Sometimes I come to end of my day, tuck the kids into bed and realize that I didn't actually play with my girls. Yes, I interacted with them, they played together, I laughed with them and did some school work...but we didn't play. I find it harder and harder to play with my eldest daughter. She's 8 years old and would rather sit and read her books than play. I think this is a pretty common phenomenon. When our kids are babies we play peek-a-boo all day long - and then suddenly we stop. Even though we all know about the importance of play in the development of healthy and intelligent children.
This month the ladies at Hand On As We Grow and The Imagination Tree are hosting a 30 Days to Play Challenge. Spend 15 minutes every day playing with your children...they even provide the play ideas (which is often the hardest part). I've signed up and we started our challenge yesterday.
The first part of the challenge was to develop a personal mission statement. Here is mine...
I will take the time to play with my children this month...
remembering that I need to adapt the activities to make them appealling to my eldest daughter.
I will embrace this time and immerse myself in play!
Okay, mission statement completed on with the challenge. Yesterday was all about fort building. When I told my girls we were going to build a fort they were super excited! We gathered up our supplies...
And got down to building...
If you are interested in taking part in the 30 Day Play Challenge visit Hands On As We Grow or Imagination Tree to find out about the challenge...today's activity is building with blocks. I am really looking forward to this one - my girls LOVE building things and so do I.
Jacquie@KCEdventures says
Thanks so much for linking up at Discover & Explore - we're featuring you this week: http://www.kcedventures.com/blog/materials-for-building-kids-and-construction You're never too old to build a fort!