There are some things that we, as parents, do every single day. They’ve become so routine that they barely warrant any thought. Why not take those moments and make them something special for your kids. Turn the mundane into marvelous. Here are a few things I do with my kids to transform parts of their day into something they might remember for years.
1-Invitations:
One of the easiest ways to make something you’re doing extraordinary is to make invitations. My kids LOVE getting them. It transforms your tasks into something special for the kids. Suddenly they aren’t just doing what you’ve already planned, but they feel privileged to be a part of something that just got 100 times fancier. You can even use them to get the kids to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do by making it the most appealing choice of a series.
Pick One Thing To Do Today
A- Clean spiders out of the crawl space
B- Watch BBC House Of Commons Parliamentary Procedures live
C- Go to the supermarket!
Suddenly going to the supermarket sounds like a GREAT way to spend the morning! Though, my son might actually pick the spider one.
2-Menus:
Kids always feel good when they get to make decisions. Sometimes I’ll take 5 minutes and create a menu for my kids. They get to check off what they want from a list of options. It would be disastrous if I included an item that’s not in stock, so I make sure we have everything in stock. It’s a great way to get picky eaters to enjoy their vegetables. They don’t need to know that you’re the one actually controlling their choices. In their minds they will have had the power to choose broccoli over brussels sprouts!
3-Create a Restaurant:
Menus aren’t just for the kids to feel empowered with meal choices, they’re a great way to spend an hour or two having fun together. You can utilize things like an A4 restaurant ring binder in order to keep all the papers intact.
Don’t just stop at the menu though. Create a whole restaurant for someone else in the house. If your child is old enough to write, have them make the menu. May daughter will add the most random things so I tell my wife in advance what she should pick based on reality. “Yeah, sorry honey, mom didn’t want to have a whole pineapple and roast turkey for breakfast, she picked pancakes.” After the menu is set, assign roles for your kitchen staff. They all want to be waiters, so be sure to have several things to bring out. Most importantly, they will want to cook. That brings us to our next way to keep things extraordinary around your house.
4-Cooking:
You’re cooking FOR your kids??? Don’t be crazy! Cook WITH them. When they’re involved they learn about how to prepare a meal, are more likely to eat what you’ve made and are entertained the whole time. Even if they can’t really “help”, put a cup of water and a teaspoon of flour into a bowl and have them stir it. They’ll do it for hours and later will confidently assure you that they can taste how well they mixed, even though it was never actually included in the meal. I’ve taken it a step further with them and have them host their own cooking show. We’re always looking for simple recipes, so submit them to me if you know a good one!
5-Become Someone Different:
Wouldn’t it be awesome for your kids if they woke up and you decided to spend the morning in character? Suddenly, Dad isn’t home. In his place is “Super Spy Dad” who is on constant daring missions around the house! I guarantee you it will take all of one billionth of a second for the kids to get on board with it. Now they don’t have to clean their room. They suddenly have a top secret mission to eradicate all traces that they were ever there. I promise they will too. Of course it doesn’t have to be a spy. Make up whatever you want. Be dinosaurs for a few hours, spend the afternoon “underwater” swimming wherever you want to go. The other day my son was having a hard time with just about everything. He was cranky and uncooperative until the very moment that Robot Dad emerged. Suddenly he was Robo-Boy and we spent 40 minutes in the supermarket walking and talking like robots. Did people stare? Of course they did. They also smiled and laughed at our mechanical interactions. Particularly during our simultaneous repetition of “DOES NOT COMPUTE” when the bread failed to scan 3 times at checkout (much to our amusement the cashier was pretty unamused).
It takes very little effort to blow your kids away with how awesome of a parent you can be. Don’t let routine become the routine. Avoid having the days slip away from you by creating fun and exciting memories whenever you can.