I may spend most of the day outside of the home working, but that doesn’t mean I can’t genuinely reconnect with my children each night. Just a few hours spent being present with my little loves can make a huge difference. As our kids get older, we have decided to be more intentional to get that time to reconnect. The kids can easily amuse themselves, which can be a nice break for my husband and I after a long day at work. (let’s be honest) However, quality time together each day is a priority so we work to make it happen!
5 Ways to Reconnect With Your Kids Every Day:
1. Play: Put away your phone, turn off the TV and ask your kids what they would like to play. My daughter usually chooses to do craft projects, color or play “store.” My son loves when I join him to build, draw or wrestle. (I let my husband handle that one, but you don’t want to mess with me in a tickle fight) My kids get SO excited when we simply PLAY with them. When I really commit to the act of playing, without getting distracted or impatient, I can see how much my kids appreciate it and how happy it makes them.
2. Snack & Chat: When we first get home and have a bit of time before dinner, I love to snack & chat. We hop on the couch or sit on the floor and talk about our day while we all decompress. I’ll grab a bowl of Goldfish crackers and some fruit and we are all set. That is when I get to hear all the best stories about my kids day and they also love to ask about our day as well.
3. Board Games: Board games & puzzles are a perfect time-filler when we are preparing dinner. We can be close to the kitchen to make sure everything is cooking properly and take a pause or time out if there is something we need to check on or prep. We love board games! My son has been getting into chess lately… so we have had a few chess nights.
4. Go For a Walk: After dinner walks (or bike rides) are my FAVORITE. It is a great way to get some exercise and chat with the kids.
5. Read: My daughter loves when I tell her to grab some books and meet me on the couch. My son and I recently started a new habit of reading together each night and I love it. We both grab our books and snuggle up in his room. I love this since we both get to spend time reading what we enjoy. We chat a little bit about what our books are about, but quality time doesn’t always have to involve talking. We will easily sit there for 20 to 30 minutes quietly reading.
Goldfish crackers is a great snack to share with your kids anytime. Right now they have an awesome contest underway that will get you more quality time with your kids and the chance to win $5,000! Hello! How cool is that? Goldfish Tales Animation Xperience is a stop motion challenge.
Goldfish crackers shared this awesome video to show you apps and tricks that will make it easy to create a stop motion masterpiece with your kids. Have fun & good luck!
Read! that’s my favorite too,. we get to hang out and snack together. I get to read non work material and they’re reading instead of watching tv. it’s a win win.
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Yesss!! Such good tips, and so important to make time for this. When our little guy comes back from daycare we try to put our phone away and play with him or go for walk every day to have some quality time together.
Great information. We read together every night.
These are wonderful suggestions! Reading is a big way that I connect with my kids throughout the day.
I bet your kids absolutely cherish that quality time with you. I am looking forward to when I can do these things with my son!
Love this! We need to get back to our family game nights, we sort of let life get in the way. My favorite way of connecting with my kids, especially the eldest is to find something their really interested in and build on it. Like, my 10 year old son is interested in writing stories, which is right up my ally as a bligger so We spent a day at B&N, got books on writing, and are working through them together.
Great tips. The reading one is the one that I use all the time. My son loves to read so that is how we spend our quality time.
Great tips and I can relate to all of them because they are all things that I do with my son to spend time with him.
I just wrote a blog post on the same topic! 🙂 Great suggestion to take walks with your kids. I love that. Need to incorporate that into my daily schedule with the kids.
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My favorite time of day is our reading time. It’s a great way to connect.
these are great tips will try them out!
I love these ideas! Right now playing cars and reading is how my son and I spend our time connecting!
Just wrote a post on how important play is! Great suggestions here!
I love these suggestions! I just had a baby and I’m trying to stay in the moment with him every chance I get. Not always the easiest when I’ve taken this time to rebrand and relaunch my website. Haha
We have older kiddos (teens) and the snack & chat it my go to. Also, Starbucks and chat is a good one:) Thanks for reminding us all about the importance of being connected to our kids and taking the time to do it
I don’t have any kids, but I’m already a sucker for playing board games with my nephew. It’s just a great way to spend time with him. By the way, those are such adorable pictures!
Playing and reading our are favorites! Anything unplugged is the best 🙂
Connecting with the kids is SO important! We make time for Reading and Playing together ever single day! Thanks for writing all these out!
These are some great ideas, especially when everyone is so busy. It’s always good to take a few minutes to reconnect.
That goldfish animation video was SO cute. I can’t wait until my kids are older to try it.
Playing is one of my favorites. And tonight, I laid down with my daughter and said, “let’s talk,” and we did for about 20 minutes. So nice.
I am the total opposite.. I like playing with my kids but to be totally honest I dont LOVE it. haha! I kind of have to make myself do it sometimes and I do end up having fun more often than not. 🙂
I love all of these! It’s a struggle for me, but it’s so important to have focused play time!
Putting my phone away as soon as I get home has helped me A LOT! (I am the worst at looking at my phone)
This is great! I hate when I see parents glued to their phones at the park. Just stop and give all the attention to the kiddos. 🙂
I hope you are having a great week!
These are really great examples! I love lunch and dinner time because we sit with no screens and just talk. It is my favorite time of day!
Yea meal time is a great time to reconnect!!
These are great! I couldn’t agree more how important it is to spend time with your kids without the distractions.
It is tough to focus and put down my phone sometimes.. but it is so worth it! 🙂
These are great ideas! Playing is such an important one, but it’s often the one that I feel like I don’t have enough”time” or energy for… but my littles love to play with mom and dad and it’s such a great way to connect!
Yeah, the truth is meowing like a cat for 15 minutes isn’t the most fun thing in the world do to… but my daughter LOVES it so I have learned to just suck it up and play along… most of the time! 😉
These are great ideas. I love a good read and snack time!
Our family just did a few of these after church yesterday afternoon! We walked, ate snacks, and played with one another. I cannot stress enough that taking the time to make our kids feel important and heard! Thanks for that reminder!
These are great ideas, as a mother it’s nice to be always connected with my kids and spending time with them.
These are great suggestions…good reminder to put the phone away… My kids all love book time, snack time, playing lego with me etc.
The no phone thing has been hard for me, but I am working on it every day 🙂
This is right up my nephew’s alley. I need to let him know about the stop motion contest.
Such simple ideas but so important! I have to remind myself to put the phone down and be present for my daughter. It’s too easy to become distracted. Spending quality time together as a family should always be a priority.