Dad Tip of the Day: Keep your kids guessing and switch it up on them when it comes to "play".
Kids need new experiences and challenges, as it helps open their eyes to new things, connect dots in their head, use their imagination and have more fun. Kids can get in a rut playing with the same toys and doing the same things each day, so as Dads, we need to figure out how to stretch them and switch it up on them.
An example from last weekend is when we "painted" a wooden fish. I have had this wooden shark hanging around my garage for years, and I am not even sure how it got there. I can't recall making it, but it was unfinished/unpainted wood. I had some red oak wood stain laying around the garage as well, so we stained the shark in red oak!
This isn't exactly a recommended activity for a 2 year old (but nearing 3), but with proper supervision, instruction and a pre-activity discussion on the dangers (would have taken turpentine to get off, and would have been bad if he splattered it in his eyes/mouth, etc), we got it done and Jacob "painted" the shark!
My wife was not exactly thrilled with this idea of mine (happens quite frequently 😇) but I assured her we would be careful. I stripped him down to his tighty-whiteies (the neighbors think we are crazy anyway) and used an old piece of carpet ready to be thrown away as our tarp. I got to teach Jacob how to pry the lid off the stain can, how to find an appropriate sized brush, how to evenly coat the shark in stain, and how to put the stain can lid back on by tapping it with a hammer. All of these were new experiences, and Jacob had a blast!
Keep um guessing dads!
Brian