Families with different aged children will have to depend upon the older children to have patience and help keep the little ones involved with their toys, centering more upon them, but also moving on to their toys and games. It can be done simultaneously as long as the younger children feel they can sit with you and share in the fun in some limited way. This will help very small children learn how to relate to the rest of the family in a positive way as long as they got most of the focus at the beginning of the play time.  

It's important they get your full attention.  Take the time to get down on the floor and play with them.  Push their trucks around and pretend right along with them.  Hug their dolls or drink pretend tea.  If your back can take it, let them take turns riding you like a horse while you crawl around and neigh.  Every kid loves that!

On summer evenings, try take toy hobby night to the sand box at the park or in your backyard. Using an old mesh produce bag, collect a variety of their toys that would be fun to play in the sand. These toys include various containers, a few of their toy dump trucks and cars, toy garden tools, and cast-off kitchen utensils.  In the sandbox with your kids, you can create towns with roads, castles, or just about anything with a list of toys that your children stop playing with a few days after Christmas.

Modeling dough or salt dough is also a great activity for family game hobby night.  Collect some small cookie cutters and old jar lids (for pans) and create fancy cookies and desserts - inedible and calorie-free, of course!  The kids can turn a large box on it's side for a counter and place the goodies on display to sell.  Of course, you'll pretend to buy, eat, and enjoy!

Another fun way to enjoy this time is to gather up all the games your children received over Christmases past and games bought for Christmas eve fun and choose the ones every member of the family can enjoy.  This can include such classic games as Uno, board games like Candy Land or Life, and dominoes.  When choosing games to play it's important to consider if everyone can enjoy them.  For instance, Scrabble might be too hard for small children, so you will need to consider if a game will take forever to play or if it will stress out some of the younger family members.  

More consideration is to ask yourself if a game encourages merciless competition, like Monopoly, leaving losers feeling left out.  It's important for kids to learn how to lose and still have fun.  Don't "throw" the game, intentionally letting them win all the time, but don't mercilessly beat them every time either.  Make it fun.  If losing is a problem for some of the kids, check out some of the new cooperative games where everyone is on the same team to help them learn how to enjoy competition in a favorable way. 

Hobbies are also a great way to share as a family game hobby night.  This is a good way to find out what kind of special gifts you can get for the following Christmas as well. In fact, toy game hobby night is a great way to get to know your children better and a great way to help them overcome various social problems if they don't like to share or be with others easily.  

Did your children receive any musical instruments for Christmas that are just taking up space?  Maybe your family would be interested in pursuing musical skills together. Learn how to coordinate musical instruments together even if the little ones just bang two wooden dowels together.  This can make a time your children will never forget.  

If music won't work for toy game hobby night, think about some of the gifts you've received that are just accumulating dust in your garage.  Even little kids can play croquet on a cool summer evening or even badminton. The important thing is to have fun together.

Having a family game hobby night every week will help you stay close to your kids as they grow up.  It will keep the bond of love fresh and the lines of communication open.  Plan a toy game hobby night this week!


   

Achieve Your Own Home Business Success

If you've ever wanted to turn your craft, hobby or interest into a home business success story, there's a way you can do it -- even in this difficult economy!  And you can earn $25.00 dollars for taking the first step!  I'll pay you to get started and then I'll help you succeed! Three years ago I turned my passion into an Internet business, and now I'm getting thousands of free, targeted traffic per month.  You'll learn how to do the same selling your projects, ebooks, recipes or writing on the Internet.  More...