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Most of you know about our way to make each child feel important and these 10 ideas for family night with a preschooler are just as important! I was reading my dear friend’s post about her 10 ideas for family night with a toddler and told her that I was going to carry it on today’s post… I hope that you find some that you like!

Our kids are ages 8, 6, 4, and 2.  I find that we have the easiest time finding things to do with our older kids, because they are easy to take out, they understand the rules of the games that we play, they are old enough to go with us to most places, they are not tired from missing rest time… but that doesn’t mean that these little ones don’t need this family time as much as the older ones do.  Remember that it only takes 20 minute of play-time to make an impact in the lives of your children.

1. Play this great game:  ThinkFun Roll and Play  – this is an easy “first” game for your kids.   It teaches colors, actions, body parts, emotions and more (look at the cards in the picture below)
   
2.  Dress up with them.  The kids LOVE when I put on my wedding dress and pretend to be a princess.   You should see how they smile!
3. Make a nature notebook with your kids.
4. Play “cooking in the kitchen”   – we will play with the bowls, spoons, pots and pans in our kitchen.  We pretend to mix things (I will throw a few blocks into a bowl and we will mix them with a spoon).     This teaches:  sound, cause & effect, fine motor skills, counting (count the blocks in the bowl), taking turns (you mix, now I mix)…  Go ahead and even let them PLAY with their food!
5. Do any of these rainy day sensory activities (I love using play-dough for sensory integration!)
6. Make personalized coloring sheets of your kids (they will color themselves!)
7. Let them make rain in your kitchen!
8. Watch a movie together  (we go to the library and pick out one that we want to watch – the preschooler gets to pick this time!)
9. Make these 3 ingredient funfetti cookies or these easy peanut butter cookies to go with your movie… or make special popcorn!
10. Grab a shower curtain and make a racetrack with your child and then PLAY on the racetrack!  I let our kids draw as many of the places as they wanted to…  and they loved it (plus, I think that our older kids draw better than me… shhh….)
    
    

If you get tired of playtime, try any of these 13 ideas.  The most important thing to remember is that your child does not care WHAT you are doing, they only care that you are DOING IT WITH THEM.

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