1. The Importance of Play

Children love to play games. This is how they learn about the world and how they interract with others. Therefore, one of the most rewarding things you can do as an adult is to play games with your child, and treat them like a friend. Investment in this time with them is worth far more than anthing you could buy them.

Here are three ideas for things your kids will love, which you can do with them anytime in your house or garden with no equipment or cost required.

1. Have a Treasure Hunt - Take some chocolates, lego mini figures or some teddies or toys, and hide them around your house so they are hard to see at first but findable. Set the challenge for them to find them and give a point for each one found, and maybe two points for finding them quickly. Follow them around each room and give clues as to whether they are hot or cold, and congratulate them when they do find something. Tell them how smart they were to look where they did or spot it so quickly. This builds their confidence, makes them feel good and also reinforces a positive feedback loop where they want to engage in good behaviour to get praise.

2. Pitch & Toss - This game can be played with any coins and a wall. Just give each child a coin and then take turns throwning the coin at the wall. The aim of the game is to get your coin closest to the wall. You can throw the coin close to the wall, let it bump against the wall and fall, or roll it and see where it lands. This builds creativity, a competitive spirit and allows some 'banter', where you can tell them you will definitely win and then maybe 'accidentally' throw a terrible shot.

3. Build a 'Den' - Use any beds, blankets, boxes, duvets, coffee tables etc. to setup a small area the kids can crawl into and feel like they have a little mini-room seperate from the 'adult' house. You can add rugs or throws/blankets for flooring, and if you have a torch they can use it to explore and make it like a cave with the main lights off. They can even decorate the area with teddies or have a picnic or tea party with their toys inside. Young kids love this activity because they feel like they have some responsibility for the decisions and it really ignites their imagination and role playing.

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Good Dad Rule:

Remember to devote attention to actively watching your kids play and give them meaningful feedback on how well they have done. 

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[Tip Even when kids want to play by themselves, they really want you to watch and be impressed by them. Commenting on what they have done shows you were interested in them and making insightful, detailed observations helps stimulate their own mind, improves their conversation / social skills and proves you were really watching. So next time they stack a tall tower of blocks at soft play, instead of being the parent who says "wow, great, well done" whilst peering over your iPhone, put the phone down and go and inspect it, saying "I'm surprised what you've done, 8 blocks tall! When I tried this once I could only do 6 - how did you get them so tall without falling over?"]