Do you PLAY with your kids?

[Quail_Antwerp]

And I don't mean just like tickling or goofing off with them. I am curious, how many get down and play "pretend" with them and their toys?

I should point out, I have NOT been in the habit of doing this as most of my time is spent cleaning up the messes they make. BUT for Christmas this year, I am changing that.

Ok I should say we do play with them and their new toys on Christmas, but then afterwards it's back to business as usual.

I have had some really bad few weeks with the boys, they have been REALLY destructive. My mom in aggravating mom fashion has been saying, "Boys need something CONSTRUCTIVE to do." Ok well, I kept ignoring her because I didn't advice at the time, I wanted sympathy LOL

Anyway, I digress....I started thinking maybe we don't interact with our kids enough? And if that's the case, what can I do to change that?

My daughter LOVES when I play house or Barbies with her. She's the only girl and it is rough on her.

So I was trying to find a way that we could ALL play together. I think I have found it, but it isn't going to be totally cheap.

There's these playsets called Calico Critters. They are actual little animal families dressed up like people. When I was a kid they were called Maple Town and created by Tonka. Well, Calico Critters was the closest thing I could find and it's by International Playthings (and probably made in China sigh).

Here's my idea. I have been scouting eBay trying to find a good deal on a family. Each family is a family of 4, mom dad brother sister (baby twins sold separate but whatever). NO way can I afford those expensive doll houses, and the family sets are $20 each in stores....so trying to find used sets for A LOT less on eBay.

Got a piece of plywood here...I figure I will paint it green, "survey" off 4 or 5 little lots (you know, one for each kid) and build a cardboard house on each lot. Maybe build a park, etc. This way we have built our own little town for our families.

And this is our new Mommy and Me project. I have this goal of using it to teach them about families, how different families my be, diversity, how towns work, etc. There are even grandparent Critters and I figured we could have some "Grandparents" raising kids etc.....Ok so I want to make it a hands on interactive playtime with me the kids and learning involved.

I figure each kid can decide how to layout their own "house lot" just like a home owner would. We can put on fake tree, fake gardens...I can superglue sand for dirt or small stones to line walkways etc.


Ok feedback....do you all think I am totally crazy here? I know it might not be totally cost effective, but houses out of cardboard boxes and used pieces of doll furniture as I can find it should help keep costs down...and trying to buy the families used (must confess, I scored 3 family pieces for $5 each..two sets of infant twins and a sister...no parents or grandparents yet LOL)

My kids seem pretty excited about it.

 

[MorelCabin]

Quail that is an awesome idea, and you really should do it. If there is one BIG regret I have as a mother looking back, it's that I didn't play with my kids nearly enough. We did things like ice fishing, sailing, and snowmobiing and always took them with us, never left them with sitters, but I think I spent more time frustrated as a mom than anything else. Mine are too old and don't want to spend time with me now....I was simply thier housekeeper growing up, I fear...but I soooo wish I could turn the clock back and make sure that I spend individual time with each of them.
I think that's why God made grandparents...but grandparents aren't always close by like they used to be. Grandparents MAKE the time...I think because they feel a little guilt over time not spent with thier own:>)

 

[punkin]

I think anything constructive that you can set down and do with your kids is a good thing. With what you are doing you are also going to tap into their little imaginations. You are also finding a creative way to teach "role playing" with them. That's the mark of a smart Mama: teaching them while having fun. You will never regret getting down on the floor and spending time with them.

For me, I just had 1 boy, so that was pretty easy. He wasn't very clingy and was good at occupying himself when he had to. But, I wouldn't trade anything for the times I played Legos, Hot Wheels or Monster Trucks with him (sometimes all three). We drove Monster Trucks over a record 53 cars one time. Hot Wheels was how he learned his colors and how to count before Pre K.

When the weather was fair, he also had a sandbox and just a plain old dirtpile (cheapest fun ever). I picked up lots of toy cars & trucks at yardsales for "outside toys".

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Thanks, Morel. I must confess, part of the excitement for us as a family is "collecting" something together.

I have let the kids each pick which family they want to start with (there's like 20 of them )

DD chose the Dalmation Dog Family, DS1 chose Slydale Fox family (hmm...should that be telling me something ) DS2 chose the Hawthorne Hamster Family. Now if I can just find them used or sooo cheaply put on eBay and no one out bids me.....lol

DS3 was too busy throwing a tantrum to chose a family, but I know he likes puppys and stuff so he might get the beagle family.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

I think anything constructive that you can set down and do with your kids is a good thing. With what you are doing you are also going to tap into their little imaginations. You are also finding a creative way to teach "role playing" with them. That's the mark of a smart Mama: teaching them while having fun. You will never regret getting down on the floor and spending time with them.

For me, I just had 1 boy, so that was pretty easy. He wasn't very clingy and was good at occupying himself when he had to. But, I wouldn't trade anything for the times I played Legos, Hot Wheels or Monster Trucks with him (sometimes all three). We drove Monster Trucks over a record 53 cars one time. Hot Wheels was how he learned his colors and how to count before Pre K.

When the weather was fair, he also had a sandbox and just a plain old dirtpile (cheapest fun ever). I picked up lots of toy cars & trucks at yardsales for "outside toys".

My brothers and I played "house" with our hot wheels LOLOLOL We pretended they all had the capabilities to talk etc like KIT from the original Knight Rider We had micro machines and they were the "babies". We had a black firebird hotwheel who was the "leader" and his "wife" was a white chevy corvette


ah the memories!

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

OK I just had another thought!

I am going to get play money, and lots of it. Then those little families are going to get "jobs" and I the "employer" can give them paychecks. Make the kids "purchase" the lots their families are going to live on, pay to build their cardboard house, improvements on the lots, etc.


Hmm...and if their family hasn't worked enough to earn the $ needed for a purchase, then they can't purchase it! Teach the kids about shopping w/o credit!

Oh I am so excited!! I don't have to wait until they get the families either! I am sure I can find enough stuff here (barbies, Littlest pet shop critters, cars, etc) to make some families out of!


ETA: OK I have given this even MORE thought! We homeschool, and there are soo many learning possibilities to this....So I am currently MAKING the play money on my computer and going to print it off here.

I am going to have some goals set for the kids' families and the town they create. Someone is going to have to run for mayor. They are going to need a town council...they are going to need to decide if they want to zone it and if so, for what? Will they allow farm animals, etc.

A minimum wage will be set, etc. This way the kids can learn how to count money

The possibilities here are endless! It's a lifetime of play right in our home!

 

[Dace]

Quail i think it sounds like a very sweet project. I especially like the idea of building little house and furniture out of what you have on hand. Do you sew? If so making your own little people will even further teach/reinforce frugal creativity.

I have never been much of a player. Never into playing pretend, hot wheels or barbies. I have always either leaned on board games for that kind of fun or the kids join me....if I am cooking, baking, doing some sort of craft...those who are interested join in.
Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of interaction, but I am just not one to 'play'...guess that si why I had 4 kids, so they could play with each other !

 

[Homesteadmom]

I used to play video games with ds#1(original nintendo), lego's, sports, hot wheels, building play forts. Ds #2 I still will play video games but only on the computer or super nintendo. I will build lego's & play cars, we played in the sandbox till dh went to move it & never set it back up again. I can't play sports anymore thanks to my disability but I can help teach him how to play them & we play board games too. DD is 2 1/2 so there are loads of opportunites to sit & play with her & she likes to play cars with her brother too.

Quail I like your idea about incorporating lessons into the play also. They will learn gov't & economics early on & hopefully that will help them be financially mature at an early age.

 

[Beekissed]

When my boys were young enough to still get excited by buried treasure, I would draw treasure maps and hide clues at different points along the route. This takes a little time but it sure can keep three boys occupied for the better part of a day! The clues would be something they would have to figure out, like math problems or a riddle that would send them to the next clue. The treasure would be candy or coins or arrowheads.

When they got older, I provided materials for "junk yard wars" using odds and ends and alot of duct tape, they would construct "weapons" like catapults and such. This is somewhat dangerous if not supervised but they sure had a lot of fun!

We played hide and seek, flashlight tag and, of course, cards and board games all the time....still do, in fact! Now, the boys want me to play in their air soft battles, which are great fun but a little painful at times! Mom is their favorite target....probably to get me back for all the chores and such.

I like your idea, Quail, but if your boys are like my boys, the people will be planning battles and staging forays to spy on the other enemies....er...I mean, families, in the town before too long!

 

[patandchickens]

A lot of the other stay-at-home moms I know seem to play with their kids a *lot* (to the detriment, I think, of their kids' imagination and independance); I don't so much, but certainly I play with them *some*. It tends to be things like building <whatever> out of <whatever's lying around the room at the time>, or my inventing situations where Harry's alter ego "Catsaver" has to come to the rescue , or outdoors games like "let's all be chickens and run around flapping and bawking and pecking things". Occasionally a board game or doing a puzzle together. We do cook or bake something together a couple times a week, too). My husband actually probably plays with the kids more than I do. Probably wouldnt hurt for me to play with them a bit more.

I have noticed though that there is a big difference between playing with them as if you were a kid, versus playing with them in a directed, This Is Educational Darn It! type way. Both are useful, but they do different things. Playing with them as if you were a kid (and letting THEM make most of the decisions about what they, and you, are doing) gets their ya-ya's out more than the directed-activity adult-driven kind of thing.

I would think you could *make* whatever sort of family doll-type toys you wanted? Unless the kids really prefer store-boughten stuff. If they wanted to really personalize it with lots of fine details and have it LAST, Sculpey is fun and useful material (just open a window when you bake it). Or cardboard or painted wood or fabric scraps or old socks or etc etc etc.

As Beekissed says, you may be surprised at what games they want to play with their families and houses. I think that with my two, the younger one would play "let's carry them around and pretend to feed them things all over the house, with zooming through the air in between" and the older one would play "what happens if the monster bulldozer crushed their house and it exploded and then giant ants attacked and more things exploded". Which is fine

Have fun,

Pat