Skip to Content

Bringing FUN and PLAY into daily activities!

TwitterMoms and The Hub have joined together to bring a really fun posting campaign with tips on how to bring fun and play into the daily lives of your children! The Hub is a NEW TV channel that will host shows including original animation, live-action series, game shows, and specials as well. It will provide entertainment and education for kids and families. Their programming is planned around families schedules – Mornings being devoted to preschoolers with imagination and fun learning, Afternoons geared towards kids 6-12, and prime-time featuring original series and movies for the whole family!
Here’s a few of my tips on making the day-to-day of life more fun!
Picking out their own Clothes – I encourage my children to pick out their own clothes and help them learn about creating outfits, matching, and appropriate clothing for different types of weather. A lot of times my kids will end up with their clothes on backwards, inside out, and mismatched, but they really enjoy getting to pick out their own clothes and dress themselves.
Unloading the Dishwasher – My kids always help me unload the dishwasher. I grab the knives out first and then they are welcome to help. They pull out their own kid plates, cups, bowls, and even the silverware. It is a great learning tool as well as it teaches them to keep things stacked together and nice in their shelves and how to help around the home. The boys love unloading the dishwasher and we always make a game out of it by trying to be the first ones to grab the “fun” stuff to put away, like the spatulas!
Clean-Up Time – To make cleaning up more fun I grab the broom and the dust pan and sweep all the toys into a big pile. The boys will help sometimes as well trying to sweep, though they aren’t that great at the large broom. Then we sit by the pile and toss the toys into the right buckets – one for balls, cars, blocks, kitchen toys, etc. It makes clean up not only more fun, but also much quicker.
Driving – My 4 year old is really into his ABC’s and other learning things as well so we play a lot of games while we drive. We’ll play the traditional ABC game where we will tell him to look for a letter until he finds it, then move on to the next. Lately the favorite game has been Red Light/Green Light – our son will tell us when it’s time to “GO” because the light has turned green!
Shower/Bath Time – My 4 year old doesn’t like washing his hair or getting his head wet so to make it more fun we got these really fun soaps that they can draw on their skin with and then it washes right off, but in order to wash it off he has to go almost all the way under the water, so we’re able to get his hair washed without as much fight when it’s time to wash off all the soap. He’s distracted with rubbing off his colored soap while we wash his hair. I also love the stacking buckets for bath play as the kids LOVE to pour from one bucket to the next, it never gets old.
School/Learning Fun – To make school time fun we let our 4 year old play learning games on the computer. He LOVES playing on the computer as he often sees both of his parents using the computer. He has learned so many things like addition and science things I wouldn’t have thought he’d have picked up. Learning time is one of his favorite parts of the day!

Meals – When making meals (or snacks and treats) I try to let my children help by letting them pour in ingredients, stir, lick the beaters where appropriate and other cooking help. They love to pull their chairs over and feel like big helpers. It also just makes cooking easier (when they don’t make a mess) because instead of fighting or nagging each other they are busy helping!

Outside Play – When the weather is nice, we love to play in the backyard. I have a pretty small backyard, but even so there is always a lot to do! They will play with the balls, rocks, bikes, even hop from brick to brick along our gardens. I’m even able to get a lot of my own things I need (or just want) to do done while they play like hanging the cloth diapers to dry, weeding, tending to the garden, or even relaxing and reading a book.
Daddy Play Time – When daddy comes home the boys instantly want all his attention. Of course, daddy is tired from a long day at work but he will often give them 20-30 minutes of roughhousing and play by chasing them, playing hide-and-go-seek, building forts, and all those fun dad games! It’s a great way to burn their energy right before bed and they love the bonding time with their dad.
Bedtime Routine – To make bedtime more fun we have a routine that the kids look forward to and really enjoy! First – Brushing their teeth. They LOVE this! I brush their teeth for them to help and then afterward they dip their tooth brushes into the water repeatedly and attempt to brush their teeth and drink the water from the bristles. They always find it really fun. Then after that we always pick out a book and climb into one of the beds and we’ll read the book and talk about the pictures.
I’m sure there are a lot of other things we do, but these were some from off the top of my head. It was fun reminiscing about some of the things we do and made me want to go right outside for playtime! What are some of the great ways you bring fun into daily live and the chores and things that must get done each day? I’d love to hear your tips and advice!
** I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and The Hub blogging program making me eligible to get a $50 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.