Spending time playing and learning with your elementary school kids will help you both establish a trusting, meaningful relationship. While you don't need to be your child's only playmate, it is important to spend time with them and make them happy. Children are bombarded with several entertainment devices like television, computers, and video games. Taking some time away from those devices will help you and your child bond and it may even save you some money, even if it is only on the electric bill. Taking time out of your busy schedule now is a great idea, especially since childhood doesn't last very long. This is your time to teach your child how to play and teach them the importance of knowledge. You need to create fun activities that will help them not only burn off some calories, but it will help them learn something too.

Adults, like children, need time to play and have something to do that gets their mind off the daily stresses we encounter. Playing with your children will help you all spend some time together laughing and just having fun with each other. Do activities that encourage your children to learn new things. If you have already gone to the zoo a million times, skip the zoo and head for something new. Take a trip to a bird refuge or a dinosaur museum. Both places will have instructors there to help you and your child learn something new together. Playing will help a child's expand and grow; it also helps older minds stay active. Keeping your mind active through playful activities has been shown to prevent or reduce Alzheimer's disease. Encourage your child to be creative. Go outside and build a play fort together. If they have a short attention span, encourage them to focus on a project with you. Even doing simple tasks such as planting the garden will become an exciting adventure to them. Talk to them about how a seed grows into a plant and how that can produce the food that you eat. Give a small section of the garden to your child for them to nourish and watch their plants grow. This is a wonderful learning experience for children and it helps them learn patience.

Playing can also teach your children much-needed social skills like cooperation, attention, challenge, pattern building, and fairness. Get together with a group of families in your neighborhood and have play days. All the families should get involved and do fun things with their children like water-balloon fights or volleyball. Playful activities are normally active and they help to increase your physical fitness level and provide you with more stamina.

Your children can learn wonderful things through playing. They can learn about traffic laws by creating a chalk road on your driveway and they will be able to pretend their bicycles are cars. Teach them about safety laws on the road and in your home. Playing can also help them learn math skills and other needed skills. Most children like to play "grocery store" or "bank". This is a simple game you can do by letting your children play with some of your canned goods. They can pretend that your kitchen is a grocery store and they have to purchase the canned goods. This will help them learn how to add and it will teach them about money. Playing bank is also a fun game and learning activity for children. Use an old spaghetti holder as the bank canister and then have your child be the bank teller or the customer. You can place paper money in the spaghetti holder and roll it across the floor to one another. If you put your mind to it, you can create fun games that teach your children about the environment, politics, history, law enforcement, safety rules, and other valuable skills and lessons.

One of the nicest things about playing is that it allows your children to use their imaginations. They get to step out of the daily world we live in and pretend that anything is possible. Playing is actually the way several things get invented, because people imagine things that do not yet exist. Playing with your children may even help you solve some of the problems you have been working on in your daily life because you no longer are worrying about them. Playing also helps children understand trust; they will understand what it means to hurt and what makes them happy. They will be able to understand more about their feelings and other people's feelings. Playing actually helps children build self-esteem and confidence and it teaches them how to work through obstacles and failures.

One of the best ways to encourage your child to learn new things is to play new games with them. Don't only play games that you or your child knows they can win. If you often play Chess or Monopoly, try playing Chutes and Ladders or CandyLand. New games make it challenging it helps your child learn how to deal with winning or losing. Some children become upset when they don't understand how to play certain games. If your child is upset about a game, talk to them about it. Ask them what frustrated them and see if you can clearly explain how to play or the game in a manner that they can understand. If they are still upset, try another game. Let your child pick a game, even if it is a video game. Playing video games with your children will let you see into their world and it will help the two of you grow closer together because you are spending time together.

Encourage your child to learn new skills through playing. Teach them about the different sports, even if they don't like them. Eventually they will have to take a gym class and it will be helpful for them to understand some of the different sports before they are just thrown into them. Try different methods to teach your child about sports and physical activity. Turn on some music and teach them how to play basketball. Then, make it into a fun game by trying to get so many points made before the song changes or the song reaches the chorus. A child that normally hates sports may start to enjoy them when they find it turned into a different game.

Music is a wonderful way to help your child learn new skills. Music not only helps them play the piano or other instruments, but it teaches them how to have self-discipline, patience, and how to practice. They will need the skills when they start getting longer, and harder homework assignments. You will be able to talk to them about the importance of practicing and how practicing the piano helped them to play a song. Use this when you are helping them with their homework; tell them that just like the piano, math problems also need practice.

You can play other games with your child that will help them learn new skills like thinking games. Simon Says is a popular game for children because it forces your child to pay attention and then repeat what you are saying. When you are in the car, play fun games with your child. Have them search for the alphabet using the billboards or license plates, ask them name things that they see while you are on your way to the store.

Playing teaches cooperation and competition to your child. Help your child how to be cooperative with others, even if they are competing against them. Fun games like Red Rover will help them understand how to be competitive and it also teaches them how to be cooperative, because they can switch teams if they fail to break through the line. Talk to them about competition and discuss how competitive players work together by agreeing to the same rules and being nice to one another. Let them know that winning isn't everything and that they need to learn how to handle losing. Teaching your child the importance of being a good loser will help them for many years to come. Teach them that they are winning if they are getting better with each loss. Show them how to recognize things they did that they could improve on that will help them win the next time they play. Never teach your child how to cheat, this only shows them that winning is more important than losing. This teaches children that it is ok to cheat on anything and that they think losing is bad. They may make fun of children that lose, or they will become too competitive with other children. You must show your child how to listen to the rules and follow them, as this is the only way to try hard to win the game.

Children are smart and they can do many things that you may not think they can. Encourage them to have confidence and good self-esteem and let them pick games that involve thinking and learning new things. Most games can be done for free, and they help to expand your child's knowledge and even your own knowledge.