30 Minute Playtime Ideas - Week 5

It's time to play again:)  This week I included several singing games, but if you can't stand singing just sub out those activities for some of your favorites from past weeks.  Either way, play and have some fun with your kids this week.

YouTube Karaoke - My girls love finding their favorite disney songs or other silly songs on YouTube.  Often you can find them with the words so your readers can follow along.  We click full screen, turn up the volume and have a fabulous few moments of Karaoke in the kitchen.  For best results have something to use for a microphone.  We often use the whisk.  It works great:)

Charades - My children love to act, and if I let them dress up for the activity that is a complete bonus.  They choose a favorite story to act out, plan it upstairs and then come down and act it out for me not using any words.  I have to guess what it is that they are acting out.  This is a great activity if I do not have a lot of time because they spend most of the time on their own planning while I do dishes or make dinner.  Then I only have to spend 1-2 minutes watching and guessing before I get another break.  If you have lots of time that day then take turns guessing so you can act out too.

Mother May I - I always love this game, and it works indoors or out.  One person is it and the rest line up at a distance from that person.  The Mother (it person) takes turns telling each player to take so many steps, jumps, mini steps, backwards steps or leaps forward.  The player must remember to say, "Mother may I," before taking the steps.  If they remember to say it the Mother says, "Yes you may," and they can take the assigned steps.  If they forget they have to go back to the beginning.  The first person to reach the Mother is it.

Sing Off - One person starts by calling out a common work, usually a noun.  The other players have to quickly think of a song that has that word in it.  Whoever starts singing their song first gets to choose the next word.  My girls favorite words were Jingle and Pumpkin.  I like that we can play this one in the car or waiting in line somewhere if we aren't too loud:)

I'm Going on a Trip... - The first person starts by saying, "I'm going on a trip, and I'm bringing ______."  We often follow the alphabet so the first item would start with the letter A like "an apple."  The next person then says, "I'm going on a trip, and I'm bringing an apple and a ______."  Their item must begin with the letter B.  The game continues with each player having to remember all of the previous items on the list and adding a new one of their own.  This is also a great traveling game for the car or airplane.

I Spy Colors - A game to pass the time

A couple of years ago we were taking our 1 and 3-year-olds on a trip to Disneyland with my husband’s family.  His family loves to go in January when the park isn’t as busy which works beautifully except that we have to get there and back in winter weather.  We got stuck in our smallish airport for hours waiting for a storm to pass, and the batteries started to run out on their movie player.  We walked up and down the terminal several times, we ate, we looked out the window at the snowflakes and airplanes, but we still couldn’t leave.
 
Finally, we were sent to a large, circular, crowded boarding area where hundreds of people were sitting on every part the floor waiting to get on their flights.  Then we waited another 1-2 hours, and this time there was no space to walk.  So we played ‘I Spy.’  It was a bit tricky at first for my 3-year-old.  She had a hard time guessing and I wasn’t sure she was really thinking of something while I was guessing.  I decided to tell her what color the item was that I was spying.  “I spy something Red.”  Instantly she would look around the room for anything red.  If she happened to guess something that was not red, I would teasingly remind her that the item was not red and encourage her to guess again.

It was a fabulous game.  She was searching for colors, choosing colors, and getting an instant response on whether she was correct on her color guess and she was enjoying it.  Before long I noticed the a little girl from the family sitting next to us watching us.  I could see that she wanted to play so I invited her to spy along with us.  Her mother told me later when we were leaving to board our plane that her daughter had whispered to her, ” I wish I had a mom like that.”  Of course I was flattered, but it also deepened my appreciation of ‘I Spy.’  Any game that could make me look like an enviable mother, after getting up way too early in the morning and spending 4+ hours in the airport trying to keep 2 little children happy, was a good game!
A couple of other variations we play: Big or Small and Tall or Short.