Weighed down by work or by the gravity of international events? Sometimes it’s a welcome relief just having fun with your children. Here are some easy ideas:
Start a collection. Try something easy to find, such as bottle caps, pebbles, feathers, buttons, marbles or bookmarks. Let your child decide how to organize and display them. Egg cartons and shoeboxes make great display cases.
Open a child’s dictionary and pick a funny word. Ask your child to give a definition, or make up his own. Then let him pick the next word and ask you for its meaning.
Plan a meal in which all the foods start with the same letter. Try a Tuesday dinner of spaghetti, salad, sourdough bread, strawberries and soda or a Saturday breakfast of peaches, pancakes and peppermint tea.
Make up your own tongue twisters and practice them together. Then trip your tongues trying to decide who can say the twisters the fastest.
Paint your child’s face and let him paint yours. You can purchase face paints at party supply stores.
Pack a picnic and enjoy it in the backyard. Choose your child’s favorite foods and add some fun games, such as Frisbee or tag.
Freeze gummy worms in paper cups filled with lemonade or white grape juice. Cover the cups with foil and insert Popsicle sticks.
Decorate a small notebook with stickers, markers and glitter. Write a funny or nice message to your child and hide the notebook in her room. When she finds it, let her write a message back to you and hide it in your room. Keep hiding the notebook until all the pages are full. Then start again!
