While I’m not one for clichés, I do see firsthand how your child is your inspiration. As a mom of a five-year-old and a five-month-old, I often find myself looking for ways to engage the older one constructively, at the same time hope to get enough time for myself.
A lot of parents have tried and tested various creative ways to do the same, especially during these unprecedented times when we must all #stayathome. However, I’d like to share activities that have remained popular with my son for the last three years.
Let your Imagination run wild – This is the top favorite ever since my son can remember. We simply put up a tent (either store bought or create one by putting a sheet over the table) and play pretend. We often go camping with animal sounds around us, creating fire and eating s’mores, sometimes bears attack and we escape too. Latest games have been detective looking for clues to solve a robbery, life of dinosaurs, or him being a teacher. He also loves to get his kitchen set out while we dine at his restaurant or food truck. He even plays dress up (Bumble Bee of Transformers) and saves the day!
Maker Space/ Upcycle- This is the second most exciting activity for both him and me because we get to make anything we want with scrap around the house. All it takes is art supply, recyclables and a theme. He has made trucks out of an amazon box, TV remote cover out of, well, paper, a bird feeder out of milk carton, train with juice boxes, roller coaster and Tesla Cyber Truck with toilet rolls.
Learn something new – Thanks to YouTube and similar platforms there is nothing you cannot learn sitting at home free of cost. So, he is learning Mandrin and German languages. He also sings and plays (in the broadest sense of the word) the guitar. Although it is cacophony at this point in time, we encourage his interest and fingers crossed, he will eventually pursue it. We plan on learning origami, advanced programming, and swimming soon.
Pranks – Pranks and tricks are his new-found love. I squarely blame the Netfilx series ‘Shaun the Sheep’. I let him play pranks but the ground rules are clear: that one grown-up be his accomplice and of course safety comes first. Our pranks have been something along these lines: tape the book shelf, stuff newspaper in pillow covers, draw a spider in a toilet roll, fake insect in cereal box, exchange book covers.
Board Games – A non-original idea but ever so popular is board games. I include puzzles, memory cards, lego, building blocks and such in this category. There are several board games we play almost every evening: Sum Swamp, Zingo, Scrabble, Pictionary, Boogle, Taboo etc. When we don’t have the physical boards we turn to apps!
Chalk-up and Paint-up - Arts and craft by itself is not always fun but it’s a different story when you mix it up. When the weather is favorable, he gets to step out into the patio or even the pavement with his box of chalk and go crazy. Sometimes he draws a city with schools, hospitals, parks, apartments etc. in our living room too. With paint, he can only paint objects be it rocks, Whole Foods’ bags, and even dad’s white T-shirts.
Write your own story – Creating your own story or comics can be a great way to work on imagination and language. Even when he couldn’t read or write, I let him dictate to me and I wrote his stories for him. He then added his own ‘illustrations’. Now, he writes for his baby sister!
Indoor Sports – Indoor sports like table tennis, basketball are a great way to introduce new sports, competitiveness and spend that energy. If dad hadn’t purchased the rackets, I would have gladly cut out cardboard in the shape and made an activity of it. Dad and he also have little races in the living room like the obstacle race, lemon & spoon race etc.
Extended Bath-Play Time – Sometimes we don’t want to do anything and just take a break. I let him take an extended bath with his dinos, dump trucks and what not, splashing around with him in the water.
Cooking – Every now and again, he loves to get his step stool and apron into the kitchen. He has made guacamole, pastry puffs, chocolate dipped strawberry, and frequently makes pizza with dad.
Science Experiments – Science experiments I admit are completely dad’s department. He not only loves it but surprisingly learns and remembers scientific facts. The volcano, oobleck, hot ice, rainbow fizzies, milk art are simple experiments and super exciting for kids and grown-ups alike.
Feel free to share other activities you do with your kids or your experience with one of these.
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