Resources

Play Ideas by Age

Keep kids playing in middle childhood: ages 8 to 12
- Use the imagination to play the Top Ten game. Think up a category like the Top Ten Reasons to Move to Antarctica or the Top Ten Scariest Things that Ever Happened to Me.

- Find new adventures in offbeat places. Checking out what's happening at your local bank. Visit the cemetery and make up a life story for someone buried there. Take ten minutes to go outside and count how many different kinds of birds you see and birdsongs you hear.

- Sidewalk chalk and a lazy summer afternoon-it's a great way for kids to have fun drawing.

- Jump rope the afternoon away. It's great exercise and kids can be endlessly creative with the types of jumping, the number of jump ropers, and rhythmic rhymes to make it extra fun.

Many of these play ideas are borrowed from:
Make Believe - by Dorothy G. Singer and Jerome L. Singer
Baby Play - by Wendy S. Masi and Roni Cohen Leiderman
Your Child at Play series - by Marilyn Segal, Wendy Masi, and Betty Bardige
Playing Smart - by Susan K.Perry.

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