Child’s Play NY‘s Founder Jocelyn Greene has some excellent indoor tips for us parents to counteract the torture of going outside in this wicked heat. We hope you enjoy it and take her advice!
To you parents who are braving this heat and actually out doing things with your kids…my sun-visor is off to you.
Last weekend, I dutifully clicked on the events calendars and scrolled through the many things-to-do-with-children in this great borough of ours. I slowly lost hope as activity after activity was (oh horror!)…outside.
In the end I never left the house. And neither did my 4-year-old son.
This coming weekend, while I’d rather stand around in an upstate swimming hole, I’m going to be in Brooklyn prepping for my Child’s Play NY camps. So, with hot rain in the forecast, I’m getting ready for Round Two of The Great Indoors.
Here’s how I look forward to surviving AGAIN:
Keep it physical: “Don’t Touch the Floor”
The name of the game says it all – but here’s some tips:
-Take all pillows off the sofas and make a path around the house (or living room) for kids to jump on!
-Create a little narrative to keep the game going. Sometimes we imagine that the floor is made of quicksand, and if someone fell off the pillow, they had to be pulled up and rescued.
You can play a sleeping sea monster (little sibs are good for this too) on the floor who will try to snap at the kid and get them off-course. Think about high-stakes environments (swamps, oceans, prehistoric jungles) and the characters who inhabit them (pirates, monsters, dinosaurs) and then this pillow-hopping can go on for a while!
-Make it more challenging by taking pillows away as the game continues (but keep it safe – no unnecessary trips to the doctor please)!
-Turn on music and give it a soundtrack. There is real drama in some rousing classical music like Prokofiev or Tchaikovsky. We also like excellent cinema scores.
Other ways to burn off calories and get a few laughs in, all while staying in front of the A/C: Obstacle Courses, Pillow Fights, Tickle-Wrestling on the Bed!
Calm it Down: “Story Fort”
Even if your child doesn’t read yet on their own, it doesn’t mean you can’t pretend they do! After a high-energy game, when they are sufficiently tired, seize the moment to practice the idea of quiet reading! Last weekend I started something we called Story Fort. I was shocked by how well – and how long – we were able to “parallel read”. Here’s some suggestions on how to make this work.
- Create a cozy space for your child that feels like their own, but in a room you are comfortable reading in too. I moved some pillows around and made a little nest for my son. Another time I pulled the sofa away from the wall, (vacuumed!) and created a nook for him between the sofa and the wall! Kids really love it if you rearrange the furniture for them. It seems like you are breaking the grown-up rules to make a special nook and so they are consequently more likely to stay put than if they were just in a regular seat!
- Choose about 5 books and encourage quiet reading for 7-10 minutes. Set a timer if that works for you. For younger children, less time is more appropriate.
- While they read, you read next to them. Modeling the pleasure of reading, is crucial (so say the literacy experts) for cultivating a love of books!
- Once they have “read” on their own, have them pick a book from that batch that you then read to them.
- Start that cycle again (1 – choose 5 books, 2 – quietly read together 3 – read one story aloud). The best part was that I was able to get my own reading in, right next to my son so it felt like a little disguised grown-up time.
Make a Racket…Do a Dance
I broke from the stranglehold of wonderful Laurie Berkner and Raffi and created a new Spotify playlist of an eclectic mix of stuff with a great beat (my own playlist ranged from my old 90s jams to Beyonce). Busting out the shaky eggs, rattles and bongo drums we haven’t used in a year, we just generally made a lot of noise which turned into a dance party. I was certainly more inclined to bust-a-move when it wasn’t the over-played-kid-friendly stuff I’ve grown too used to!
You can even make your own shakers or bring out the pots and pans. Your enthusiasm for your own music (maybe stuff you haven’t heard in awhile) is likely contagious. Maybe give your neighbors a heads-up, it could get loud…
Chime in below about your favorite ways to beat the heat with your kids while staying out of the outdoors. And good luck staying cool and having fun!
Jocelyn Greene is the Founder and Executive Director of Child’s Play NY where she has been teaching acting to children since 2008 through after-school classes, camps and parties. She has worked closely with Brooklyn schools like Packer Collegiate, Berkeley Carroll, The Co-op School, Greene Hill and Dillon to develop their robust Theater Arts Program. She has an MFA in Acting from NYU and a BA in literature from Wesleyan and is a member of Actors Equity Association. Child’s Play NY is now enrolling for August camps, and fall after-school classes. Jocelyn lives in Clinton Hill with her husband and their 4-year-old son.
https://www.achildgrows.com/2016/12/26/indoor-activities-get-winter-part-creating-stage/