With all that busy parents have to do, it sometimes might be easy to forget to sit down and play with your children. The purpose of this article is to extol the importance of play to children’s development and to give parents some tips on games and activities. Parents are the first and most important teachers that children will ever have: children learn more from their parents than from anyone else. In school they learn about history, math, science, and so on, but from parents they learn about getting along with other people, how to treat people they love, how to deal with their emotions, and even how to learn. From the games and activities that parents and children do together from the time they are babies until they are teenagers, children learn things like: how to focus on what’s important, to pay attention and follow directions, and how to take small steps to work toward larger goals. They can learn patience, persistence, and a desire to learn-all from playing with their parents. When parents and children play games that help children learn rules, working towards goals, and working with others, studies have shown that children tend to get better grades in school and get in less trouble.

Playing together also helps build strong bonds between parents and children. When there is a strong parent-child bond, children feel safe to go out and explore the world. This makes them better prepared to learn, get along with others, and develop high self-esteem. Children who feel secure in their relationship to their parents also do better in school. Later in life those with secure relationships may be more likely to listen to their parents’ advice and to trust that advice. Another reason that play is important to parent-child bonding is that it helps increase the number of positive interactions in the relationship. Often, the only times parents talk to their children is when the children have done something wrong. When this happens, children and parents can stop getting along well and may not develop strong bonds. Playing games together is a great way to spend time with each other in a positive way. Establishing a strong bond early will make the relationship between parent and child stronger and healthier long after the child is grown, and may carry over into adult children’s relationships with their own children.

Children’s play at different ages

Infants love looking at faces. Pictures of faces are good, but actual moving, talking faces are better. With children younger than 6 months, good games are very simple ones like, peekaboo, or hiding a toy under a blanket and taking it out again. You must do these activities quickly, though, because if your face or a toy is hidden for more than a second or two, very young infants will lose interest. Infants enjoy anything that gives them a gentle surprise, such as a sound or motion in response to something they do.

By 18 months, children enjoy toys such as crayons, pretend tools, push button toys and very simple puzzles. Puzzles are especially good for bringing parents and children together and for developing children’s problem solving skills. Children can learn a lot about how to figure things out when parents give them just enough help so that they can figure it out, but not so much that parents do the activity for them. At this age, children are starting to use language more and enjoy songs, books and rhymes. Songs and finger plays really keep children this age entertained, and can teach them new words and introduce them to counting and numbers. I’ve included two examples of songs and finger plays at the bottom of this article. For infants and toddlers, keep numbers below three or they will lose interest.

Older pre-schoolers enjoy songs and finger plays also, but as they get older the songs need to get more complicated. Puzzles should get more difficult, too, and helping them with puzzles that are just a little harder than they could do by themselves is still a great way to teach them how to solve problems. Older children also need and enjoy physical activity, such as running and jumping, chasing, hide and go seek, tag, and other fun outdoor games. Playing these kinds of games with your children can help bring you together as well as let you both get some exercise. Pre-schoolers also love to pretend, so take their lead and be the characters they want you to be as they direct a game of make believe.