I am looking for ideas for activities my husband and our 4 1/2-year-old would enjoy together. They like playing baseball and other sports outside. I need indoor activities. My husband is not very good at playing with toys like pretending superheroes or cars or anything like that. By his own admission, he doesn't know HOW. I desperately want them to enjoy their time together.
Ideas?
My husband doesn't really like toys either. He wrestles with the boys (ages 5 and 3) and pretend sword fights (sometimes wearing his darth vader costume). Other than that, he just gets them outside and out of my hair!
My husband and boys play the Wii, do puzzles, read, cook/bake, legos, and oftentimes nap together :)
Stuff that is hands on....Building models...they have snap together planes, cars, etc...that are appropriate for each age level (look at the box at a hobby store it will have an age level. Puzzles again you can get the big floor ones or table top ones that have the bigger pieces.
If your husband is handy...Workshop day...get out a board, nails and pound way, fire up the saw (with help of course) put in and remove screws.
Uno - good way to teach/reinforce colors and numbers.
Get a nerf type ball and throw it back and forth in the basement.
Get a nerf gun set up targets in the basement - this is a big hit.
Get a race track for the small cars and they can race them.
Ever since my kid was old enough to walk my husband has played with him. My kid is 6 now.
My guys like to build things. Forts w/blankets and chairs. Pillow forts w/all the pillows and cushions in the house. Then I make a snack and they eat it in the fort which is special b/c food is not allowed anywhere but the kitchen accept in forts.
I save food boxes and they like to pile them on top of each other like a tower and throw things at it to knock it over.
We like to throw small pillows and stuffed animals at our kid and he tries to knock them out of the way. Its very cardio for all participants.
They can read together. I think its important for kids to hear their fathers read a story too. I recommend any Dr. Seuss. Listening to any man read Dr. S is hilarious. You can also try a joke book of clean jokes for preschoolers.
Not everything my husband does w/my kid is all fun and games. We also have my kid help dad around the house as much as possible. Even if my husband is taking out the trash and there is only one bag, my kid can walk w/my husband to the curb.
How about board games. My husband and son have always been game buddies. When my son was four they played Sorry, Chutes and Ladders, Guess Who and they also love doing puzzles together.
What about board games, building forts, cooking, hide in go seek, arts stuff.
How about things that don't require know HOW? Legos, Lincoln logs, jigsaw puzzles etc. You can build from the model and it's very clear when playtime is over because it's done :)
What does your husband like to do on his own. Any way to have child-sized equipment so DS can play along?
HTH
T.
Magic tricks
Cards (like Go Fish)
Teaching your son how to use a hammer & saw
A jigsaw puzzle that they can work on together & then mount when they are done
Erector sets
Complex Lego sets (more advanced in age)
Popcorn & movie party
Make pizza from scratch (or buy ready-made crust)
Wrestling!! My boys will do that for HOURS. Just blow up an air mattress and let them go at it!! :)
More important than anything else: sharing something dad likes and letting his son get to know him, how he thinks, a little glimpse of his personality that he can share. And then doing something that his son likes, to get to know him, how he thinks, a little glimpse into your son's personality that he can share. It's just quality time, getting to know each other, and enjoying each other and their uniqueness as well as similar qualities.
INDOOR...hmm. My guys like to go to "the man store" (Lowes) together nearly every weekend. My son gets to sit on and pretend to ride on the tractors, they look at the Christmas stuff, when it's the right Saturday they do the free craft together, and they buy soil or stones or whatever project is currently happening together and then "work" on it together. (Basically, my son plays in the dirt while Jeremy does the work, but they're beside each other and chatting). I'm not sure what exactly goes on, on these man dates.....it takes way longer than it technically should, but that's a man thing, so I don't ask questions.
They sometimes go to Chickfila for a chicken biscuit and chat. My 5 year old teaches us parents all his kung fu stuff, from the stretches and warm ups, all the way through his latest lesson. He tells us "I'm the sifu (teacher), you're the Joseph (student)". Reading books, trying to teach him the "strategy" behind Connect 4 and Uno, or superhero memory (the memory card game). They watch guy stuff (history channel, old kung fu stuff, sci-fi, sports....as long as it's age appropriate and not gorey) on TV. Occasionally go to the movie theater. Sword fighting (those spongy nerf-type swords) or light saber fights. Legos. Magic tricks. Or sometimes the "dead zoo" (Bass Pro Shop).
When I read someone's suggestion of savenger hunt it reminded me that my BIL used to do geocaching with his kids. It is like a real life scavenger hunt using GPS to find treasures. They all loved it. You can check out this website to learn more about it. I believe there are also some educational ones where the "treasure" is an important/historical site or memorial.
http://www.geocaching.com/
As many others have suggested board games and card games are always quick and easy and fun.
Legos is the biggest thing. That really brought back a lot of memories for my hubby. They also love playing computer games with eachother. The other things are every day things like cooking, fixing little things around the house.
My husband and 3.5 year old son do the following activities (while not all educational or good for him, they love it.)
Angry birds app on his phone.
Super mario Bros and other games.
Build lego cars together.
We have a crabby patty grill. My son makes burgers to order and takes them on a serving tray to my husband.
We have a wood shop in our basement. They are currently building a keepsake box together. My son has his own protective goggles. He loves it!
Short of suggesting video games... even the educational ones... you may not want to start that so soon in either one of your men! Big or small. (Though I do have early memories of my dad laughing out loud at something so funny as we all came to see my 3 year old son getting to baby pacman!) How about a race track? Even just hotwheels... It doesn't have to be electric. When I was growing up, my dad worked for Mattel Toys and I had orange roads going everywhere... my dad would bring home more cars and more twists and turns... I always felt bad that he didn't have a son but we made do... Also going out and creating a little workshop in the garage and building a birdhouse together... Maybe something to think about in your gift giving ideas for the holidays? A new saw for your hubby and some hotwheels and tracks for your son?
Not sure if this was mentioned or not, but wooden trains seem to take up a lot of their time. They like to make huge train tracks all over the playroom floor. DS (3) is getting hotwheels tracks for Xmas and I'm sure that will a new fave too. :)
What about games?
Reading books?
Music?
Coloring?
Building things - lego's, train tracks, wood games?
My husband is loving playing Bey Blades with our boys right now.
They also play wrestle all the time.
wrestling, P90X, drawing, martial arts, pillow fights, hide and seek, reading
At that age DH and DS read together (books and the comics), built lego, built with Tinker Toys, played with play doh, painted (not that well), colored, watered the plants, cleaned the fish tanks (big favorite, there are buckets and a siphon involved), did dishes (DS LOVES washing dishes), wrestled. Outside - gardened, play catch, kick the soccer ball around, play baseball, etc.
Parents don't need to "play" with their kids (though I know many people enjoy it!)
My husband and son's two favorite activities were legos and video games. They also liked going to the movies together, especially when it was some action packed thing that I was not interested in :)
They can spend time together in many ways. Does your husband have projects around the house? Your son can spend time helping daddy in the yard or garage. How about running errands together? It's the time and relationship that matter much more than the particular activity.
chutes and ladders
candyland
other memory games, like math memory and picture word bingo
boggle jr
also we do indoor relay races. even in our small house, the kids like it. And we play catch inside too.
I have 2 daughters 4 and 5 but I think these are unisex activities! My son's just 7 months old so not too much dad and son stuff yet...
My kids like to hunt and fish with my husband. BUT you said inside stuff - they like to go to Cabela's/Bass Pro and look at the stuffed animals, etc (yes, one-track minds - LOL) they also like to work on different models and build legos and play race cars. sometimes it is simple as my husband just sitting there and watching the boys (or one boy) play and respond to him when he says something, but not acutally get involved in the playing.:)
Building things... Blocks, legos, or even simple stuff in my hubby's garage workshop.
watching movies
reading books
Naptimes and ,storytimes is a good bonding with dad in our house when the kids are under 4 or so. My husband(his own admission too) found the kids games not stimulating enough mentally before that age and all the whining of little kids really gets to him.Since my husband wants and need to be stimulated mentally he had read them books with pictures though that the kids couldn't even probably not understand.
It used to made me mad until our pediatrician say :well at least he is spending time with them and the kids seems to enjoy this time with him,right.?
So even if the book read was beyond their comprehension ,apparently it was still beneficial as the kids loved to be rocked on daddy's lap and cuddle and listen to his voice.
He also do puzzle with them (well ,mainly he does it when they are under four as he gets like100/300 pieces puzzle for a 2/3 years old.lol) .The kids however seems to enjoy sitting there and just watching him,my five year old even told me one time how it is like magic how daddy can create a picture.
They love doing legos together and go on walks or bike ride.
Treasure hunts is a good things to do with dad too.I think that it is because dad still like it himself.
Also my husband is better on one on one kid.This is sometimes hard to do as we have four little one.bur when it does happened it works way much better.
Hope this help.
N.
