Kids will always be kids. Though they may have different personalities and characteristics, their young minds and hearts would always long to play, have fun and discover things around them.
In fact, a study done by the University of Illinois showed that kids of different ages want different things to do. Infants most of the time want to be rocked, tickled or sung songs to, while toddlers are always restless, jumping, climbing up and down the stairs and running to and fro exploring objects in and out of the house.
Primary schoolers, on the other hand, find it fun painting walls in the house, playing with building blocks or playing superheroes by wearing capes made out of bed sheets and covers. And as kids grow up into teenagers, they find more fun being with friends, shopping, eating out and going to the movies.
How Parents Can Have Fun Together With Their Kids
The period from infancy to toddler and school-age years is the most critical because this is the period when the child’s brain rapidly develops. Things they see, hear and experience during these years are absorbed and stored as core memories — both good and bad.
So parents carry the biggest responsibility in ensuring that their children store the most positive memories, and they can only do this by injecting more fun and positivity in everything they do as a family. Below are tips and ideas on How Parents Can Have Fun Together With Their Kids!
Here’s a tip: mom and dad should find time to play with the kids.
Toddlers love to play hide and seek, superheroes or build houses and dinosaurs out of building blocks. But it would be best if parents ask them at least what games they would want to play. After the game, parents can ask the children if they enjoyed it and tell them that they did too. This will create a happy memory in them while slowly building self-confidence.
With school-aged children, mom could probably play paper dolls with little girls at home, put makeup on or do each other’s hair. Well, little boys could play computer games with dad as an opponent, ride a bike together during weekends or go on a fun, pirate scavenger hunt!
Teenagers start to want to become independent, believing they should be making decisions for themselves and feel bored staying at home. So sometimes, mom and dad might need to ride the bandwagon with their teenage kids like going to the movies (with their choice of a movie of course), play at an arcade, eat out or have coffee together.
At the same time, parents need to make sure to come up with some exciting activities for their teenagers at home: do DIYs like arts and crafts using Silhouette Cameo 3, gardening or learning to cook a new recipe.
It’s important to give your children the freedom to find happiness in the things they do, as this will build the confidence in them and let them discover and unleash their potential as they grow. However, parents still need to be on guard for the kind of fun their children engage with — the games they play, friends they go out with, books they read and places they go.