When it’s time to play, try these fun and easy games for parents and children.
Play is about so much more than keeping children entertained; it’s a crucial part of childhood development. Here are some fun and easy games to both entertain and educate your children.
benefits of play
Play helps children learn important new skills while improving their gross and fine motor skills. Most importantly, playtime gives them a chance to spend quality time with mum and dad, helping build stronger ties as a family.
Playtime with parents is an important part of a child’s formative years, but the stress of work, deadlines, meetings and other responsibilities often means parents have limited time for play. Use these fun and easy games whenever you have 5, 10, 15, 20 or 30 minutes to play with your child.
Find out how to unlock your child’s potential through play.
5 min games
The Smarties in water experiment
This is a fun and easy game when you’re low on time, and makes for a fascinating result. All you need is a plate, some Smarties (or similar sweets) and water. Arrange different colours of sweets next to one another in a circle on the plate, and slowly add warm water to the middle of the circle until the sweets are half submerged. Now, sit back and wait for the colour-burst surprise!
Have a dance party
Five minutes isn’t much, but it’s just enough to get up and boogie together to one of your child’s favourite tunes.
Build the world’s tallest tower
Use any LEGO® bricks or other stackable items and see who can make the tallest tower before it tips over.
10 mins play time
Make ooey gooey slime
Homemade slime is quick and easy to make, not to mention safer for little ones to play with than most store-bought versions. For ‘edible’ slime, simply mix corn flour and jelly powder with just enough water to create a viscous slime mixture that’s not too sticky.
Dig for treasure
For any little palaeontologist in the making, bury a few dinosaur toys and other mini treasures in a sandbox. Parents and children can dig up their exciting discoveries, using a plastic spade or a brush to dust away the sand.
Clean-up games
These might sound like a cleverly disguised way of getting your children to do chores, but you can make it fun by turning it into a race to see who can pack away toys or tidy up the living room the fastest. You can even make up a song as you go, and offer a few rewards like an extra bedtime story or a slightly later bedtime.
15 mins play time
Play with rainbow rice
This is a fun and educational sensory play idea – children will love running their fingers through the grains. It has been found that the multitude of colours stimulates brain development. Fill a few empty ice cream containers about halfway with rice and add a few drops of food colouring in different colours to each container. Put the lids on and give them a good shake to spread the colour around. Leave to dry for a few hours on a tray.
Minute-to-win-it games
These fun and easy games are a great way to get the kids to play competitively in a healthy way. Prop a piece of cardboard on an incline. Place a marble on the board and, using a spoon, see who can keep the marble from rolling off the board the longest. You can find more fun ideas and contests here.
20 mins play time
Decorate mum and dad
Use beaded necklaces, scarves, stickers and even a few items of makeup and decorate mum and dad.
Create an indoor obstacle course
Use whatever you have lying around the house. A pile of couch cushions becomes a mountain to climb over, a few strips of tape could be a hop-in-hop-out ladder, tables and chairs can be climbed over or under, and a row of cardboard boxes becomes the coolest tunnel to crawl through.
Build a fantasy creature
Use LEGO® or DUPLO® bricks to stack, connect and build things together. This is a wonderful way to bond, inspire creativity and encourage children to use their imagination.
30 mins play time
Go on a garden safari
Grab a few stuffed animals and place them around the garden. You can make a set of binoculars out of toilet roll holders to spot as many creatures as possible. Encourage the kids to get creative and make up a few animals of their own, along with the sounds they think the animals would make.
Whip up a snack together
Pick something quick and simple, like cheese and crackers with some fruit, or a yummy sandwich that’s easy enough for your little one to put together without taking too long. You can also turn it into a competition to see who can make the most interesting-looking faces with fruit pieces, for example. Then spend some time eating together.
Remember to make time for free play and outdoor play.
always time for play
Whether you have as little as five minutes or as much as half an hour to spare in your busy day, there’s always a way to have some play time as a family with these fun and easy games.
