Serious question...how do you play with your kids?

[Dianne-TX]

I have moments, but mostly am at a loss. How do you interact, play and get the heart of your dc? My ages are 11, 8, 19 months.

[Farrar]

I play board games with them. Sometimes we wrestle or are a little silly together. Sometimes I'll race them somewhere. I'll build blocks or Legos or whatever with them sometimes.

 

But mostly, I don't. We talk. We cook. We walk and hike. I let them do the playing and I stay out of it and just marvel at their crazy imaginations.

[Nakia]

I'm not good at playing, so I mostly leave that to them. I did play more when they were babies/toddlers. I do, however, cook and do arts and crafts with them. I also really love board games, and we all play the Wii together.

[jewellsmommy]

I play the victim..er,patient :tongue_smilie:so that dd can be a vet. I throw out some animal noises in response to her pokings and questions. She gets to fill syringes with lotion to use as medicine. I even got my feet rubbed this way once when my 'paws' had been hurt. :lol:

 

I engage with both dc's stuffed animals. Hippos for her and wolves with him. I babysit as the grandma.

 

I order food items off of menus they have crafted and eat the playdoh when brought to me. Both dc have taken to making full catalogs now of things I can order. Ds will scamper off and construct something out of knex and I pay up with index card money. It's a battle between them to see who gets more orders from their catalogs or menus. I try to keep it even, of course.

 

We do tea parties occasionally, but it seems as if a hippo or wolf is constantly needing a b-day party. :lol:

[2squared]

I have moments, but mostly am at a loss. How do you interact, play and get the heart of your dc? My ages are 11, 8, 19 months.

 

I'm not good at playing, but I do connect with all of them. They all LOVE cuddling together before bed. I have found that to be the most effective and consistent bonding time individually and as a family.

 

We also build family traditions. Right now during football season, we watch the Vikings every Sunday and I make a fun lunch, we have pizza night after their religious education class, and we have Sub Saturdays with my beloved homemade bread. The family traditions give us a shared framework and rhythm to our days and weeks.

 

Other than that, I try to join them in doing things they find interesting:

 

9yo dd - Read independently together, cook

7yo ds - wrestle

5yo ds - read aloud, watch birds

3yo dd - play makeup and dance

1yo ds - nurse :001_smile:

 

I think the key is to enjoy spending time together.

[NanceXToo]

We play board games, card games, and sometimes video games. We read together. We watch movies together. With DD sometimes we do nails. We do school together and sometimes that involves fun hands on projects and experiments. We go on walks together and look for things to collect for our nature tank. I take them on fun field trips and outings. Sometimes we will play things like Simon Says or Follow the Leader or Mother May I or Red Light Green Light. Sometimes I'll play around with one of their "toys" with them if it's something like a geoboard or Perfection or legos or something else you can build with or make designs with. Sometimes I color with them or do other arts and crafts with them. Sometimes I'll help them set up some sort of tent fort kind of thing or suggest a game or activity they can do with each other.

 

But do you mean do I get down and play Barbies and with toys and make believe and such? Not really. I think they get enough of that on their own, and with each other, and with their friends.

[Donna]

I play dolls with my dd because she doesn't have a sister to play with and her brothers are teens so not that interested in playing with a 9yo. We scrapbook together and have fun with everything we do...school, instrument practice...life is all play for us. I love having a daughter so much but then again, I work with kids (the 0-3 population) as my job. Playing with children is what I love to do most.

 

I play x-box with my boys for a little bit almost every night. I wasn't all that interested but figured it would be a way to "play" with them and keep them talking to me in their teen years. It turns out once I got better at it, it is fun!

 

We all play board games together now and then, too or work a puzzle when snowed in.

[Dianne-TX]

Thanks, everyone. Wow, I guess I play with my kids more than I thought! I do much of what you all posted. I also got some good ideas, too. I would love to hear more ideas of how you play with little ones, like 19 months old. :)

[NanceXToo]

Thanks, everyone. Wow, I guess I play with my kids more than I thought! I do much of what you all posted. I also got some good ideas, too. I would love to hear more ideas of how you play with little ones, like 19 months old. :)

 

19 months old...I'd pretend to "eat" play food they gave me, I'd color with them if they liked that, I'd hide things and let them find it, I'd play hide and seek, I'd do a little bit of rough house/tickling, make silly faces to make them laugh, I'd play conversational games like easy rhyming games, easy opposite games, I'd have pretend "bands" with simple rhythm instruments and pots and pans and bang away, build with over sized blocks and such, read board books and texture books, and do some of the same stuff mentioned in previous posts....really, probably most of the stuff you already naturally do!

[....]

Settlers of Catan!! :tongue_smilie:

 

I'm forced to play a lot of baseball, catch with the football, go for bike rides... (can you tell I have a son - LOL)

[tkdkidsmom]

I let them do the playing and I stay out of it and just marvel at their crazy imaginations.

 

This. I love to listen in to the stories they come up with for their legos or dolls. They each like to play independently so the "story" of what is going on is only created by them. No input from a sibling.

 

As a family we have game nights, movie nights, and homemade pizza making nights.

[mytwomonkeys]

at night, my 10 year old and i play barbies in her bed. she prefers this over bedtime stories (but i still read to her in the daytime). we also equally enjoy crafts, so we do that a lot too. my son enjoys biking & the wii, so we do that together. otherwise, he just likes to talk my face off and giving him my attention seems to please him. my husband plays with the kids in a lot of ways i don't enjoy. for example, he'll roll on the floor and tumble with them. i really don't enjoy that - so i'm so glad he is more hands-on in that regard:)

 

oh. and board games. we have family game night and love board games.

[Ellie]

I don't play with my children. (Ok, they're all grown up now, but it's easier to write in present tense than in past. :D ) I love on 'em, and help them do things they need help with, and talk with them when they want to talk (or when I want to talk, LOL), but mostly I let them do their own thing. :)

[Joanne]

No. When they were younger, I agonized over this issue many times.

 

I eventually got comfortable with the fact that I was playful with them, but did not play with them.

[m0mmaBuck]

We all play board games, card games, dice games, video games.... We play tennis, kickball, football, baseball, go swimming... We ride bikes and go for walks together. We build legos, set up Army men to knock them down... DD and I also play with Barbies, have stuffed animal tea parties, etc... Hmmmm... I guess I do play with them a lot!

[Alte Veste Academy]

all - board games, Wii, reading aloud, cleaning house, playing piano

 

DS8 - tossing a baseball, working on a project, assembling Legos

 

DD7 - cooking, handicrafts, art projects

 

DS5 - pretending I don't know where he is when he is hiding :tongue_smilie:, also assembling Legos

 

If you don't feel like a playful person, you can reframe your idea of what form play takes in your house. What is essential is spending meaningful time with them, in whatever way works best for each child.

[5LittleMonkeys]

Board games and cards with all of them. I play video games with the older 4. In fact my dh, my two oldest and I just played Halo firefight against each other for about an hour and had a blast! I was laughing so hard I was crying. I play ball with the younger ones and have played "school" with dd8. I always end up in detention though.:D

 

My husband plays GI Joe Adventure Team with dd8 and ds5. He put together a "Quest For The Lost Mummy" adventure recently. He helped them make a mummy and a bristol board pyrimid and bought some Egyptian stuff (sphinx, Canopic jars, sarcophagus). He hides the parts all over the house and then they have to have their Adventure Team action figures use their jeeps, helicopter and grappling hooks to search for them. It's so funny to see him shimmying along on his belly moving his Action Man along trying to avoid the quick sand. (Dark spots in the linoleum.) :lol: Oh, wait...we were talking about the kids weren't we.:tongue_smilie:

 

Hmmm, when mine were about 1 and 2 I would just sit on the floor and try to follow along with whatever it seemed they were doing. We might have had tea, moved blocks from one pile to another, or stuck the plastic animals in the play oven. As long as I just did whatever they were doing they seemed to enjoy it.