Beckham and Brooklyn hung out at baseball the other week - what's your favourite way of hanging with the kids?
My vote isn't really secret....
I find that really little toddlers like getting up on a chair and 'helping' in the kitchen. Maybe just putting peeled potatoes into the pan next to you full of cold water. Or eating carrots while you chop them. Or nearly tipping the bowl of flower onto themselves when helping to make scones.
As they get around 3 I love the mess that making scones involves: shovelling stuff onto the scales; tipping into bowls; flapping it all around in the bowl; spreading it when the marjorine is added and then sharing the mixing because it gets difficult to do anything with dough as the water is added. Not forgetting the adding of rasins along the way - hopefully not eating all of them as you go! Followed by the rolling and cutting - by which point I usually loose my helper and have to stare at the oven on my own while they cook. But eating the scones is shared by everyone.
Gardening with wheelbarrow rides and worms dropped down backs.
Slapping cement onto a couple of bricks and then running off.
Painting matt emulsion on a wall up a ladder for 5 minutes and then finding something more interesting to do - eg drawing pictures nearby and letting me help while I'm decorating.
Making newspaper ladders, cardboard 'bangers', paper gliders of every description, plastic cup towers, potatoe cakes that didn't cook but gave us half an hour of fun chasing eachother and sticking them on the fridge [and I am still the biggest suspect in the competition of getting them to stick on the ceiling].
Have a go at keeping everything cardboard or plastic for a copule of weeks and get the carrier bags full out on a wet weekend - Just add sticky tape, string, maybe a stapler. Have competitions who can make: tallest; longest; a bridge; a hat; an alien; a vehicle ....
Keep them on top of a wardrobe or in the garage for as many years as you can
Making things does it for me!!! :ugeek:
I think my favourite time is when all of the kids come round for sunday lunch every week or two. Sadly, since my youngest is almost 12, that's probably 10 years off 😀
I would prefer spending time with kids by watching television, playing games and even telling them bed time stories...