Friday, February 12, 2010

Keeping Kids Occupied


This post is more of a query than anything else :)

The topic of conversation: What to do when company comes over....with kids!

There are times, definitely, when it's GREAT to plan a kid dinner/party/activity, and invest your time in kids. But there are also times when you want/and or need to visit with the adults only. And that is this posts topic. What do you do to host families with kids, when you don't have any? When you want to visit with the adults and not only play with kids?

Question #1) Is it appropriate to want to visit with the adults and not play with the kids?

Question #2) What are the best "kid-friendly" games and toys to have on hand in your home?

Question #3) What are some great ways to make the whole family....kids and parents....feel welcome?

In lieu of these thoughts recently, I have started creating a Dress Up Box in my living room. While still sparse, I can see many opporunities for filling it up! Things I still hope to do: 1) Make a dress-up-corner with full length mirror, hat pegs, and play kitchen. 2) Add to the clothes collection

I know that my aunt has a kid-friendly cupboard filled with fun kid toys, that seem to entertain them just fine when they run out of things to do. She includes: toy cars, barbies, legos, noisy toys, puzzles, and rubber duckies.

And so, if you wouldn't mind, I'd be curious on your thoughts, opinions, and stories on this topic....please comment below!

2 comments:

Martha said...

It is ok to tell kids no. They will ask you to play with them because they all love you. So, show them your options for child entertainment and then tell them you will not be able to play with them right now. Thinking about my kids' relationship with you, I would guess they would take the option to come sit by you for awhile while we would visit but eventually they would choose to go play. hope that was helpful. :)

Abbi said...

As for question one it is totally fine to plan on visiting with the adults and having the kids play on their own.

You have a lot of neat things available to do already. I think the dress up box could be a neat addition. I think it might depend on the kids. I don't know if you have toy cars for little boys those can be pretty nice as they don't have to be noisy and rowdy and bother adult discussions. I guess I never have had this particular problem much because I have usually had kids to play with any visiting kids. But I think in general you can just give them some options: Toys are here, books are here, "Would you like to do a puzzle or color?" and then just let them be.

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