Do your children play after school or do they come home and sit on the couch and watch TV or play on their electronic devices?  I know my children need a little bit of downtime when they get home from school.  But what they really want when they get home is a snack and then to go outside to play!

How Do Your Children Play?

My son gets home 20 minutes before my daughter.  He has his snack and watches a little bit of TV while he waits for her to get home.  Once she arrives she has a snack and then they make a plan for what they want to play first.

Earlier this week it was all about forts!  We had some rainy weather so I didn’t mind that the kids built forts in the living room.  But it had to be cleaned up each night because they used just about every blanket and pillow they could find!

For the past two days my son has been bike riding with a ramp going out of the back door of our garage.  So as soon as my daughter gets home he wants to ride bikes with her.

Do You Have A Full-Size Tent In Your Playroom?

If your kids asked you if they could set up a full-size camping tent in the house would you let them?  We are fortunate enough that the entire downstairs of our raised ranch is a designated playroom for the kids.  This pretty much means anything goes.

My son wanted to set up the camping tent in the playroom one Sunday evening while I was working out.  I figured why not?!  They are only young once and it’s only in the basement.  So as you can imagine there’s a lot of setup and tear-down that takes place when the kids are building forts and setting up tents.  It’s much easier for me when their play place is somewhere outside of course.

I Never Discourage Play Time

I always love to hear the sounds of my kids playing on the trampoline, riding their scooters, or rediscovering the fun a wagon can provide while I am inside working.  I always say that if their bare feet are dirty and they have grass stains on their knees then it’s a good day to be a kid.

For the most part, my kids don’t spend a lot of time on electronic devices.  I don’t have a timer set up on them yet, but I do watch how much time they are on them and sometimes I will kick them off the couch and send them outside to play.  But most of the time they do that on their own.

From the time they were little, we were always outside.  When the temperature hit 40 degrees they would kick off their socks and shoes and throw them off the deck so they could be barefoot.  When it was 45 degrees they would ask me where their shorts and tank tops were because they didn’t want to wear winter clothes anymore!

When it rained, we would jump in puddles or play with umbrellas or bubbles.  When it snowed, we were always outside during the blizzards until late at night sled riding and building forts.  In the summer their fingers and toes would look like prunes from being in the pool.

We always want to have a good time.  In fact, it’s becoming a challenge for me to get my son to stop playing to get his homework done.  He just wants to stay a kid at heart and not have to dig into the amount of schoolwork a middle school student is now required to maintain.

Do your kids still play?  What do you do for fun as a family?  I’d love to hear how you disconnect and try to live in the moment with your family.