Welcome to the third post in our series Creating Meaningful Moments! I hope you have been encouraged as much as I have to be continuously on the lookout for ways to engage our kids purposefully every day. We have discussed what meaningful moments are and how important it is to stay present with our kids. Staying present is important, but sometimes it’s hard to find ways to keep our minds (and our kids’ minds) focused when we’re all feeling bored. We know in our minds that we need to engage with our kids, but we have reached the bottom of our creativity barrels. We need inspiration in coming up with conversation topics for babies, toddlers, kids, tweens, and even teens.
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Today we’re going to talk about Making the Most of Downtime.
Now before you protest that you don’t have any downtime or don’t even remember what the term “downtime” means, let me define my terms. When I talk about downtime, I’m not referring to that ever elusive but oh-so-longed-for thing called free time.
Free time is a glorious period in which one gets to do whatever one wishes to do. It is a luxury that few of us experience during these busy, exhausting days of parenthood. What I’m mostly referring to when I use the term “downtime” is simply time spent waiting for something else.
No matter how busy we are, we all have a bit of downtime in our days. We have times when we’re standing in the checkout line at the store, going through a car wash, sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, watching the clock until nap time, you get my drift. All of these minutes spent waiting are ripe for creating a meaningful moment with our kids.
Instead of handing them our phones or a tablet, leaving them to entertain themselves while we immerse ourselves in our phones, all of us sitting bored, listening to our kids fight or ourselves fussing at them, we could be using this time when we have nothing else to do to invest in them.
I have found that my active attention prevents a lot of sibling arguments. It also prevents a lot of disobedience and most of my own scolding. Much of my kids’ misbehavior stems from boredom. They are waiting – for what feels to them like – FOREVER in the checkout line. So their natural, childlike curiosity is going to lead them to look at and, therefore, touch or pickup the things that are on the shelves by the register. (Anyone else ever notice how everything in those checkout rows are at eye level for children and also are usually candy, toys, or questionable magazines?)
But – if I’m singing songs with my toddler or playing I Spy with my preschooler or engaging in 20 Questions with my elementary kids, chatting with my tweens and teens – they are occupied, we are all having fun, and we’re bonding all while creating fun memories.
Conversation Topics for Babies, Toddlers, Kids, Tweens, and Teens
We all struggle with creativity in the midst of the moment, especially when we’re tired and the kids are grumpy. So I’ve compiled a (nowhere close to exhaustive) list of a few conversation topics and games you can use with your babies, toddlers, kids, tweens, and teens to capture those moments of downtime and turn them into moments of purpose with kids of different ages.
Babies
- “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”
- “This Little Piggy”
- “Jesus Loves Me”
- Peekaboo
- Naming body parts, touching each part as you name it
- Tickles
- Narrate what you’re doing
Toddlers (same activities as babies, plus more!)
- “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”
- “Where Is Thumbkin?”
- “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”
- “ABC’s”
- Point and ask what colors things are
- Ask them animal sounds
- Find the sticker (you place on different body parts and let them pull it off)
Preschoolers (same as babies and toddlers, plus more!)
- I Spy
- Find things of a certain color
- Bring books to read (especially at doctors’ offices)
- Ask them to name the opposite of a word you say
- Have them name all their extended family members
- Memorize a Bible verse with motions
- Make plans for something to do later, even if it’s just at home
Elementary Kids
- 20 Questions
- Tic Tac Toe
- Have them read to you (especially at doctors’ offices)
- Popcorn story (take turns telling small parts of a story)
- What’s your favorite ___?
- Think of animals starting with each letter of the alphabet
- Ask about their favorite/least favorite subjects in school and why
Tweens and Teens
- Take turns asking each other random questions (such as “Would you rather ride a camel or an elephant? and why?” or “What do you think would be the hardest sport to play on the moon? and why?”)
- Ask them about their goals/dreams in life
- Share with them some of your most embarrassing moments
- Design a dream home together
- 3-Word Stories – each person only gets three words at a time as you take turns telling a story
- List three good things that have happened today/this week/this year
We all seem to spend endless amounts of time just waiting. Waiting leads to boredom, boredom leads to mischief, mischief leads to frustration for parents, parental frustration leads to child frustration. Having a plan in place to help prevent boredom in the waiting helps cut down on a lot of missed family enrichment. These conversation topics for babies, toddlers, kids, tweens, and teens are nowhere near exhaustive (check back for updates often!). But I hope they give you some ideas to get started making the most of your family’s down times.
Do you find that your kids seem to get crazier the longer they have to wait? Have you wished for some ideas of ways to help keep the misbehavior and scolding to a minimum? Do you have any activities that you like to do with your kids in down times? I’d love to hear your feedback!
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