Busy parents often find themselves bereft of ideas for last minute chaotically arranged playdates. I know, I have 3 boys who’re demanding and very energetic. I usually find the easiest playdate activity is based around either their hobbies or those of their friends (there’s usually strong overlap here)
By focusing activities on a hobby you accomplish a number of goals. First and foremost you get to arrange and manage a playdate easily and quickly, without too much thought but with full co-operation of the kids.
Secondly you get to reinforce the fun and achievement of already existing hobbies. My kids love football, they’ll play whenever they can and love nothing more than learning a new trick or two. Often when their friends come round we’ll start on Youtube finding a world class player showing of some skills. Then we head to the garden (or park) and spend time practicing. Easy, healthy and frugal!
Kids who develop a strong passion for hobbies usually follow their parents lead. So it’s always good to make sure you as parents spend time doing the things you love, whether it be sports, reading, writing or handiwork.
One of my favorite reasons for focusing on hobbies is you also get to share and educate the kids in planning and organization, together with personal responsibility and respect. It’s the kids hobby so they need to take charge of the tools of the game. In our house the kids are responsible for cleaning their own footy boots (else they know they’ll be no use).
It’s also a great way for the kids to learn new hobbies from their friends which also helps them reinforce friendship qualities.
It’s now just down to you to organize the playdates! We use a cool app (iOS and Android) called ‘Playdate Parenting App by Jago‘ it lets you schedule with ease weeks in advance and when you create your kids mini-profile you can include hobbies and interests.
This is a guest post written by Clifton. All opinions expressed are 100% his own.