#GiveTime: Five Minutes to Give to your Kids
Our children are the future. They’re our hearts living outside. They can also be a point of stress and guilt when we are feeling stressed and empty from isolation. You want to be the parent who never eye-twitches at glitter spills, who always has a good bake coming out of the oven, who is never too tired to play “doggies” for the fiftieth time. We are not our best every day.
But we can spare five minutes every day. Need a little guidance? Here are some great ideas for an activity you can do in five minutes! If there is an Asterisk* by the activity, you can scroll down to the bottom of the blog to receive further guidance and elaboration.
FIVE MINUTE KID ACTIVITIES WITH LITTLE TO NO MESS:
Dance Party
Red light/green light
Trivia*
Simple Conversation — Ask them questions
Track Moon Phases Nightly on a sheet as a Family
Build Obstacle Courses*
Read a Book
Write a story!*
Hide and Seek
Floor is Lava*
Singing Songs
Build a Fort
Run around the block
A game of tickles
Tag
Words of Affirmation*
“What I’m thankful for” discussion
“What we did today” round table
Jump contest, Wall sit contest, Jumping jack contest*
Have you seen the common denominator among these suggestions? They all involve undivided attention. While parents are spending a record amount of time with and around their kids these days, the quality of these interactions is down. We are constantly distracted, constantly on call.
EVERYTHING can wait five minutes. No, really. Barring very, VERY extenuating circumstances, everything can wait five minutes. We tell our kids to wait five minutes all the time, we can definitely tell our phones to sit on the charger and wait five minutes. TV too. Those five minutes a day are going to mean the world to your kiddo, and I guarantee they’ll be your favorite part of the day too.
There are dozens more ideas! Maybe hundreds. Please share other five minute activities you have tried out with your kids!
Trivia: Don’t feel tied down to educational stuff with this one (although gamification is definitely a way to make learning fun.) You can make the trivia about family members, animals, even talking about their favorite tv show or book can help exercise their brains and show you know and interact with what they care about. You’d be surprised at what they know (and what you don’t!). Extra benefit of trivia? You can play ANYWHERE. We always play in the car to make the ride go faster.
Obstacle Courses and Floor is Lava — You’re probably thinking of what I initially imagined… walls of legos to jump over, suspended hula hoops, tree swings, something on fire…
Okay maybe not that last one, but I always thought that obstacle courses had to be an incredible feat of construction and purchase… certainly something that would take ages to set up. REALLY all you need is a clean floor and tape. Yell to your kids that it’s time for an obstacle course, and if they want one, the toys have to be off the floor. Once they’ve cleaned for you, lay out some lines and shapes on the floor, maybe a few on the walls, and let their imaginations do the rest! They can army crawl, jump, skip, or spin from one point to another. Somersaulting, spinning, and hand stands work that inner ear strength, so add a few of those. If you don’t mind incorporating furniture, you can make them crawl under chairs or hop over ottomans. One of the best things to do in obstacle courses is declare certain parts of the course “lava.” We love to use pillows as “lava boats” and the kids have to scoot across the floor on them. Easy peasy. If you don’t mind leaving the tape, this fun can last for a week and you don’t even have to set it up over and over. Set the five minute timer and give them a prize for completing on time.Write a story — This is fun, because they can start the project without you. They can draw the pictures and you can work on the words with them, or you can draw them together, any level of independence works! My only note in here is to let them write whatever whacky story they like, encourage that imagination muscle which often has to work in so many strict parameters.
Words of Affirmation — This one is amazing in its simplicity, and it can take any form you like. The way we do it at home is: “Do I love you when you’re mad? Do I love you when you’re sad? Do I love you when your listening ears are off? Do I love you when you’re happy? And sick? And when your messy or clean or quiet or loud?” It’s always yes. Eventually they start doing it too. Repeating these things, especially when you’re frustrated and overwhelmed, can be so rewarding and uplifting.
Physical Feat Contests — Kids are living a more sedentary lifestyle than ever. Doing fun physical feats with their family makes fitness a bright spot in their every day lives.
Stay Tuned for more Ideas!! and PLEASE post more of your own!
Love Love Love!
Miss LJ
