Part of parenting is playing with your children. Creating a loving bond needs work and time. So now it’s playtime and you need to be good at this job. What games would I recommend?
Pencil and Paper Games
Draw a silly monster! Take turns drawing the head, stomach, arms, hands, legs, and feet. Fold the paper for each body part as you take turns drawing. Unfold the paper to reveal your entire drawing. Be creative!
Dots and squares. Draw many dots to make a grid. Take turns making lines by conecting two dots together. The lines have to make a square. The one who draws the most squares wins.
Hangman. Guess the letters of a word. If you guess wrong you draw a body part from a stickman. You win by guessing all the letters before drawing the whole stickman.
Ships. Lable on a paper the numbers 1-10 at the top and on the side, the letters A-J. You should have a grid with numbers and letters. Pick five squares and draw some ships. By asking the square positions, for example 1A, locate your opponents ships before they find yours.
Categories. Pick a letter. think of a word that starts with that letter for names, animals, plants, and objects. Write them down before your opponent to win.
Building
This activity can be done with towering toy blocks, lego cities, pillows to make a fort, and whatever doesn’t break when it falls crashing down. Stack different items as high as you can! The highest building that doesn’t fall wins.
Cups Game
You need six cups and something to hide inside them. Hide that item under one of the cups. Mix the cups around then show them to your opponent. They should find the item saying “empty” or “full” before lifting the cup.
If they say “empty” but they find the item, they lose. If they say “full” and they find the item, they win. It’s pure luck and chance, have fun!
Card Games
Shuffle the deck of cards. Pass out six cards to each player. Place seven cards in full view on deck. If you find a matching card, you can take it. Place the cards that you take face up. If someone has a matching card from your deck, they can steal your set of cards too. If you have the “J” Jack card, you can take all the cards that are on deck. For fun say “Ka-Koo-Shun” when using that joker card. When there are no more cards to pass out, the person with the most cards wins.
Puzzles
Create your own puzzle. Draw a picture. Cut it up into many pieces. Try to put it back together again. If you want to make your puzzle harder, don’t color the picture and cut it up into really small pieces.
Board Games
There are many board games to buy and play out there, but you can make your own too!
Draw your players or a stickman or whatever. Draw the path from start to end. Now the path needs obstacles and lucky spots that increases or decreases your position on the path.
You can get fancy with how the playes move, with a dice, by answering questions, if there is fake money, or just taking turns. Get to the finish first to win.
DIY
Crochet, arts and crafts, repare stuff, invent something new. Use you imagination! For inspiration, there are lots of videos on YouTube.
Sometimes…
The best activity you can do with your child is just put them in your lap to cuddle, giggle, and share a warm hug.
