How to Make Sure Your Kid Has a Great Playdate

The two most important rules for children’s play dates are to keep activities age appropriate and to always have a back-up plan. With these two suggestions in mind, play dates can be fun for both children and parents alike. If you are the organizer of the play date, it is a good idea to have a few games or activities planned and to separate these activities with lots and lots of free playtime. Making sure your child has a great play date is about offering them a fun, mostly structured activity that allows for plenty of creativity and interaction. You can supervise and provide guidance and discipline, but it’s often best to let the kids learn on their own.

Here are some great play date ideas:

Begin with 20 minutes of free time where children can explore learning centers. A learning center is an area with one specific designated activity, such as kitchen time, Lego play, Tinker Toy towers or Play-Doh time. It doesn’t matter if a child stays at one learning center for the entire free time or migrates from one to another and “invents” his own way to play.

Learning center ideas include:

Kitchen Time Learning Center: If you do not have a “kitchen” set-up, keep your eyes open for play stoves, table-and-chair sets, plastic “food,” plastic dishes and play sink/counter set-ups at garage sales (where you can get them for a fraction of their original cost). Set up your little “kitchen” in one corner of the room that you have designated for your play date. Children will use their imaginations for the rest.

Lego Time Learning Center: Equip your “Lego time” learning center with two sizes of Legos geared for the age groups that will be playing in it. Again, garage sales are a creative, inexpensive way of stocking your learning play centers.

Play-Doh Learning Center: You can make your own Play-Doh for each play date.Imagination Tree has an excellent, easy-to-make play-doh recipe as follows: Combine 2 cups of all-purpose flower with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 1/2 cup of salt and 2 tablespoons cream of tartar. Add 1.5 cups of boiling water and stir. You can also add food coloring, if you’d like. For shinier dough, add a drop of vegetable glycerin oil (found at most drugstores). This type of glycerin is nontoxic.

After the first interval of free time, gather your play group into a semi-circle and either sing songs, have a “share time” of something that each child has brought to your play group to share or work on a group project together. A group activity can be something as simple as sitting the kids around your kitchen table and having them frost their own cupcakes. All you need are two or three cans of ready-made cake frosting and colored sprinkles, Jelly Bellies and Gummy Bears. Have the kids frost their cupcakes with wooden ice cream “spoons” that are flat on both sides or food safe craft sticks. You can find these at craft stores.

Make sure that you designate parents to supervise free play time and learning centers. If you are planning a regular play group, you can have a sign-up sheet where moms or dads can volunteer to supervise.

You can also steer your children to your back yard for free time spent swinging, running and playing in a sandbox or on the jungle gym. If the children seem to have tons of energy, some outside time will surely help.

Children should always wash their hands before and after eating and after coming in from outside. The last thing you want are sticky little handprints on your walls, furniture and doorknobs. Make your bathroom user-friendly with a stool for the sink, towels and soap.

Children need opportunities to socialize with their peers. When they begin preschool or kindergarten, they will be one step ahead of the pack if they have learned how to play well with others.

Source: http://www.parttimenanny.org/blog/how-to-make-sure-your-kid-has-a-great-playdate/