My best strategy is to plan possible activity options ahead of time when my child doesn't otherwise want my attention. When DS goes down for a nap, I enjoy spending 10 minutes or so imagining up some fun ideas for the next day. That way, we can both get behind a plan enthusiastically because it reflects our mutual interests.
I think the reason a lot of parents give up on interacting is that they get stuck in a rut of perceiving an unduly limited set of options. Take the parents at our local park as an example. They see these options:
- Sit on edge of sandbox and fill bucket ad nauseum
- Push child on swing as nauseum
- Stand next to play structure and stare at DC
Why not get involved creatively and do something *you* like! For example, we jazzed up the sandbox by building competing cities of sandcastles and playing bombardment with a rubber ball yesterday. It teaches the child so many strategic and engineering skills: how to optimize castle placement and city configuration, how to throw accurately, how to plan the order of your attack, etc. We played for a good hour, and I can honestly say it was a TON of fun.
For an older child, you can play lava tag, where you are immune if you've climbed on top of the play structure's roof/into a free, etc.
Make games up! Write a hopscotch board with letters and race to see how many words you can hop to in a minute! Draw a number line and race to solve equations using different movements (jumping, skipping, running, crab walking, etc).
Other fun ideas:
- Sports! Kids are never too young to learn them, and they promote the kind of vigorous exercise that children (and their parents!) need. As a rule, I keep a general purpose rubber ball, a practice rubber softball, and a bat in the stroller for impromptu park trips. It doesn't matter if they have no ability or are athletic prodigies. Fun is the name of the game. For older children, a few skipping roles of different lengths are, IMO, essential. Compete on broad jumps, pull ups, high jumps, somersaults and kartwheels, etc.
- Nature exploration: IDing trees, tracking animals, analyzing different parts of plants or insects, building sculptures out of natural materials, IDing cloud/weather formations, doing light experiments with prisms on sunny days, collecting interesting "specimens", stargazing, etc. Go for a hike with a camera, snap pictures of interesting things, and have your child note observations and practice scientific drawings in a log book.
I hope these ideas get you excited to hit the park! Children grow up so quickly-- take advantage of your children actually wanting to be around you while it lasts, because you'll soon be complaining of neglect when they're teenagers.
