Even as a kid, I had a hard time just "playing" like normal kids do. In kindergarten, my favorite thing was to play checkers. Uh, yeah, weird. I liked climbing trees and listening to the wind, swinging, reading, drawing... but I don't remember just playing something unstructured. I guess that's why when E asks me, "Mom, c'mon, play with me," and I say, "What do you want to play?" she gets frustrated. "I don't know. Just PLAY" is her response. There is no WHAT. It's just something kids do. And I want to be able to do that. For her.
Today I looked online for some fun things to play with your kids, and most of what I found was great, but took preparation, which doesn't work out when they want to play NOW. The best idea I found was to make a fort, which we did, and the kids seemed to like that. I even got in it, b/c the website said that's what cool parents would do. And I pulled out our bag of instruments and we played them for a few minutes, too. I even played dolls for a while. But I just have a really hard time staying with it as long as they want to. I have a hard time getting lost in the "here and now" that kids live in, and start thinking of laundry and projects I want to do... and next thing I know, I'm sneaking off to do them.
So I need your help. Anyone with great ideas of quick, fun things to do with your kids (like the fort), PLEASE tell me. And if you have any tips for staying focused on playing, that'd be much appreciated as well.
PS- I'm not down on myself or thinking I'm a bad mom; I'm just wanting to become better each day, and today I realized this is one area I could work on.
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Love it! We're pretty similar I think. I don't have kids yet, but since being in primary/nursery and wanting kids I've wanted to come up with fun things to do with kids. Well, the one thing I have is a long container filled with beans and sand tools. I'm sure you already know about this idea, but I know Eldon liked it in nursery. It's cheap and easy and you just have to site there while they play around with the beans. I'd set some rules, otherwise the beans might end up all over your house.
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