Fun at Home

Fun at HOME

Games for your child which involve zero expense and

can be played in the comfort of your home

There is a little explorer in every child, waiting to emerge at the slightest encouragement. Your child does not need much to spark her imagination. Hand her some items from your kitchen for instance, and see what she makes out of them. A rolling pin can become a car, a container her drum.

Your child’s games are a great way for her to have fun, aiding in her growth and there is also a lesson in them for you – that, there is no reason why you should depend on expensive and complicated toys to spark your child’s creativity and love of fun and games. What’s more with school holidays round the corner and winter having set in most parts of the country, you can keep your young one entertained and occupied with these simple and innovative games.

Here are a few games, which promise endless rewards – in terms of the time you get to spend with your child – and the minimum expense involved.

Miniature bowling alley!

What you’ll need: 10 cans, coloured paper, glue, a medium-size ball.

Arrange the cans in a triangular shape on the floor. The back row should have four cans and the front row, one. Paste the cans with colourful paper and make your child stand at a distance of about six feet from the cans. Give her the ball and explain that you want her to knock down as many cans as she can by rolling the ball down the floor. With time and encouragement, she will soon learn to play this game on her own or with her friend and may even set up the cans herself. There can be a variation to this game after she has mastered the art of bowling. Line up two or three cans, side by side with some distance between each can. Have her try to roll the ball between the cans without knocking them down. The game can then help in your child’s hand-eye co-ordination.

Making Noises

What you’ll need: Objects that create a variety of sounds – like a bell, a whistle, a toy horn, two pencils to tap, two plastic bottles – one filled with small beads or coins and the other with cereals.

Demonstrate how each object makes its own sound. After your child is familiar with each object by sight and sound, have her cover her eyes and try to identify each sound-maker as you recreate the noise.

Occasionally, you can demonstrate natural sounds as well. Clap your hands, click your fingers, stomp your feet, cough, sneeze, laugh, whistle – and have a rollicking time when she follows suit. The game can then help to refine auditory perception and the ability to recall sounds.

Tell-tale tastes

What you’ll need: A wide range of food, with different tastes – cookies, bananas, ice cream, and a piece of cloth to blindfold.

Arrange two sample pieces of each food on a tray. Explain to your child that the object of the game is to identify the sample of the food by taste, smell and touch. Have her examine the food and then blindfold her. Give her one sample at a time and see whether she can match the two samples together. After you have gone through all the food samples, remove the blindfold and see how many she has matched correctly. You could as a variation, arrange foods that are vastly different in taste – something sweet and sour and ask her to describe it. The game can help your child to explore her senses and match and identify them with the foods.

The two of you

What you’ll need: Your child and … you!

Have your child stand next to you and explain to her that she has to mimic your actions. Ask her to give a big smile, open and shut the door, put your hands on the top of your head, clasp your hands. As the game progresses, you can make the instructions more and more complicated. This game can actually raise a few chuckles of delight and help you child to follow and understand instructions. The game can also familiarize her with various actions.

Turning `green’

What you’ll need: potatoes, other vegetables, glass jars, cloth, toothpicks and tin pans.

This activity helps your child to set up plants and watch their progress. To make a potato plant, stick toothpicks around the middle of a potato. The toothpicks will hold the potato upright when you place it in a jar of water. Make sure that the bottom end is submerged in the water and the toothpicks are resting steadily on the rim of the jar. Check the plants daily, add water when necessary and see how the roots gradually grow and expand.

You can sprinkle a few pulses in a shallow tin filled with water and explain to your child that in a few days the seeds will germinate. She can in fact check it frequently and can cultivate an interest in gardening. Apart from engaging your child’s interest, this activity can teach her about the environment. Growing a kitchen garden of her own may stimulate in her an interest in food – a fun solution to entice picky eaters.

It’s a number game

What you’ll need: 11 pieces of numbered paper (from0 to 10), 58 paper clips.

Once your child can identify the numbers, then you can show her the value of each number by counting out with her a corresponding number of paper clips for each card. Or you can collect 11 envelopes, each of them numbered and show your child how to fill each envelope with the proper number of clips. The game can help your child to practise her motor skills and to identify numbers and associate them with the right quantity.

Total recall

What you’ll need: a box, 10 small objects like a pencil, button, rubber, toy car, ruler et cetera.

Place the objects in the box and have your child study them carefully. She can pick up each object and describe them to you. Then put the objects back in the box and close the lid. See how many items she can recall and describe. Or you can take several pictures from magazines that have a lot of colour. Introduce one picture at a time, discuss the subject matter and specific details. Cover the picture and ask her to tell you what she can remember. Developing language skills and improving visual memory can become the purpose of the game.

Putting it together

What you’ll need: four colourful pictures of familiar figures – for example, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck et cetera. Cut along the lines and create puzzle pieces.

Put all the four puzzles on a tray. Introduce them one at a time to your child and let her practise putting them together. She will soon learn to put the puzzles together on her own. The game can help her to put things together and recognize shape relations.