If you have never played games with your toddlers and school-aged kids, the best time to start is now. Take them outside for fresh air and you will be surprised that your kids are better behaved when they are outside and moving. Kids get bored easily when they are in the confined area of the home. It is a simple truth that when kids get bored, their reaction to boredom is misbehavior.
Adults fail to notice that kids laugh and smile more when they are outside. Therefore go out there and play with your kids. Do not make any excuses not to play with them because your kids won’t be young forever. You will treasure these moments ten years from now.
Kids get bored easily. Use your imagination and invent new games to play with them. Your backyard may not be the best place to play Hide and Seek. Unlike the school playground, the backyard is small and you will run out of places to hide. I love inventing new games to play. I think I do this because I get bored of playing the same old games. Hide and seek is fun, but we run out of places to hide. The school yard playground only has so many trees, slides, and other obstacles to hide behind.
Sneak Attack Hide and Seek
Recently I came up with something my girls absolutely LOVE. It’s called Sneak Attack Hide and Seek. In fact, all the kids at the park love this game and we end up with everyone joining in.
Here’s how it works: The person who is “it” closes his (or her) eyes and counts. Everyone else runs to hide as per normal. But the “it” person has to sneak up on those who are hiding. He has to sneak up and yell “found you” before those who are hiding notice.
If the person hiding notices the sneak attack coming, he can announce “I see you” and get another chance to go hide again.
In the playground this works really well. There are tunnel slides to hide in, and all sorts of other places. The trick is for the person doing the seeking to stay as hidden and as quiet as possible so he can launch his “sneak attack” and catch the people hiding. It doesn’t work well in the house. It’s too hard for the seeker to stay hidden.
Sneak-up Tickle Attack
Here’s another game I came up with after being tired from playing all day. I literally just wanted to lie down anywhere. But oh, no. The girls wanted to play a bit more.
Unconsciously I must have been thinking, “How can I come up with a fun game where I don’t have to move?” Well, the answer was “sneak-up tickle attack”.
It works like this: I find a spot at the end of a hallway where I can lie down on my stomach. I put my head on a pillow, and I put hold another pillow (or soft blanket) to cover my head. It also blocks my hearing just enough to make the game fun.
Now the kids take turns. One at a time, they start at the other end of the hallway. They must sneak up on me and tickle me under my arms without me catching them. I catch them if I hear them coming. When this happens, I just take my head out from under the blanket and announce, “I hear you!”. They switch, and try again.
If you find it too easy to hear them, block your hearing more with the blanket. If you can’t hear them at all, lighten up a bit.
This game is tremendous fun. Even if I can hear them coming, sometimes I just let them tickle me. They think it’s hilarious!
Truth be told … so do I. I think I laugh harder than them.
What are your creative games?
I hope you agree with me that playing with your kids is important. Laughing is important. What better way to do this than to play games. When you run out of games ideas, make up new games.
What are your favorite games? Do tell! Drop a comment below. I’m always looking for fun ideas.