It’s hard to find a happy medium isn’t it? You don’t want your kids sitting in front of the TV all day playing video games, but if you limit their time, they come and stare at you and tell you they have "nothing to do." Whine…whine…whine. You give up and let them go back to video games.

If this is happens in your house all the time, it doesn’t have to. By planning ahead and thinking up interesting things for the kids to do and sometimes doing it with them, you can keep them playing and out from in front of the TV.

Here are some ideas:

Sports

1. Organize a summer Olympics in your neighborhood. Have timed races, long jumps, and relay races. Let the kids help design and make medals.

2. Set up a bowling alley. Use empty milk cartons or plastic jugs and a rubber ball.

3. Go for family bike rides.

4. Take family hikes.

5. Play tag.

6. Play red light, green light.

7. Play red rover.

8. Play hide and seek.

9. Set up the water sprinkler in the yard.

10. Make your own "slip-n-slide" with a large sheet of plastic and plenty of cheap dishwashing liquid.

Gardening

1. Plant and care for a small vegetable or flower garden. Let your children help pick out what they want to grow. Plant it and take care of it together. Then enjoy it together.

2. Study bugs. Spend the summer collecting bugs. Mount them on styrofoam sheets and look up their proper names. Look them up on the internet or in science books.

3. Collect and press wild flowers. Girls love this. Learn to dry wildflowers and make cards and arrangements with them.

4. Collect rocks. Boys love this. Find all different types and classify them. Read about them. Go to the library and check books out about them.

5. Collect funny shaped rocks. Find all sorts of odd shaped rocks and decide what they look like. Get out the paints and let the kids paint their rocks to look like whatever they imagined – frogs, turtles, houses, rabbits, etc.

Food

1. Set up the famous Lemonade stand. Have your kids make the posters, add up the price of the lemon aide, the cost of the cups and ice. Let them sell it and see what their "profit" is. This is a great way to teach them beginning business.

2. Have cooking lessons. There are all kinds of great books with fun kid’s recipes. Get in the kitchen together and have fun.

Beach/Lake

1. Take pictures or draw what you see at the beach – shells, starfish, fish, clouds, the beach, etc. Have them learn about different sea creatures and write short reports. Help them put together a scrapbook showcasing their work.

2. Do the same thing for the lake.

3. Cook their "catch of the day" together and have it for dinner.

4. Study nature. The life cycle of fish or tadpoles.

5. Go swimming together.

6. Go canoeing together.

7. Go rowing together.

The list of things for your children to do is endless. Notice that most of the activities include you, as the parent, doing the activities with them. The most successful parents that produce the most successful children are those who spent plenty of time with their children.

More than anything else, your children want time with you. Sure, they’ll take a new video game, but if you start when your children are young, they will always choose you over a material object. If you start spending time with your children early enough, they will continue to choose you even when they are teens and adults.

Jason Ladock

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