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Tips for Playing with Children
I’m the proud auntie to a niece and nephew. They are 1 and 2.5 years old, respectively. Because of my extremely limited mobility, I’m presented with the challenge of interacting with them.
I can’t get on the floor and play “crash” with my nephew— a game he invented where he essentially spends hours crashing his toy cars. I can’t pick up my niece and snuggle her. You get the gist…
My nephew is currently intrigued by my wheelchair, so I let him push the buttons. And sometimes I’ll chase him. But I want to be more involved.
What are some ways you interact with little ones? I’m really trying to earn the coolest auntie ever award over here…
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9 Replies
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I always liked playing stuffed animals with my nieces. Basically I was the ring leader & they would move the animals around. We’d have classes, auctions and all sorts of things. It’s especially fun when you have the stuffies do mischievous things. We played Eye Spy a lot where you pick out something in the room & they guess what it is. You can have the Echo do sound effects, the whale was popular. There’s games on it you can play too I’m sure. I like the Show because you can ask it to show pictures of stuff. We did do hide & seek but not one of my favorites. My nieces also liked when I gave them house tours and gave all the rooms alternative names. There’s a gazillion names for the bathroom. They would sit on my feet and I’d drive them from room to room. Sometimes the “train” would malfunction and go backwards or jerk a little. Of course you have to be careful and age appropriate. Sometimes though you don’t have to be interacting with them as long as you’re there. My nieces loved coloring so I would let them use my precious art supplies and have at it.
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My niece loves when I let her play with my old toys. Most of it is too hard for me to play with now, but she likes talking to me while she plays with them. She also likes playing doctor. She’ll get out all of my stuffed animals and dolls, and I’ll give her one of my nebulizer masks to give them breathing treatments and a medicine syringe for shots. (I love her but I’m never letting her give me a real one.) We also sometimes play dominos or do crafts at the table. She’s happy to help move game pieces for me, but you have to watch where she’s putting them. She’s sneaky sometimes. And she likes driving match box cars and trains around on the base of my chair. Like DeAnn said, the important thing is just that you’re there. They’ll always remember that.
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These are all great ideas, you guys!!! Thank you so much. And, you’re right. As long as I’m present in their lives that’s what matters most.
Ps- my nephew’s new favorite game is “chase.” So the other day I chased him in a circle for a good 5 minutes, and while my vertigo may disagree, I’d do it all over again just to see that kid’s smile haha.
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My niece loves puzzles so I would always teach her how to do them better. I’m not close to my sister though and they live an hour away so I don’t get to see them very often. But I know my niece thinks I’m awesome cuz I send her homemade jewelry and colored pictures that she keeps in her room.
My younger cousin calls me his friend though cuz I play PlayStation with him and cards with him. It warms my heart whenever he calls me that too. -
Here’s a new one that I discovered this weekend. While my niece was over we found an old pack of glow sticks that worked and she took to dropping them off the second floor landing and I would give her a score out of 10. I had to give her 9 because she almost dropped a few on my head.
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Crystal, I love the idea of homemade gifts!!! I wrote a children’s book for my nephew once and used pictures of his golden retriever. Then I had it printed at Shutterfly.com. I think I’ll get back to homemade memoribilia— they’ll love that.
Halsey, that is SO cute. I think my problem is I’m not getting creative enough with my interactions. Thank you for sharing. 🙂
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I give them rides on the footrests of my wheelchair. When it snows I have tied a sled to the back of my wheelchair and pulled them around the yard. I talk to them about things they like. I read to them. I play games with them.
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Patrick, I was thinking about rides on my footrest as well. My nephew just doesn’t sit still yet, so I’m not sure if it’s safe. Maybe when he’s out of his terrible 2’s phase. I like your sled idea too! Typically we get too much snow for my wheelchair to drive through, but I wonder if this concept would work with a wagon in the summertime. May have to try this out.
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I forgot about footrest rides! That’s a great idea! My niece is a little too big for it now but we used to do it all the time. One time she rode through the whole zoo on my footrests. And when they get bigger most chairs have places on the back that are suitable for standing on. I’ll have to try that with her soon. My brother did it all the time when he was little.
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