Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #338 Lockdown Toys & Games

Transcript

#338 Lockdown Toys & Games · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. It's the podcast for the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: time poor parent who just wants answers.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Now, there's going to be a bunch of parents who
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: are going, yeah, this is all really great, but I'm
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: not in spite. I'm just tired and listening to all
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: of these ideas, like I'm struggling so much already and
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: I don't think that I could possibly do it. Last
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: piece of advice, fake it till you make it.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: And now here's the stars of our show, my mum
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and dad.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: This is the Happy Famili's podcast. I'm doctor Justin Colson,
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  Speaker 2: the author of six books about raising happy families and
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  Speaker 2: the founder of happy Families dot com dot au. I'm
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  Speaker 2: here with Kylie, my wife, mum, to our six daughters.
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  Speaker 2: How come you're looking at me strangely? You're looking at me.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: It's a funny look on your face. What's going on?
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  Speaker 3: Keep going?
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: I feel like there's something on your mind and I
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: should ask you before we get into the podcast. I
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: should have asked before I started recording the podcast. Is
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: everything okay?
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  Speaker 3: Everything's fine?
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  Speaker 2: Okay? Everything's not okay with me? The lockdowns continue around
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  Speaker 2: New South Wales. The Act and Victoria and fortunately I'm
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: so pleased there is more and more noise being made
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  Speaker 2: about the mental health impact of these lockdowns. The more
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  Speaker 2: prolonged they are, the more protracted they are, the harder
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  Speaker 2: it is on our kids who should be at school
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  Speaker 2: and living their lives, and they being asked to sacrifice
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  Speaker 2: so much. We need to talk about our podcast conversation
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: to day because the lockdowns, even though we're in Brisbane
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  Speaker 2: and when not being affected by them, it's affecting me
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  Speaker 2: because of all of the emails that I get and
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  Speaker 2: all the Facebook messages that I get, and all of
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  Speaker 2: the concerned parents that I speak to who are just
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  Speaker 2: saying this is that it's like that quiet hum in
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  Speaker 2: the background that doesn't let you get to sleep at night.
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  Speaker 2: This just won't go away. It's like, you know when
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: you give someone a knuckle nooogie, when you extend the
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  Speaker 2: knuckle on your middle finger, you make a fist and
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: extend that knuckle on your middle finger and you drive
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: that middle knuckle into the rib cage of somebody and
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  Speaker 2: you get the knuckle noogie kind of thing. It's kind
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  Speaker 2: of like this, we'll never do that to each other.
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  Speaker 2: Lockdown feels like that for so many parents because of
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  Speaker 2: the low level agitation and frustration and stress and trying
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  Speaker 2: to juggle home learning with the kids being in your
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  Speaker 2: space all the day, all the day long, and trying
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: to get some work done if you're lucky enough to
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  Speaker 2: be able to work from home. It's a big deal.
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  Speaker 2: So we want to tackle lockdown boredom and how to
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  Speaker 2: get your kids off screens and talk about the best
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  Speaker 2: toys and games and other activities to survive lockdown if
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  Speaker 2: you are in one of those states, or if you're
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  Speaker 2: just a family who is always eager for toys and
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  Speaker 2: games and activities and things that are good for your kids.
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  Speaker 2: Oh and by the way, this is relevant. Just the
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  Speaker 2: other day a survey was in The Guardian which captured
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  Speaker 2: my attention. It says two thirds of parents are concerned
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  Speaker 2: that lockdowns are affecting the mental health of their children,
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  Speaker 2: and half are worried about emerging behavioral problems. It's such
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  Speaker 2: a big deal, So let's kind of pivot to the
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: topic of our day and talk about best toys and games,
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  Speaker 2: because if you are in lockdown, and if mental health
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  Speaker 2: is declining, and if it is hard, at least we
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: can give you some ideas and tips for how to
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  Speaker 2: make it better. So, Kylie, let's talk about how to
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  Speaker 2: choose really great toys and games for kids. You've got
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  Speaker 2: a background in an early childhood education. What are the
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  Speaker 2: kinds of things that you've always encouraged parents to do
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  Speaker 2: when you were involved professionally in that area, and what
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  Speaker 2: have you done with our kids.
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  Speaker 4: The most important thing when you're picking a toy first
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  Speaker 4: is quality. Making sure that you're getting good quality product
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  Speaker 4: means that it's going to work better. The kids aren't
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  Speaker 4: going to be frustrated because things break so quickly. How
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  Speaker 4: often do you get a toy and within half an
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  Speaker 4: hour they've broken it.
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  Speaker 2: I've noticed we've bought a couple of games for the
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  Speaker 2: kids over the last year or so, and the quality
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  Speaker 2: of the games, even the good games from Milton Bradley
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  Speaker 2: or whoever, it's like the quality is dropped and the
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  Speaker 2: plastic ybits are just not as good. They break. I
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  Speaker 2: remember when I feel like they used to be sturdier
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  Speaker 2: and better than that.
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  Speaker 4: So that's my first thing, making sure that when you're
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  Speaker 4: buying things. Going to the cheap shop to buy a
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  Speaker 4: toy for your kid is probably going to give you
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  Speaker 4: a few minutes of joy as opposed to little break,
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  Speaker 4: as opposed to spending a little bit of extra money
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  Speaker 4: and having less available. But the second thing is.
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  Speaker 2: It's probably better than for the environment as well to
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  Speaker 2: buy the better stuff.
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  Speaker 4: I'm going to guess Yeah, I would say so, because
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  Speaker 4: you're not replacing it so often, right. And then the
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  Speaker 4: second one would just be looking at toys that are
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  Speaker 4: open ended. There's not just one way to use them.
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  Speaker 3: And so it's obviously.
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  Speaker 4: Blocks, lego, duplo, magnetic tiles, all of those kinds of things.
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  Speaker 4: You've got your connector what are those things called.
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  Speaker 2: The connector things?
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  Speaker 3: The connector you know what I'm talking about.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the metal things that connect and they go and
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  Speaker 2: you can build stuff with them.
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  Speaker 4: No, no, no, I'm still You've got the little flower connectors.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, those little plastic keys the tiles like.
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  Speaker 4: But they look like flowers and you can kind of
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  Speaker 4: connect them in.
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  Speaker 2: But then you've also somebody will know what we're talking about.
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  Speaker 2: There's mobilow.
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  Speaker 4: So all of these kinds of toys we call them
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  Speaker 4: open ended because children can do so much with them.
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  Speaker 2: It's not just one way to play with this toy. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it's a tennis ball open ended very Oh my goodness,
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  Speaker 2: how much fun can you have with a tennis ball.
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  Speaker 4: Or a roll of fabric or there's so many different
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  Speaker 4: things that you can use a hammer.
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  Speaker 3: Let's not go there.
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  Speaker 2: You can have so much fun with the hammer.
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  Speaker 3: Let's remodel the house a.
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  Speaker 2: Bit of duct. Let's see what we can do with this. Kids,
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  Speaker 2: even in.
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  Speaker 4: Your you know, if you've got a craft cuppet or
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  Speaker 4: an art draw or something, you know, paper scissors.
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  Speaker 2: Rock didn't see that one coming.
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  Speaker 3: I didn't see that one coming.
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  Speaker 4: I love puzzles. Puzzles are so much fun. They start
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  Speaker 4: off with big pieces and usually four puzzles with the
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  Speaker 4: younger kids are really good because it's it's actually gross
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  Speaker 4: motor skills as well as their eye, hand coordination.
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  Speaker 2: And problem solving and problem how low.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, But as they get a little bit older and
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  Speaker 4: get more confident with puzzles, then you can get more pieces.
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  Speaker 4: So Miss Emily, she's nearly two hundred pieces at the moment.
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  Speaker 3: She just loves it.
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  Speaker 2: So that's our seven year old two hundred piece puzzles.
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  Speaker 2: And when we go to the shop, she's like, can't
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  Speaker 2: buy a puzzle. I'm now now I've got to hate puzzle.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: I hate puzzles. I hate them. But you know what
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  Speaker 2: I do love. I love any kind of a toil
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  Speaker 2: game that encourages social skills or that gets kids moving,
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  Speaker 2: which is why I mentioned hammers and tennis balls and
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: just anything that gets a moving and outside, so good
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  Speaker 2: for them. And also toys and games that encourage planning
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  Speaker 2: and strategy, so things like strategics or battleship not strategic
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  Speaker 2: sorry strategoe sorry stratego stratego Stratego str at eg o.
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  Speaker 2: Fun game, really really smart game for strategy, and that
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  Speaker 2: sort of stuff, risk, Game of Life, all those kinds
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  Speaker 2: of well there's a bit of chance in some of them,
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  Speaker 2: but really really cool stuff. And you know what I
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  Speaker 2: like most, even though I've mentioned a bunch that involved this,
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  Speaker 2: I love games that minimize competition, especially in a lockdown
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  Speaker 2: situation and where if you're stuck in a competitive environment
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  Speaker 2: with the kids in the house, you know it's going
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  Speaker 2: to end badly and no one can kind of get
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  Speaker 2: on their bike and go for a ride and calm down.
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  Speaker 3: We could never bring out the cards in my house
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  Speaker 3: when we were a.
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  Speaker 2: Little minimize competition, just don't do it, and anything like
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  Speaker 2: you've already said, Kylie. These open end things that encourage
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  Speaker 2: imagination and creativity. They're our big list of rules principles
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  Speaker 2: to live by when it comes to selecting games and toys.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, let's talk about some specifics after the break.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: It's their Happy Families podcast for.
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: A happier family, try a Happy Families membership, because a
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: happy family doesn't just happen.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Details at happy families dot com dot au.
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: It's the Happy Families Podcast, the podcast for the time
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: poor parent who just wants answers now, and today we're
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: helping you, we hope to tackle the lockdown boredom.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've had my rant about the impact that lockdowns
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  Speaker 2: are having on kids. Oh, by the way, week commencing
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: the sixth, the September, we're going to spend an entire
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  Speaker 2: week on what we can do to boost well being
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  Speaker 2: for you as a parent and for children as a
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  Speaker 2: result of the lockdowns, because, let's face it probably not
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: going anywhere for a while Like this, this is getting
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  Speaker 2: very very serious, and the governments are doubling down on
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  Speaker 2: their lockdown strategy until the vaccination rates go up. So
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  Speaker 2: week of the six we've got experts coming in. We're
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: really going to be pushing this hard, not because we're
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: trying to. There's nothing political at all about it. It's
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  Speaker 2: only solutions focused. But for now, let's talk about some
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  Speaker 2: solutions as well. We've talked about great principles for choosing
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  Speaker 2: toys and games for the kids to beat boredom, get
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  Speaker 2: them off their screens, and hopefully improve the behavioral challenges
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  Speaker 2: that they're giving. You, Kylie, best games, best toys, let's
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  Speaker 2: just clup them all together and talk about the best
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  Speaker 2: things that we can do with kids. We'll start with
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  Speaker 2: the little kids. Okay, so under fives.
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  Speaker 3: See, you can't go past Plato.
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  Speaker 1: Plato.
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  Speaker 2: You can make it yourself.
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  Speaker 3: You could do the kids.
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  Speaker 2: The problem with Plato, though, is the kids do get
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: it on the carpet, and they do get it in
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  Speaker 2: places that you just cannot get grooves and cracks. You
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: cannot get it out of some of those places. That
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: is a challenge with Plato.
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  Speaker 4: The good thing about Plato, though, is once it dries,
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  Speaker 4: you can usually kind of scratch it off.
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  Speaker 3: It'll all kind of.
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  Speaker 2: It just yes, fair enough.
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  Speaker 3: But slime, on the other hand.
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  Speaker 2: Every time the kids come home from the shops of slime,
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  Speaker 2: I'm like, would you stop mining this stuff serious.
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  Speaker 4: This stuff is bad, bad, bad if it's not put
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  Speaker 4: where it's supposed to be put.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, how much the kids love slime though, But.
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: They do and so messy play. Yeah, you can use
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: shaving cream or cornflower and water yogurt.
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  Speaker 3: If they're very young, I guess yo, kids.
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  Speaker 2: Play with the yogat. You could yogurt paint.
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  Speaker 4: One of the things that I used to do with
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  Speaker 4: the kids when they were.
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  Speaker 2: Very little is you didn't like that one at all?
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  Speaker 4: No, I did not, But our eighteen month olds they
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  Speaker 4: used to love.
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  Speaker 2: It, paint yogurt all over their faces. It's probably an
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  Speaker 2: expensive use of yogurt.
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  Speaker 4: But I used to put some food coloring and ice
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: ice trays and let the kids paint with ice cubes. Yes,
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  Speaker 4: when they were younger, they had fun so simple as well,
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  Speaker 4: just using a paint brush and a bucket of water
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: on the concrete and painting patterns into the concrete.
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  Speaker 3: You've got chalk painting.
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  Speaker 2: Our kids loved that. I remember went when we had
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: young kids and you just give them a paint brush
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  Speaker 2: and let them dip it in the water and they
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: could paint anywhere with it because it's just water. And
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  Speaker 2: they would they watched they'd paint something and then they
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: watched it evaporate and disappeared. They thought it was amazing.
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  Speaker 4: And the other one that they loved doing is when
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: I just put some food, coloring and water into a
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  Speaker 4: spray bottle and I used to attach pieces of paper
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  Speaker 4: to the fence and they would just have a ball
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  Speaker 4: spray painting.
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  Speaker 2: Amazing stuff. So there's a whole bunch of boredom busters
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  Speaker 2: for your under fives.
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  Speaker 3: Oh I have a few others.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, well, time's getting away and we've got to talk
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  Speaker 2: about the big kids as well, So let's just do
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  Speaker 2: the last few.
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  Speaker 4: A whole jar of buttons. This keeps my kids entertained
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  Speaker 4: for hours, sorting buttons, putting them into colors, putting them
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  Speaker 4: to sizes, putting them into same things, so much fun.
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: Paddle pops sticks, putting them in with the playto's heaps
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  Speaker 4: of fun as well.
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  Speaker 2: So crafty.
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  Speaker 3: And my kids love.
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  Speaker 2: When you say my kids, do you mean our kids?
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, thank you, yep.
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  Speaker 3: Our kids love the little plastic animals.
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  Speaker 4: You can use them everything. You can use them, sampit
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  Speaker 4: with your play do in the garden. There's so many
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  Speaker 4: things that you can do with it open ended.
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  Speaker 2: Some other fun games that are kind of open ended
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: and and just good value no matter the age of
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: the child. I mean, we even play this with our
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: seventeen year old hide and seek that can be lots
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: of fun. We turn off the lights in the house,
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: play it on dusk.
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  Speaker 4: It's always one when you've got someone really little, because
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: you can put them in these really you know, crazy
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: places that nobody can find true because they don't freak out.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: We have put little kids in some pretty fun places. Tip,
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: tiggy or cat whatever you want to call tag.
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  Speaker 3: Everyone past making a cubby house.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yep, so so much fun. Botom Busters, there's some
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: ideas there. Let's talk about the big kids just briefly
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: before we wrap things up. I reckon I want to
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: go first with a couple of my favorites. First of all,
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: I love the idea of building a zip line for
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: the toys.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: Oh so much fun.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: Like just string up some wall or string up something
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: that's going to all out and then create a way
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: that it can zoom from one end of the room
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: to the other, stick the toys in a basket whatever,
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: And then whoo.
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: What about creating those the phone with the two cans
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: and the piece of screen string.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's probably better for younger kids, but big
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: kids might enjoy that one. I also jotted down here
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: tie dyeing because our girls love it. Whenever you decide
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: that you're going to talk, TI die And my favorite.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: Another a cheap way of doing tied eye if you
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: don't want to go to the expense of buying all
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: of the different dyes is actually using bleach. So using
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: a colored T shirt or something and bleaching.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: Oh hey, nice. Final point, there's going to be a
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: bunch of parents who are going, yeah, this is all
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: really great, But I'm not in spite. I'm just tired
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: and listening to all of these ideas, Like I'm struggling
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: so much already, and I don't think that I could
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: possibly do it. Last piece of advice, fake it till
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: you make it. It's amazing what happens when you start
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: to get involved in doing just one of these activities
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: a day. It can make such a really big difference.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: As you know, Kylie, there are some days where you
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: don't feel like doing it, but when you start, it's
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: amazing how good it feels right.
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: It really does. And what I've found is when I'm
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: really struggling actually getting the kids involved in helping. So
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: if we're going to color past her, they get so
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: excited watching it happen instead of me having.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: To do all of the work. Yep, it's actually part
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: of the fun.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: We really hope that today's podcast has put a dent
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: in your boredom challenges or your stress as a result
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: of lockdowns that could be happening, or if there's no
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: lockdowns but you've got little kids at home because they're
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: not big up for school, for example. We hope that
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: these ideas will make a really big difference for you
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: so that you don't have to rely on screen so
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: much and so that behavior challenges aren't such a big deal.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Tomorrow on the podcast, we are having a conversation with
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: a guy called Jeremy McVean. He's behind one of the
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: biggest fatherhood initiatives in the country, if not the world,
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: and a really controversial conversation on Thursday, something to do
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: with big houses and Brady kids. We'll tell you more
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: about that on Thursday. It's The Happy Famili's podcast, produced
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: by Justin Rulon from Bridge Media and executive produced. I
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: don't know if That's how I should say it. A
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: month by Craig Bruce. If you like Mario about making
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: your family happier during a lockdown, premium content may be
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: the thing that you need most. Please have a look
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: at our Happy Families premium memberships, where we give you
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: ongoing support to connect better with your family and make
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: things work even when times are tough. The Happy Families
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: memberships all available at happy families dot com, dot a