Organizing activities with the children also provides stress relief for adults as the children take over a portion of the planning.
Involving kids in activity planning provides opportunities for them to be included as an active part of the family unit. Children learn to cooperate with one another and share items and ideas. Involving several children in activity planning helps them learn the value of compromise as they decide which events to include and which ones to exclude from the event. Organizing activities with the children also provides stress relief for adults as the children take over a portion of the planning.
Field Trips
Organize a family field trip with the children.
Allow children to participate in organizing a family field trip. Give them choices such as a field trip to a museum, a park or a special seasonal event such as an egg hunt. Allow the children to decide on the destination. After deciding on a destination, contact the event planners and make a list of child-friendly activities offered at the venue. Allow the children to participate in deciding which events to schedule while attending the field trip.
Outdoor Fun Day
Organize an outdoor fun day with the kids.
Organize an outdoor fun day with the kids. Encourage the kids to make the invitations. Invite friends over for a day of water activities such as a water balloon toss, a wading pool and a water sprinkler. Set up a net suitable for a game of badminton or volleyball. Plan a treasure hunt and have children search for items hidden throughout the yard. Set up picnic tables for lunch and mid-day snacks. Fast food restaurants often provide child-appropriate toys inside children's meal cartons that tend to pile up around the house. Have children locate "like new" meal toys to give as prizes for game winners. Additionally, kids can make handmade prizes such as 5" x 7" drawings and paintings, paper mache figures and photo frames made from craft foam.
Birthday Party
Organize a birthday party with the kids.
Relieve stress due to planning a birthday party by allowing the kids to plan the party. Allow the children to decide on a theme and hand-make the invitations. Children might choose themes such as a Princess Party or a Pirate Party. Girls might like to set up a make-up table including tiaras and costume jewelry. Boys might like to come dressed in a pirate costume. Hide a treasure box filled with candy coins and send them on a treasure hunt. For the princess party, decorate the room with pink, purple and white streamers. Have the girls glue glitter onto the streamers before hanging them. Draw a castle onto a large piece of cardboard and ask the kids to color it and cut it out. Hang it onto the doorway as the party guests enter the princess' castle. For the Pirate party, draw a pirate ship and have the kids color it, cut it out and hang it onto the door way for "pirate sailors" to enter the "ship."
Tags: Allow children, field trip, with children, activities with, activities with children, activity planning, adults children