Some of the fondest memories that I have of childhood include getting off the school bus, running into the house, throwing my backpack on the floor, giving mom and dad a quick hello and then running right back out the door to PLAY!!! Play what, you may ask??? Well you name it, we played it... The kids in my neighborhood were NEVER at a loss for games to play... kickball, hide and seek, bike rides, rolling down the front yard hills, swimming in the pool, making mud pies, jumping in piles of leaves, wiffle ball, I could go on and on...
Recently on my way home from work I could not help but ask myself, "Where are all the children"? It was 5:30 in the evening on a Friday, the sun was still high, the weather was perfect for a good ol game of kick the can, but my neighborhood was silent. Where were the kids? Well unfortunatlely I think it is fair to assume that they were inside playing Wii, XBox or Playstation, some may have even been working on their homework. What has become of all those great, social, active, outdoor games that consumed my childhood? Why don't todays children know what freeze tag is? Why aren't the neighborhood kids playing outside?
Well I don't have all the answers; however, I can offer some advise to all the children, parents, teachers, babysitters, grandparents, aunts and uncles that have watched the children in their lives fall into the video game slump...This summer is a great time to get outdoors, play some "old school games" and have some fun in the sun with the children in your life!!!!
As an occupational therapist I am constantly thinking about or creating "sensory rich" ideas for parents to use with their children. Well summertime takes most of the thought out of creating these activities. Just get outside and do what comes naturally. Below list of sensory rich activities that take little creativity, little set up, almost no purchasing of materials and best of all, they bring back that age old saying "God made dirt and dirt don't hurt" Just go outside and do what you did 30, 40 even 50 years ago with the children in your neighborhood. What we didn't realize back then was that we were all being "little OT's" and filling our days with sensory rich games and activities that didn't seem anything like work but instead were all just part of being a kid.
Here is a list of games and activities that I remember playing when I was a kid, little did I know that as an OT I would be recommending these activities to my clients as a way to enrich their therapy programs!!!!
- Run through a sprinkler
- Play catch with water balloons
- Build a sandcastle
- Draw with sidewalk chalk
- Play Hopscotch
- Ride a bike
- Jump on an outdoor trampoline
- Play Tag (freeze tag, tv tag or just plain old tag)
- Family Kickball game
- Hide-n-seek
- Relay races
- Swim in a pool
- Play leap frog
- Make mud pies
- Open a lemon aide stand
- Kick the can
- Slip and Slide
- Play with water guns
- Play in the mud (that's right, GET DIRTY!!!!)
- Rollerblading
- Tug-of-war
- Camp out in your own backyard
- Wash a car
- Wiffle Ball
- Go to the beach
- Swings, slides, monkey bars
- Rolling down a hill
- Blow bubbles
- Soccer
- Take a hike
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