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Staying at home with one child means I’m his playmate most of the time.  Oliver has learned to play contentedly by himself while I work around the house, but he does want me to play with him quite often, and rightly so.  I have already played enough tractors for my lifetime, thank you, so we’ve had to come up with other things to do…

Here’s a peek into my bag of tricks:

Drawing Time
We have a drawing room upstairs, which means there’s a table, some markers and crafty stuff, scissors, and lots of paper already out and waiting.  We cut, we color, we do some more cutting (very into cutting right now).  And then we recycle it when there’s nothing left to do with the little cut up pieces of paper.

Painting
We have three Stockmar watercolors and one nice paintbrush that we take turns using. (The other person has to use the cheap, crummy paintbrush.)  I bought some heavy watercolor paper and we cut each large piece in half and use both sides b/c that stuff is expensive.  We do the wet-on-wet technique, which means you wet the paper first– either by soaking or with a sponge.  It makes painting at this stage a little more about experiencing the colors and blending instead of “painting a picture.”

Stories
This is the newest addition to my bag of tricks.  Sometimes I tell stories from my childhood (with some interestingness added), and sometimes I make up stories about Oliver at different ages (like 6! or grownup), or about people we know.  I tell stories about Lewis, his perfect made-up friend.  There are Old Timothy stories, about a man who lives in the woods and loves God and cares for everything God brings in his path, and a frequent request lately is a Pops story.  (I always give forewarning if I’m going to tell a story that will make me cry.)  Now, these aren’t stories that anybody else is going to want to hear…but Oliver loves them.  I think a second about how a story will begin and just go for it.  I encourage you to try this, even if you think you’re really uncreative.  PS Candles in a darkened bedroom make story time way better.

Play-Dough
Recipe here. This goes only on the kitchen table, and O likes to play with his trains or Duplo or tractors in it.  Or sometimes we make food and dishes out of it and pretend to eat it.  Or sometimes Oliver really eats it and then we put it away.

Blowing Bubbles
Outside activity.  It’s more about popping the bubbles than blowing them at this point.

Read Aloud
Once a day, I try to spend some time reading aloud when we’re not trying to keep to the bed/nap schedule.  We can pick the longest books, ask all the questions, and linger at the illustrations.  More on reading aloud to come.

Playing Music
We also have a music room upstairs, which means there’s an organ (thanks Pops!) a keyboard, two guitars, a violin, and various percussion instruments.  Today I went through Chad’s hymnal and tried to pick out the songs I knew on the keyboard, and Oliver wandered around picking up different things and making a lot of noise.  We both enjoyed ourselves.

Looking at Photographs
Either on the computer or in real life.  Since my real photographs are a disorganized mess at this point, we just watch slideshows on the computer.  Oliver likes to see how much he’s grown, and he also likes to see the pictures of “Daddy getting married.”

Fixing Stuff
Oliver has a Melissa & Doug toolbox and walks around the house fixing things I tell him are broken (like, the bed, for instance).

Hide & Seek
Sometimes you have to be willing to play a game in a whole new way.  Oliver Hide & Seek Rules include telling where you are hiding, switching from the hider to the seeker mid-turn, and only counting to 2.

Tent Building
Get out the chairs, the card table, and all those afghans you received for your wedding.  Once the tent is built, you must have snacks inside or it is no fun at all.

Store
We get out the play food and set up a store on the steps.  He has a little shopping basket and some old coupons for money.  He brings his selections to the computer and I check him out and put everything in a shopping bag.  Then we do it again.

Board Games
Games you think your child is too young for probably hold the most allure.  Oliver loves Monopoly and Risk.  We roll dice, we say numbers, we count pieces, we trade pieces, we move stuff around on the board, we count money.  That’s the game. The only rule is that we pick it up when we’re finished.  He also likes Chinese Checkers.  We just move pieces around.

I’d recommend the book The Creative Family, by Amanda Blake Soule, for ideas about incorporating creativity into your everyday life.  I also enjoyed Heaven On Earth, by Sharifa Oppenheimer, for great information on living & playing with young children and helping them develop.  (Heaven on Earth did have some content that I wouldn’t readily endorse, but there was a lot in there that I learned from.)

What’s in your bag of tricks?