Ways to Laugh with your Child

Laughter is the shortest distance between two people. 

~Victor Borge

      One thing I am so guilty of as a parent is being an overachiever.  I spend a lot of time accomplishing things and helping my child accomplish things.  I spend plenty of time with my son but much of it is studying, helping with homework, practicing piano, cooking healthy foods, cleaning and doing chores, practicing for whatever sport he’s involved in that season or driving him around.  In this day and age how much time do we give to our children just doing nothing or being silly?  I have a few activities that I’ve been doing with my family that is accomplishing absolutely nothing but having fun and bringing on some laughter.  Actually I’m lying, some of them do help kids learn skills, which I’ve listed here,  but I PROMISE that’s not why I’m doing them!!!  To tell you the truth I think pretty much any activity you do with your child is teaching them SOMETHING, whether you’re trying to or not.

1.    Buy a joke book and read the jokes to them or if they’re old enough, take turns reading the jokes to each other. (Helps, obviously, with reading aloud and reading comprehension)

2.    Have a silly photo shoot-make silly faces and poses. (Teaches kids you are weird and not even slightly cool-don’t worry, they were going to figure that out anyway)

3.    Tongue twisters (Helps with language development)

·         Double bubble gum, bubbles double.

·      Which watch did which witch wear and which witch wore which watch?

·         An Ape hates grape cakes.

·         Rubber baby-buggy bumpers.

·         Black bug bit a big black bear. But where is the big black bear that the big black bug bit?

4.    Mad Libs (Teaches parts of speech and reading aloud)

Mad libs are a word substitution game invented in the fifties. The game is played by creating a word list that is inserted into a story. After the new words are inserted into the story it usually creates a wacky and hilarious story that brings laughter to all listening.

You can buy books and do them by hand but here are a few online ones too:

http://www.itsamadlibsworld.com/

http://www.eduplace.com/tales/

What do you do to get silly with your kids?

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