Entertaining an Only Child
“I’m bored. Let’s do something fun.” Your child says. You look down and see their bright puppy dog eyes looking at you imploringly, and you remember why you had a child in the first place; to have someone else to love and cherish. Your heart melts and you agree to abandon what you are doing to spend quality time with your child. But what should you do together? Here are some ideas to entertain an only child and make memories together.
NB: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means Sops and I may make a small commission should you make a purchase. For more information, please check out our Affiliate Disclaimer.
Go Outdoors
Get some fresh air. Play in the park. Go for a walk in the woods. But don’t just take your child outdoors for exercise, like you would with a dog. Engage with your child when you are outside. Play games with your child, like Pooh sticks. Try a scavenger hunt. If you go out into nature in the Autumn try the scavenger hunt in our Autumn Activity Book. Climb trees together. My brothers loved climbing trees in their youth. It’s like a rite of passage. If you don’t mind looking at bugs, take a magnifying glass. Your child will find it fascinating to try and count all the legs on a millipede.
For a truly outdoors experience go camping with your only child.
Practice Arts and Crafts
If you are an artsy family try doing arts and crafts together. Arts and crafts can sometimes seem like an expensive hobby, especially if you go into a specialised hobby shop. I adore shops like Hobbycraft. I practically drool over all the craft items across the entire store, and I want to start a new craft hobby every day. Truth is, I haven’t even mastered how to thread the sewing machine that I bought way back in 2020. But arts and crafts do not have to cost so much, and you can make lots of cool stuff for your own home or as gifts for people.
We recommend you shop for basic items such as paper and glue in a discount store such as The Range. You can also get arts and crafts items in your local charity shops.
And don’t forget Mother Nature. You can pick up rocks, shells, leaves and even wildflowers. You can press the flowers in a flower press or a very large book that no one uses, such as a directory. We used to use The Yellow Pages, but that book isn’t so big anymore, thanks to the internet. You may need to find an old encyclopedia instead.
NB: Don’t use the bible or the Complete Works of Shakespeare, that’s sacrilege.
For Easter, I went for a walk and got some blossoms, pine cones and rocks to make an Easter garden. I painted eggs (which we rolled down a hill) and made an open tomb, (complete with folded-up shroud).
Baking Fun
Did you use to make cakes and cookies with your folks when you were young? Did you have your own apron and wooden spoon? It’s so fun making delicious sweet treats with the ones you love. It’s equally fun to lick the spoon off all the delicious melted chocolate icing, right? Your child will love spending quality time with you baking yummy treats that you can share with others. It’s even better to make hard biscuits such as gingerbread, so you can cut the dough into shapes such as men, dogs, ducks, and aliens. Your child can have lots of fun creating edible masterpieces, only to gobble them up afterwards.
Story Time
Reading a book to your child doesn’t have to be something for bedtime alone. You can read a story with them at any time of the day, or better still take them to the library so they can pick new books. There may be storytime events at your local library for you to attend when your child is young. Sops and I used to go to a baby and toddler rhyme time at our local library. The librarian would read a story and then we would sing classic nursery rhymes whilst the toddlers would do the actions. There is nothing more adorable than seeing a bunch of toddlers jumping to ‘hop little bunny, hop.’
Another way to share stories with your child is to write and illustrate your own stories for your child. The story can feature your child and other people they know. My mother used to do this with us, and we would sit around listening to adventures about ourselves. She added our characteristics to the characters in the stories and we could identify with them. I always wore a Supergirl outfit, as I was obsessed with Supergirl at the time. This is a great way to bond with your child and show them you know them very well. The stories can be kept in a keepsake box to reminisce in the future.
Games Galore
If it’s a rainy day and you have already spent hours crafting, baking and reading, perhaps you’ll enjoy playing a game together. There are many suitable 2-3 player games out there that you will enjoy together and won’t end up in a big competitive fight. Or maybe it will end in a big competitive fight, but that’s nothing that a pillow fight can’t end.
Here are a few games that Sops and I have played and enjoyed.
Throw Throw Burrito Card Game
Everyone loves a jolly good food fight. The only problem is, that there is a lot of mess to clean up afterwards. How about playing a game where you can throw burritos at each other but you don’t have to clean up beans and mince from the walls afterwards? This is the perfect game to have the fun of throwing ‘food’, but not cleaning up mess.
The Sock Game
Have you ever noticed how you are constantly losing socks, so you have to walk around in odd socks? Do you also lose things like dice, ping pong balls, keyrings etc.? Maybe all those things are in the odd sock you lost? This game is a fun two-player game whereby you have to feel for objects inside a sock and take them out before the other player. It is a simple game to play and Sops and I enjoyed playing it over Christmas last year.
Poetry for Neanderthals
I bought this game for Sops, as she loves poetry. But this game was more challenging than we expected. You’d be surprised how hard it is to speak in single-syllable words. However, the game does come with an inflatable club to bash each other with, and you can use that for other games.
It’s Bananas! The Monkey Tail Game
This TikTok viral award-winning game will entertain your family for hours. You’ll have stitches as you try and scoop up bananas with your tails. Everyone can laugh with this game and it would be fun at both children’s and grown-up parties.
Science Experiments
If your child enjoys learning about science and engineering, you may wish to try some science experiments with your child. Mark Rober, NASA engineer and YouTuber has created some awesome engineering kits you and your child can work on together. The boxes come as a subscription, so once your child has completed one project they won’t have to wait too long to get the next project through the post.
However, maybe you and your child are more interested in the natural world. Well, fear not. There are plenty of kits for trying out science experiments such as the mega science kit below. The Unglinga kids science kit comes with 150 experiments to try. You’ll be learning about chemistry, physics and the natural world. You could try a new experiment every single day throughout the school holidays. Once you have tried all the experiments you’ll have all the science equipment to try out new experiments with your child. Maybe you can make a formula to grow hairs on your chest or to turn your child into a frog, or should that be a potion? What’s the difference?
Dress Up Role Play
We have recommended dress-up costumes for your child in our post, 60 gift ideas for an only child. However, we would also recommend you have a few costumes for yourself to play along with your child. Sops’ father has his own Harry Potter cloak for when they visited the Warner Bros. studio in London. It is fun to attend such events when everyone is dressed up. You don’t need a huge box of costumes for yourself but maybe a few props and a princess costume will help you build an imaginary world with your child. It’s worth looking in your local charity shops and Etsy for bargains, or better still make your own costumes. You don’t need any sewing skills. Just buy a simple plain dress or trousers and adjust them accordingly. You could glue on ribbons or fake jewels. You could make a crown with cardboard and stick- on gems.
Play With Your Child’s Toys
Sops and I often played make-believe games with her soft toys. We have mentioned some of the crazy stories we played in other posts. They really were bizarre stories, but we had a lot of fun and made many memories.
If you are stuck for story ideas, try using some story dice to prompt you.
Music and Dance
We were born to dance. Just look at any baby when you turn the music on. They love to have a jiggle. Dancing is part of the human nature. What other creatures dance? Bees? Apes? It’s not many. Let us know in the comments below what other animals love to dance.
It is very good for us to move our bodies. If you start to feel stiff, have a stretch. Go for a walk. If you are feeling low, crank up the music and have a jolly good boogie. There have been times when I have had panic attacks and to shift the extra adrenaline from my system I have put on happy music and just danced it off. This has released the happiness hormones and helped calm me down. If you want to bond with someone dance with them. It is not surprising that in the past communities have held public dance events to help match couples together.
The same connection can be made with your child. Find a song you both like and have a dance to it. Sops and I like dancing and singing as we wash the dishes together. We try to whistle to Disney songs without laughing, but we sound terrible.
Singing is something else people enjoy doing together. Why not host a karaoke night in your own home with just your family? You can put a sing-along Disney Film on. Or just some random YouTube music videos that have lyrics to them.
DIY Movie Theatre
Once upon a time going to the movies was a magical event. The screen was absolutely huge and TV screens at home were tiny. Sometimes they were still in black and white. Do you remember those days? Going to the movies meant eating popcorn and being fully emersed in the story. It meant going to the toilet during the break and buying ice cream. Everyone in the theatre was having a shared experience and it was magical. In the 80s they had created the 3D experience and everyone happily wore those funny glasses to watch Jaws lurch at them.
Nowadays going to the cinema doesn’t seem to be as special. Our TV screens are getting bigger and bigger. We can even purchase projectors and projector screens for our homes. We can even purchase sound bars and a surround sound system to imitate the cinema. We can pause the movie to go to the toilet whenever we want to and we can raid the freezer for a pot of ice cream whenever we wish. Where is the magic in that? Well, why not re-create the magic of the silver screen in your own home?
Purchase a projector and screen. Host a movie night in your home with the neighbours. Watch the latest blockbuster through a streaming service such as Amazon Video. Even better, do it in your garden on a summer’s night with fairy lights stringed on your fence and in trees. Now that would make it magical.
Conclusion
We hope you have found this post inspiring. Please note, that children can eventually learn how to play by themselves for longer periods. But you need to show them how. Our post, ‘How much should I play with my only child?‘ will show you at what stages you can encourage your child to play independently. That post also explains some of the imaginative games Sops and I used to play.
If you would like to discuss your child’s play habits, please do join the conversation on our facebook page and in the parents channel on Discord.
