Kiddipedia
Like many other parents in 2020 I found myself suddenly at home a lot more with my kids (10 and 7) than ever before. This was a whole new level of challenge. So many hours. So little space. I had to get a bit experimental and learned some great tips on how to create fun at home.
Usually the kids and I co-created the games too which I guess in a sense is my first tip. The more the kids can have input into the games and activities the better.
Here are my five tips for entertaining kids at home or close to home.
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Use music
I’m constantly amazed how much the addition of music to a situation can lift the mood.
Music can give rise to a series of fun games including musical statues, creating music videos, doing silly fashion parades and more. Combine music with a couple of big boxes of dress ups and you’re really starting to ramp things up. I started using mood music to help us with our scavenger hunts too.
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Scavenger hunts / hide and seek
We had a series of shells that we’ve collected at the beach and I would hide those all over the house and yards and one in five of them would contain some sort of a special prize or treat. The scavenger hunts seemed to always lead into a cracking game of hide and seek which is an oldie but a real goodie. Try adding music as mentioned to create a mood.
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Create nature adventures
Like many other parents we struggled to keep our kids from slipping into low moods and lethargic feelings last year. In those moods suggesting a walk outside somewhere especially during winter can be a real challenge and there was a lot of resistance on almost EVERY occasion. We really had to persist!
Once out and about it was amazing how fresh air and activity really lightened the kids mood. Just simple things like popping rocks into the creek, creating little dams or finding trees to climb. Kids seem to have this instinct about nature play. Make the most of it.
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Give kids a project
The key here is finding the right project to meet the personality. For example, we are planning for a change of bedroom scenario in the middle of the year and my 10 yr old daughter has spent countless happy hours drawing up designs and possibilities for how her new room could look.
My 7 year old boy on the other hand loved creating a LEGO mobile phone holder for my partner to use in her work and he also loves to choose where we go when we go for bike rides and walks.
Kids love responsibility. Give them as much as is safe to do so.
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The magic of an old mattress
An old mattress of ours missed the hard rubbish collection and we were stuck with it for another year. This turned out to be an absolute blessing in disguise. It gets randomly put out on the lawn most days.
Sometimes all four of us just lie down on it and stare at the clouds to see pictures or stare at the stars at night time all wrapped up in blankets.
Other times we play variations of ball games, classic catches, dramatic falls or wrestling / stacks on type games on there.
Either way the value of just simply putting a mattress in the backyard and seeing what happens was a big learning for me in 2020.
In summary I think it’s amazing what can be created when kids and adults get off screens and create games together. Note I haven’t even delved into another whole possibility of craft play here which is something that other parents including my partner are more switched on to than me. This is what I liked to do with the kids which is a good focus.
So my five tips for entertaining kids at home then in summary are:
- Use music to lift the mood
- Do scavenger hunts and hide and seek
- Go explore in nature
- Give kids a project
- Through an old mattress in the middle of a backyard occasionally and see what happens
Have fun!
Dave Hall
Facilitator, Physio, Entertainer and Dad
