ChristusG Posted January 4, 2010 Share Posted January 4, 2010 My 5 year old cannot entertain herself....she loves for me to play, play, play. To her, playing means making people/animals walk and talk, pretending that I'm a dog catcher and she's a dog, etc. Lots of imaginative play, which is excellent. However, I think I lost my imaginative play ability a few years ago LOL. I really do not enjoy it. I'd rather play catch, play a board game, read books to her, play hide and seek, play the Wii together, make crafts, etc. But she absolutely LOVES for me to play imaginative stuff with her. I just dread it. I find myself putting her off over and over or trying to get her to do something different with me.....and I feel so bad about that. I do try to indulge her a couple of times a week. But I do not enjoy it at all. Of course she does not know this because I play enthusiastically with her, despite disliking it LOL. How do you spend time with your kids? Do you participate in imaginative play? Do you spend time daily playing with them? In what ways do you play? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristusG Posted January 4, 2010 Author Share Posted January 4, 2010 Oops...I meant to post this on the general board. Does anyone know how to move it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Uhura Posted January 4, 2010 Share Posted January 4, 2010 I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your photo blog. I really enjoy photography especially now that I've gone digital. I actually had 1 paying job - shooting girls U19 soccer which was a lot of fun! Capt_Uhura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nono Posted January 4, 2010 Share Posted January 4, 2010 Oh, you described my daughter and me. My solution? A younger brother! He's been great helping her play. :D But, we've also stumbled upon a very goofy solution, and my dd thinks it's hysterical. I get to be the crabby characters. So, if we're playing with dolls, I'm "working" the doll that doesn't want to do anything and is generally cantakerous. If the kids are pretending they are going through the woods, I'm the troll or mean old lady who lives behind the bend. I jump out and yell to "Stay out of my woods." In addition to being funny to them, it is therapeutic for me. ;) They also know that after about 15 min. of that, I'm shot. I aim for three 15 min sessions of this type of play a day. That's all I can give. Other games, they're for me! Right now, we're getting ready to play Pizza Pile Up now that school has finished. Pizza Pile Up is a very sensitive balance game. So in short order, someone loses. We use it to play "H-O-R-S-E" and keep score, so it is teaching both my children how to tally and figure out who loses in a multi-round game. Adds a whole new dimension to game play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristusG Posted January 4, 2010 Author Share Posted January 4, 2010 Oh, you described my daughter and me. My solution? A younger brother! He's been great helping her play. :D But, we've also stumbled upon a very goofy solution, and my dd thinks it's hysterical. I get to be the crabby characters. So, if we're playing with dolls, I'm "working" the doll that doesn't want to do anything and is generally cantakerous. If the kids are pretending they are going through the woods, I'm the troll or mean old lady who lives behind the bend. I jump out and yell to "Stay out of my woods." In addition to being funny to them, it is therapeutic for me. ;) They also know that after about 15 min. of that, I'm shot. I aim for three 15 min sessions of this type of play a day. That's all I can give. Other games, they're for me! Right now, we're getting ready to play Pizza Pile Up now that school has finished. Pizza Pile Up is a very sensitive balance game. So in short order, someone loses. We use it to play "H-O-R-S-E" and keep score, so it is teaching both my children how to tally and figure out who loses in a multi-round game. Adds a whole new dimension to game play. Oh my gosh, you sound exactly like me LOL!! When we play, I'm always the troublemaker as well. For some reason, it's easier to play when I'm the "bad guy" LOL! And like you said, having a sibling does help. My younger DD is 2 years old and they are the best of friends....and they do play together a ton. But she still seeks me out to play as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristusG Posted January 4, 2010 Author Share Posted January 4, 2010 I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your photo blog. I really enjoy photography especially now that I've gone digital. I actually had 1 paying job - shooting girls U19 soccer which was a lot of fun! Capt_Uhura Thanks!! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted January 4, 2010 Share Posted January 4, 2010 I read and play games with my kids. The only way I really participate in the imaginative play is by being a prop ... my kids will say I am the baby bobcats' momma, for example, and my part is to call them "Baby Bobcat" when they talk to me. I think imagination is a wonderful thing and something to be encouraged, but if you don't enjoy it, don't do it. Direct your daughter to her sibling or a friend or tell her that she'll have to play that with her dolls/stuffed animals. Play with her in the way you enjoy. Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted January 4, 2010 Share Posted January 4, 2010 I didn't play with my dc. Your dd would die of boredom at my house, lol. I read aloud to them at lunch, and of course talked with them during the day and passed out lots of hugs and kisses. :-) But playing with them? No. No way. Not gonna happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narrow Gate Academy Posted January 4, 2010 Share Posted January 4, 2010 (edited) With 4, I can rotate them playing with each other now. Back when I had just two, I set aside 30 minutes a day to spend with my oldest while her sister was asleep. Each day, I would give her a choice of what to do. One day might be dolls or figures (imaginative). The next I would suggest legos or some type of craft. The third day I might give her a choice between 2 more active activities. Then you can cycle through the choices again substituting a new choice for the ones already used. For me it broke up the monotony. For her, she had a daily time with Mom (which is really what she wanted anyway). Reading books had its own daily time. HTH Edited January 4, 2010 by Narrow Gate Academy fix grammar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristusG Posted January 4, 2010 Author Share Posted January 4, 2010 With 4, I can rotate them playing with each other now. Back when I had just two, I set aside 30 minutes a day to spend with my oldest while her sister was asleep. Each day, I would give her a choice of what to do. One day might be dolls or figures (imaginative). The next I would suggest legos or some type of craft. The third day I might give her a choice between 2 more active activities. Then you can cycle through the choices again substituting a new choice for the ones already used. For me it broke up the monotony. For her, she had a daily time with Mom (which is really what she wanted anyway). Reading books had its own daily time. HTH That's a great idea! I think I may try that. Except it will be a bit more challenging since DD2 does not nap anymore. DD2 likes to play with us when we do imaginative play. It's hard to set aside one on one time for older DD, which I know she would love. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lisamarie Posted January 4, 2010 Share Posted January 4, 2010 That is what my kids do with their dad.;) He has no problem sitting down and playing doll house, princesses, or whatever with the kids while it is like nails on a chalkboard to me. I'd much rather do something else with them. I'd say once a week I will play something like this with them. This may also be why I tend to skip over the "dramatic play" section of our curriculum because I don't like it.:tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 Same here....I feel like I put off my youngest, 4 yrs old, because I don't want to play kitties or trains. DH seems to handle it fine when he has the time and fortunately ds7 is his best buddy too. I'd much rather do structured play: board games, read books, puzzles, projects, building stuff. We're quite sad at our house that ds4 doesn't love books and games like the rest of us yet. It makes it very difficult to find something to do as a family. Brownie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
presley Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 My daughter is 5, very imaginative and an only child. Her dad and I are old :tongue_smilie: with worn-out knees, backs, etc. DH is great at wrestling, tickling, playing monster, etc. DD always wants me to playact something or other. Like pp have mentioned, I am often the witch, the mean girl or, most recently, Mad Madam Mimm :D I don't enjoy it at all. I do what someone else mentioned, playing a couple short stints of this daily. I feel guilty b/c she has no siblings/live-in playmates. I do often tell her i have other things to do and can't play right now. She is getting a teeny bit better at self-entertaining. You've heard it before... It won't last forever, they are only this little a short time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crl Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 You certainly described my DD to a T. DH is pretty good about playing for 15-20 at night with the kids like this. And DD has been calling her grandma (who lives 9 hours away) to make up adventures together. It's a perfect arrangement since MIL feels left out being far away. By having this special activity with DD she feels more connected and it gets me off the hook. Maybe you can arrange for a family member to do phone adventures with her. I have noticed that my two kids started playing together more once DS turned 3. So maybe the younger sibling will start taking your place more over the next year oro so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SquirrellyMama Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 If I'm really busy cleaning or cooking and can't stop to play they will let me be the maid or the queen. So, I'm in the play but I can still do my house stuff. It works well. When I'm the Queen I can order them around. I think they like it best when I'm the maid :001_smile: I don't like to play either although as a kid I had a great time with imaginitive play. I was a kid who played by myself a lot though so maybe that is why I don't like to get into their play. My 8 yr old dd isn't very good at playing alone but the other 2 kids are good at it especially my 6 yr old ds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracy Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 How do you spend time with your kids? Do you participate in imaginative play? Do you spend time daily playing with them? In what ways do you play? My dd4 is exactly the same way. I try to make it educational, and then it is easier for me to do. For example, we recently read a book about Princess Isabel of Spain, and then she wanted to be Princess Isabel. I pretended to be King Ferdinand asking for her hand in marriage. And through that, dd knows that Isabel was Queen of Castile, Ferdinand was King of Aragon, and their marriage combined their kingdoms into Spain. This is way better than pretending she is a Disney Princess, and in spite of my distaste for pretending, I am very motivated to discourage the infatuation with commercial characters. I get a lot of children's biographies, and we pretend we are real people all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kimber Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 My daughter who is 11 now (almost 12) was like this. And my dh played with her for hours. In fact, he'd make elaborate set ups covering the entire room with good animals and bad animals. She'd be so involved that once I heard her screaming and ran into the room where I found her crying. I mean she had tears streaming down her face. She was really little, so I ran to her to pick her up and she stood up and said, "That's okay, Mommy, we're just playing." She had a big grin on her face and my dh was laughing. I thank God for my dh because although I played, it was not like that. I find it boring, but I think it's because I was too consumed with other children and other responsibilities. Maybe if you can schedule it and make it more dramatic, with more bad guys and stuff, maybe you'd enjoy it more. I must add that this daughter of mine is now an awesome reader, devouring books like crazy. I think the imaginative play has had a lot to do with that. But believe me when I say I understand how difficult it is to make it happen. I'm glad that now I have enough kids that they can play together. I am the absolute last resort when it comes to playtime now. Rather than play, I read a lot and went to the park and took them to the library every week. I also cooked with them alot. We made alot of cookies. We had picnics in the park sometimes. We went to the mall, shopping, and we hung out with friends for play dates. It was hard sometimes, but it was really a lot of fun. As I type this, I'm thinking no wonder I'm worn out and tired. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caribbean Queen Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 I don't play with the children much. I set a time limit when I play paper dolls with my daughter because it is soooooo boring I can only stand 15 minutes of it. If I really don't feel like playing, I just say so and I don't feel guilty about it at all. Almost everything I do, I do for my children. I take care of them, teach them, and am with almost 24/7. If I was their playmate also, I think I would be smothering them. I would really be overdoing it. Even though one of my children would enjoy being smothered, I don't think it would be so good for him that I should force myself to do it. I think it is better for him (and me) that he learn to play independantly of Mommy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skueppers Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 I just don't do it. I make sure my daughter has time to play with other kids, and she and her brother play together pretty well. My daughter's idea of quality time with mom is math lessons. Before she was obsessed with math, it was board games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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