Our older kids love playing together, but sometimes their ages make this hard.  When the younger siblings feel left out it can be hard, so it is important to encourage the older siblings to include the younger ones.   I want to give you five scenarios and 5 ways that you can let the younger ones join in.  Today was the perfect opportunity as part of this sponsored campaign by VTech as part of the Mom It Forward Blogger Network.

1- Bike Riding:  If we are biking, we put them on a tagalong or in a wagon.   We also let the older ones ride their bikes in our cul-de-sac, while our younger ones will draw “roads” on the street for them.   Our daughter isn’t quite big enough to ride her own bike, but she does ride around in her little car and plays with her brothers.

2- Video games- The older kids love to play, but often it leaves our younger ones out.    This year, we found a solution that everyone loves.  It is the new InnoTV Educational Gaming System from VTech (designed for kids ages 3-8).   It  gives preschoolers the opportunity to join in, too.   They can play games of their own (and the best part is that they are fun & educational)  with some fun learning games of their own.

Our three year old couldn’t wait to get her hands on this game!  It was a game for her, for her age (but I have to say that her brothers each took a turn and loved it as much as she did!)   Your little ones will love it because the remote is big enough to make it easy to be controlled by them.  Plus,  like the boy’s iPods, this also has built in WiFi so we can download other games for her.

3- Board Games: If we are playing a board game, we let the younger kids roll the dice or pick up the card for us.

4- Doing homework.   Our daughter ALWAYS wants to do homework with her big brothers!  When they do homework, so does she.   I print out pictures of her favorite characters and she colors them, or I print out a letter from Letter Land and she draws on it.

5- Putting together legos.  This is probably the hardest one.  They want to build an actual set, and she doesn’t understand at all.   In this situation, we give her a box of “misfits” – the legos that have lost their sets.  We have a shoebox full of these and we let her build her own creation using her legos.  The only rule for the three older boys is that when she shows them her “car” or “train” (that doesn’t look like a car or train), they have to tell her that she did a great job and encourage her.

6- Use your Cotton Ball Reward System to encourage kindness.  I give out cotton balls when the kids are nice to their siblings without being told or asked.

ENTER TO WIN VTech InnoTV! 

So, for the holidays so close – VTech is offering one of their InnoTV Educational Gaming System for one of my readers.  YAY!!    (Oh- and I forgot to tell you, but this controller is great- it can switch from right handed to left handed!) To be entered to win – just enter here:  a Rafflecopter giveaway