The importance of joint games between parents and children. Fun options for fidgets and calm kids, playful ways to develop curiosity, imagination, memory, attention and communication skills.
Playing with children at home is the easiest and most enjoyable way to get closer with your child, create another vivid shared memory, and at the same time, depending on the child's age, work on the development of his memory, observation, imagination, speech skills, the ability to communicate and other important qualities. Well, if you approach the matter with heart, not only the younger generation, but also the parents will be able to have a good time.
Why is it important to play with children at home?
Adults are always busy. They need to earn money, build a career, do household chores and dozens of different important things. And when you have a minute of rest, you are tempted to dive headlong into the news feed on your smartphone or lie down on the sofa in front of the TV.
However, there are things that cannot be neglected either for the sake of a career or for the sake of recreation. And if you are sure that fun fussing with the guys is not among them, then you are greatly mistaken. Especially if your own children are still preschoolers!
It has been proven that at 3 years old, playing with a child at home is no less important than specialized classes in a kindergarten with certified teachers and psychologists. And in the future - at 4, 7, 10 years old - joint active pastime always benefits not only the baby himself, but also the general psychological climate in the family.
The best games with kids at home
Do you mind giving your child an extra hour, but are not sure if the prospect of making 15 applications or assembling a Lego castle 5 times will captivate the kid? Especially for parents who are thinking about which games to play with their children at home in order to have fun and usefully, we offer a selection of calm, active, funny, educational and interesting options.
Active games with children
Parents of little fidgets are well aware of the vigorous activity that babies sometimes can develop. They are not so easy to captivate with drawing and constructor! This means that, first of all, it is worth paying attention to active games with children suitable for the home, which will allow the child to dump excess energy safely for himself and fragile interior items.
The best options for outdoor games:
- Sumo wrestlers … This option is suitable for 2 children to play at home: put on daddy's spacious T-shirts on the kids, tuck under them the puffiest pillows you can find in the house, and fasten with a belt at the waist. It remains to symbolically mark the boundaries of the ring with a ribbon or colored rope on the carpet, and the fighters can be released into the arena.
- Turtle Race … Other uses can be found for pillows. Get the whole team down on all fours, stand on the "Start" mark, put on your back on a small sofa cushion … And, briskly fingering with "paws", hurry to the Finish. The pillow must not fall! The main charm of such a race is that it is suitable both for the entertainment of a whole group of children at a party, and for a single game of a mother with a child at home.
- Classics … Colored tape will successfully replace crayons to line the floor in the hallway with the usual classics for jumping. Do this with the children, so you will keep them occupied twice: first by marking the future playground, and then by funny jumps. And so that after the game you do not have to scrape the floor with scissors, use masking tape, it peels off almost any surface without problems.
- Funny darts … If, in addition to scotch tape, there are 3m command adhesive strips for posters in the house, you can safely draw a target on the wallpaper, take out jumpers, shuttlecocks and rubber balls from a toy box and challenge the younger generation to a competition in accuracy. Or you can move the target from the wall to the floor and roll balls into it so that they do not fly over the boundaries marked with tape. Whose shell stopped closer to the center, he is the winner.
- Almighty Scotch … With masking tape, there are dozens of games-contests for the house for children. Compete who will jump further, marking the distance covered with pieces of tape of different colors. Lay a long strip throughout the apartment and walk along it, as if on a tightrope, trying not to stumble, and this can be done either in turn or in a "snake", putting your hands on the shoulders of the person in front. Putting ping-pong balls in spoons and at a fast pace go through the maze drawn on the floor - whoever coped first and did not drop a wobbly load wins a prize. There are a lot of ways.
- Bowling alley … This is one of the most versatile games for children and adults at home, because it has almost no age restrictions, and the more people in the team, the more fun. Assign old plastic pyramids and towers of 2-3 cubes to the role of pins, replace the bowling ball with an ordinary ball. And start knocking out glasses!
- Try, step … The meaning of the game: one participant picks up the end of a rope 1-1.5 m long and carries it along the floor, quickly moving around the room, and the other tries to step on the free end with his foot. Once he succeeds, the players switch roles.
- Dance floor for ghosts … All are draped in shawls, towels or white sheets, after which they begin to circle around the room, howling in different ways. By the way, in addition to the task of entertaining the children, Dances of Ghosts can rightfully be called educational: at the age of 4-5 years, the game for children at home will serve to improve the skills of orientation in space. But outside the apartment, where the situation is unfamiliar to the child, it is better not to play it.
- Treasure search … Hide a few small prizes in the house according to the number of participants in the game and give each a hint. These can be stickers pasted in inconspicuous places, printed photographs of objects in which the following clues are hidden, or rhymed riddles. The meaning is the same: solving one puzzle after another, looking for marks, the treasure seeker must reach the end of the path and the main prize. But keep in mind that apartment quests are good only if you are going to play with your child at home together or invite 2-3 of his friends. If there are 5 more participants, there will be a commotion.
Do not forget to consider the age of the guys. Older children are more likely to like classics or darts, while fun with walking on a tightrope or ghost dancing will seem ridiculous. But they can become an excellent option for playing at home with a child at 4 or 5 years old.
Note! Before starting outdoor games, make sure that there is no table with sharp corners or a fragile vase nearby.
Educational games for children at home
All children sooner or later begin to ask themselves the question "How does the world work?" And the main task of an adult during this period is not so much to give correct answers to young Pochemuchkas, but to support in the kids the desire to explore and study.
The best ideas for educational games for kids at home:
- Paperclip Race … For the first time to acquaint the smallest (2-3 years old) family members with the properties of a magnet, it costs nothing in a playful way. Take a sheet of copier paper, place a paperclip on top of it and make it move in different directions using the magnet hidden under the sheet. If you put a little effort and secure the paper on a rigid cardboard frame, you can arrange a competition by distributing a magnet and a paper clip to each participant. Take them in a race along the lined paths, make them spin, arrange collisions.
- Lava lamp … Fill a transparent jar about 2/3 full with water. Pour in a trace about a glass of vegetable oil, which, due to its weight, will float on the surface of the water. Add a little dye for show and add a spoonful of salt. Oil, floating in tinted water to the bottom along with salt crystals and rising again to the surface, will give an effect similar to lava lamps.
- Inflatable balloon … Pour some vinegar into the bottle, and pour soda into the balloon and stretch it over the neck of the bottle. Pour the baking soda into the vinegar. And when the ball starts to increase in size, explain that the reason for this is carbon dioxide released when soda comes into contact with vinegar.
- Erupting volcano … There is no doubt that the most interesting games with children at home are those where there is a place for creativity, new knowledge, and unusual impressions. The home volcano fits into these requirements on all counts. First, you need to jointly mold a mouth from plasticine or clay and decorate it artistically. Then hide a bottle of soda solution inside (2 tablespoons per 50 ml of warm water + 2-3 drops of dye). Then pour 50 ml of vinegar into the bottle and enjoy the foamy eruption.
- Solar system model and more … Various creativity, even not associated with chemical or physical experiments, is a good way to give young researchers knowledge about the world around them. For example, at the age of 5-6 years old, games for children at home can be turned into exciting modeling lessons. The solar system will be born from old bouncing bouncers, plasticine and papier-mâché. From boxes and rolls of paper towels - a lock or roombox, depicting a child's room in miniature. From cocktail tubes - a pipe. At the same time, you will have the opportunity to take a short excursion into mythology and tell the children about the Greek Pan and the Slavic Lele, who skillfully handled this musical instrument.
And we have not yet mentioned how many wonderful evenings you can spend at home playing board games for children! Depending on the topic, they will be able to entertain, and give new knowledge, and whip up imagination.
Creative games for the child at home
Many children love to draw and sculpt, but the mischievous people quickly get bored with the measured brush on the paper and crushing the plasticine. Experienced parents always have a few tricks in stock that can turn an everyday activity into an updated version of an exciting game for children: they will not take fidgets for a day at home, but they will provide a couple of hours of silence.
Unusual creative pursuits:
- Edible paintings … Slices of white bread, several outlets with condensed milk, a couple of drops of food coloring, clean brushes, sterilized with boiling water just in case, and … that's it. The creative process has started!
- Frost patterns … To grab the attention of older kids, you need something more original than bread and dye. For example, at the age of 10 years and older, children can be given balloons and pastry bags (plastic bags with a cut off tip) filled with an elastic but plastic mass of egg white whipped with powdered sugar to play at home. The balls are painted with arbitrary patterns and hung up to dry for 24 hours. Then the glaze is carefully separated from the rubber surface, the ball is pierced with a needle and carefully pulled out into one of the holes. The resulting carved spheres look fantastic. You can also eat them!
- Rice applique … This time, not condensed milk should be poured into the sockets, but a spoonful or two of vinegar. Then dissolve food coloring in it, add white rice and mix thoroughly with a toothpick. When the grains are evenly colored, they will need to be dried and start creating applications on a sheet of paper greased with glue or double-sided tape.
- Unusual plasticine … What makes simple, but fascinating "cooking" games good for the development of children at home, is accessibility: everything that is necessary for them can be found in any kitchen. Combine softened butter with powdered sugar in a 1: 6 ratio, season with a spoonful of sour cream or cream, add a little vanilla extract and food coloring to the mass, and a fragrant plasticine that can be tasted is ready. For older children, they mix an inedible, but very pleasant to the touch, crunchy "snow" of starch and shaving foam.
- Unusual animal … Don't want to deal with plasticine and paints? One of the most unmarked, but at the same time entertaining, creative and funny games for children at home is the following fun. One participant draws the head of an unknown creature at the top of the sheet and folds it over so that the drawing cannot be seen. The second draws the body in the intended place, folds the sheet again and passes it on. The third draws the legs, after which the resulting unknown animal is examined, the details are completed and a name is given to it.
- Tell me what it feels like … Invite the child to press his palm to the sheet, trace it with a pencil, and then draw in a few details to turn the resulting print into something unexpected: a rooster with a comb, an octopus with tentacles, a ballerina in a skirt with ribbons. Not only kids can participate! A fun competition can easily take the whole evening by arranging family games at home for children and adults, you just have to break into teams and assign a prize for the most original version of the drawing.
Note! Creative pursuits are not limited to drawing and modeling. You can make clothes for toys from scraps, string garlands of paper hearts and dry leaves, make a mosaic from a piece of colored paper cut into pieces, lay out pictures of marshmallows or noodles, or build a curved ribbon of dominoes to see how beautifully they will fall one by one.
Children's fantasy games
Developed imagination, rich vocabulary, the ability to listen to the interlocutor and pick up the thread of the conversation will always come in handy. And all this needs to be developed from a very young age.
What to play at home: games for children that develop their imagination:
- tell me a story … Standing at the window, choose random passers-by and come up with stories for them. What is the name of a person, where he is going, what will happen to him next. The more unusual the story, the more interesting it is. And here's another similar idea for adults who need to hastily calm down the naughty toddlers: start reading a fairy tale, stop in the most exciting place and invite the kids to come up with what happened next. And when everyone has expressed their opinion, read the fairy tale and compare it with the invented stories.
- Emotions … Even with the quietest play at home, children can be helped to learn to identify the other person's feelings and are not afraid to express their own. The game proceeds as follows: first, one of the adults makes faces, conveying anger, fear, joy and other emotions and inviting the child to guess them, and then both switch roles.
- Young poets … Many of you played in your student days in the storm, and now we propose to repeat the same experience with the younger generation. Of course, rhymes for children should be easier to choose: kids under 3-4 years old can look for pairs of rhymed words like "water-food". Rhymes 5-6 years old will cope with the lines "I walked in the forest yesterday and saw a fox there." Well, for 1-2 hours of passionate play at home for children of 7 years old-10 it is not a problem to add several full-fledged quatrains.
Children's games for the development of observation
Elementary tasks that children will be happy to do will help you to take care of the development of observation, memory, reaction speed of the child. For example, such:
- Find the Lost … The presenter places 5-6 objects on the table, then asks the children to close their eyes and hides one of the objects nearby in the room. Opening their eyes, children must identify what is missing from the table and find it using hot-cold clues.
- Mirror … One participant in the game performs different actions: claps his hands, crouches, makes faces, and the second, standing opposite him, must quickly repeat all this. Afterwards, both switch roles. It is most convenient to use such games at home for two children: it will be difficult to keep a large company under control.
- Guess by touch … Several objects are hidden in an opaque bag, inviting the participants in the game to take turns lowering their hand into it and guessing what exactly they got. The more unexpected the items (a toy from the nursery, a meat hammer from the kitchen, a shoe spoon from the hallway), the more interesting the game will be.
Watch a video about children's games at home:
Finally, a little advice for parents. Try not only to entertain your child, but also to enjoy your communication. Be adventurous, participate in fun not as an adult overseer, but as an equal player, willingly complete the tasks that have fallen to you. This will not only involve children in the game more likely, but also allow you to forget about problems. When the time comes to become an adult again, the storerooms of your memory will be replenished with another joyful memory, and your relationship with your family will become a little closer and warmer.
