first and adds their item,
continue adding and see how many you can get to without faulting.
- Art & Craft - draw on tissue paper with ear bud dipped in bleach;
draw with candle or wax crayon, then wash over with diluted
food colouring to make picture; hold crayon under burning
flame and then dot melted wax around paper to make a picture;
colour all over white sheet of paper with different coloured
wax crayons then go over with black crayon, then make picture
drawing with a toothpick; make small pieces of coloured
paper and make a picture from it eg. blue pieces for sky;
paint picture on one side and fold over to mirror image
eg. butterflies; plastic cold drink bottle, cut out shapes
from that and dip earbuds into glass paint and decorate
plastic shapes and make fridge magnets; ink drawing with
straws; put paint, water and dishwashing liquid into a round
yogurt tub and then blow the paint with straws and make
bubble pictures.
- Chargoal drawing.
- Teach life skills eg. make a circle of friends by cutting strips
of paper and finding good qualities about others to write on strips,
link the strips together and make a chain; make rectangles out of
cardboard, write affirmations on each brick and build together to
make a friendship wall; talk about the "b's" eg. be helpful,
be kind, be loving, be caring etc.
Things to do with your Teens
Find some activity that will allow you to have at least 30
minutes each week to spend with each of your teens, to talk
and chat, go for a walk.
My neighbour goes surfing a couple of times a week with his
teenage son at about 5 am. That give him a 30 minute car journey
each way to the beach and probably an hour or more surf time.
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