I'm all out of ideas for playing with my 3-year-old. We color (with crayons and with markers) and we do puzzles and we play legos. That's it. Could you share with me what you do with your 3-year-old please? Thanks!
My 4 yr-old loves to read books together. She also loves her leap frog Leapster, and before that it was her LeapPad. She has lots of dolls that she loves to dress up and play tea party with. We play board games together too.
Well, seeing as how my Mom was a preschool teacher, I was never bored growing up. :) I remember doing lots of crafts and fun games. She would get one of those cheap, plastic table cloths and spread it on the floor so we wouldnt make a mess. Then she would put all kinds of "Crafty things" on it, like crayons, paper, glitter (my favorite), paper lunch bags for puppets, those wiggly eyes, pipe cleaners, etc. You would be surprised how creative they can be. One craft we always enjoyed was taking wax paper, and having the kid pick out the colored crayons they want, and then you shave it down a little with a cheese grater onto the wax paper. Then, put another piece of wax paper on top, iron it, and you have a stained glass window. (the iron melts the crayon shavings and the wax paper together. Also, something always very fun was to strip them down, and put a bunch of shaving cream either in the kitchen where there is no carpet, or even in the bathtup (easy cleanup) and let them "paint" with the shaving cream. You could even do a contest to see who can make themselves have the best Santa Clause beard with the shaving cream. Trust me, I loved it. :) Hope this helped!
D.
Hide and seek is always fun. Both kids (3 1/2 and 20 months) like to make a "cave" -- pull dining chairs into the living room and drape blankets over them. I often pull out a blanket or something and we'll have snack time as a picnic in the living room or in one of the kid's rooms. We read books a lot, often acting them out later. About every other day I involve them in some sort of cleaning project. They like to help dust, load the dishwasher, load the washing machine (mainly because it's fun to stand on the step stool), transfer clothes from the washer to the dryer (the baby enjoys this more than the 3 yr old). We do simple art projects -- cotton balls glued on a paper plate make a great sheep, paper dolls, any number of things from a toilet paper tube, etc. There are lots of easy craft ideas online. Water colors and blank construction paper have been a huge hit. Play-doh is fun, especially if you have the tools or playsets that you can use to make shapes and fun designs.
We dance a lot. I let the 3 yr old pick the CD and we dance around til we drop. Sometimes we get all the toy cars out and race them across the kitchen floor.
There are some great websites with interactive games we can do together. www.pbskids.org has a lot. Our favorite is probably www.starfall.com. It's fun and teaches phonics at the same time! She can operate most of the computer games on her own, but we often do them together.
Hope this gives you some ideas!
One fun activity that my daughter loves to play is going on a bunny hunt. I take all of her stuffed animals that are bunnies, make her leave the room and hide them in easy to find places. I give her a couple of carrots and put them in her play purse to carry around to help coax the bunnies out of hiding.
Also there's the computer.. Get some age appropriate computer games or books.
though you will have to share your computer time. ;-)
My daughter is 4 now, but when she was three she started enjoying batting a balloon back and forth to each other. Not a helium balloon, of course. You can get ballons really cheap at the dollar store. She also enjoys playing hide and seek around the house.
Hey it's almost Christmas! You could bake cookies, write a letter to Santa maybe fingerpaint. Check out some easy Holiday crafts involving easy things like glue and glitter.
Build a fort in the living room by tucking blankets into the furniture. It's good for HOURS.
Also:
bubbles
dress up/pretend
dance to music
play "Simon Says"
do a cooking project (home made Play Doh, cookies, etc.)
watch TV WITH your kids (ie: answer Dora's questions on Dora the Explorer, talk about what you see on other shows)
teach her to use the computer/get kid games
play hide and seek
My 3 year old loves to play "Simon Says", its her new favorite. We also play games like Candy Land (sort of), dance around and she loves to play tea party...my one year old likes it too! She tries to copy everything the 3 year old does! Its so funny to watch her hop on on leg...well more like try to kick one leg up and then fall!
I have a 3 yr old and we play baby dolls, dress up and we read. I always let her pick the activity she wants to do so she won't get bored with me. It's not long that we usually play because she changes her mind so quickly. One minute we are playing barbie and the next minute we have to dance. Her attention span isn't very long yet.
Enjoy playtime!
