UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITIES FOR FUN…AVOIDING ELECTRONICS

Young children are fascinating, exciting, and joyful adventurers, eager to learn about the world. If they seem in constant motion, getting into everything, never still for more than a moment, it is because everything in their surrounding is an endless source of interest and delight. They have a wide-eyed curiosity about life, and they are ready to absorb it all.

But what they want most is to share life’s experiences with others, especially the people they love. In today’s fast-paced society, many adults have little structured time for play. Yet our lives are full of opportunities, unexpected opportunities, for teaching, loving, and sharing with our children.

The most routine daily activities—driving a car, waiting in line at a restaurant, bathing a toddler—are ideal times to interact happily with our children. A brief bit of laughter or a fanciful flight of imagination can turn a routine errand into a bright moment for our child and a happy memory for us.

KIDFUN is a handbook for busy adults, filled with hundreds of simple suggestions for making everyday events pleasurable times. Its core purpose is to help you focus on how to use the unexpected or routine moments in each day to create moments of pleasure and learning that avoid reliance on electronics. Here is a typical example: You’re stuck in traffic, eager to stop at the food market, pick up some food, and cook dinner before an evening meeting. The kids are getting restless, and you’re getting hungry and irritated.

But the traffic isn’t moving, so you try a KIDFUN game, such as “Talk Like Me.” You and your kids recite a familiar nursery rhyme—perhaps “Mary Had a Little Lamb”—in a series of styles: Try it high-pitched, then low. Accent every third syllable or run through it as fast as you can. Recite it as a love poem, with a heavy French accent, and then with a drawl. Odds are you will end up giggling at your silliness and trade a little of the irritation for a moment of fun.

This book is about shaping such moments. It gives parents, grandparents, friends, and caretakers a repertoire of good ideas that fit the pace of our busy lives. No matter how much chaos the day brings, there is usually a moment for fun, and fun makes for much better memories.

This book recognizes both the busy side of life and the deep-seated desires of parents to raise happy, healthy children and have pleasure doing it. The message here is not to rely on electronics but make the most out of the time you have with your children together with a smile and a laugh.

The young child, two to eight, is the focus of KIDFUN activities, but many are easily adaptable to older children. Young children are eager to spend time with the people they love, even if only for a few minutes. See their imaginative efforts at seizing your attention as expressions of love. Enjoy that love and that uncomplicated pleasure in your attention and affection. It won’t last long. When they are in their adolescence, your children may be willing to go out with you only “if no one will see us!” It is you who may be waiting around for a bit of “quality time” from them. Their friends come first, which is just as it should be, but we find we miss their company.

Value the time you have now—while your children are young. Make no mistake. The responsibility of raising small children is not forever. Neither is the unconditional love of young children. Yes, they will always be your children, but don’t lose sight of all the pleasure they can bring you. Don’t be too busy to enjoy what is special and very short.

UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITIES FOR FUN…AVOIDING ELECTRONICS

Young children are fascinating, exciting, and joyful adventurers, eager to learn about the world. If they seem in constant motion, getting into everything, never still for more than a moment, it is because everything in their surrounding is an endless source of interest and delight. They have a wide-eyed curiosity about life, and they are ready to absorb it all.

But what they want most is to share life’s experiences with others, especially the people they love. In today’s fast-paced society, many adults have little structured time for play. Yet our lives are full of opportunities, unexpected opportunities, for teaching, loving, and sharing with our children.

The most routine daily activities—driving a car, waiting in line at a restaurant, bathing a toddler—are ideal times to interact happily with our children. A brief bit of laughter or a fanciful flight of imagination can turn a routine errand into a bright moment for our child and a happy memory for us.

KIDFUN is a handbook for busy adults, filled with hundreds of simple suggestions for making everyday events pleasurable times. Its core purpose is to help you focus on how to use the unexpected or routine moments in each day to create moments of pleasure and learning that avoid reliance on electronics. Here is a typical example: You’re stuck in traffic, eager to stop at the food market, pick up some food, and cook dinner before an evening meeting. The kids are getting restless, and you’re getting hungry and irritated.

But the traffic isn’t moving, so you try a KIDFUN game, such as “Talk Like Me.” You and your kids recite a familiar nursery rhyme—perhaps “Mary Had a Little Lamb”—in a series of styles: Try it high-pitched, then low. Accent every third syllable or run through it as fast as you can. Recite it as a love poem, with a heavy French accent, and then with a drawl. Odds are you will end up giggling at your silliness and trade a little of the irritation for a moment of fun.

This book is about shaping such moments. It gives parents, grandparents, friends, and caretakers a repertoire of good ideas that fit the pace of our busy lives. No matter how much chaos the day brings, there is usually a moment for fun, and fun makes for much better memories.

This book recognizes both the busy side of life and the deep-seated desires of parents to raise happy, healthy children and have pleasure doing it. The message here is not to rely on electronics but make the most out of the time you have with your children together with a smile and a laugh.

The young child, two to eight, is the focus of KIDFUN activities, but many are easily adaptable to older children. Young children are eager to spend time with the people they love, even if only for a few minutes. See their imaginative efforts at seizing your attention as expressions of love. Enjoy that love and that uncomplicated pleasure in your attention and affection. It won’t last long. When they are in their adolescence, your children may be willing to go out with you only “if no one will see us!” It is you who may be waiting around for a bit of “quality time” from them. Their friends come first, which is just as it should be, but we find we miss their company.

Value the time you have now—while your children are young. Make no mistake. The responsibility of raising small children is not forever. Neither is the unconditional love of young children. Yes, they will always be your children, but don’t lose sight of all the pleasure they can bring you. Don’t be too busy to enjoy what is special and very short.