Kids' Activities

The Best 20 Love Songs for Kids: Approved by Parents and Kids

Inside: Here are the absolute best love songs for kids so that you can share them with your own child for an instant dose of powerful connection.

In my family, we show love for each other in the typical ways you might expect – hugs, I love you‘s, and playing our favorite games together.

But one of our go-to ways to communicate love might be a little non-standard: song lyrics.

When one of my kids feels sad or we need to repair our connection after a tough moment, I’ll play one of our favorite love songs for kids. Then depending on whether it’s a mellow or an upbeat song, we’ll cuddle up on the couch or have an impromptu dance party. Or sometimes while they’re busy making art or building with LEGOs, I queue up a special song and say, “Hey, listen to this. It makes me think of you.”

And it works, every time. Because research shows that listening to music together creates healthy bonds and builds positive memories.

But Here’s the Problem With Love Songs for Kids

Most love songs aren’t all that kid-friendly. Often, love song lyrics are clearly about the romantic love of a couple. I’m guessing playing “When a Man Loves a Woman” for your kid probably isn’t the effect you’re going for.

Plus, many love songs’ lyrics are flat-out not appropriate for kids.

Obviously, you would never want to play an overtly risqué love song for your child, but a lot of love songs have at least a line or two that could create an uncomfortable moment when you play them for your child and you’re both paying very close attention to the lyrics.

But here’s the real kicker when it comes to love songs for kids: The songs that are specifically made for kids tend to be so saccharine you can’t help but cringe, and they often sound like they could be the theme song to an obnoxious kids’ TV show. Swinging wildly to the other end of the spectrum, the songs written about a parent’s love for a child are typically so slow they could put you right to sleep.

The best love songs for kids are the ones you and your child will actually want to listen to together.

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The Best 25 Toddler Board Games That Will Become Family Favorites

Inside: Stop playing boring toddler board games and play these quick and fun board games for toddlers instead. Approved by kids *and* parents!

We have four kids – a 12-year-old, first grader, preschooler, and toddler – so it’s a little tricky to find fun family board games that everyone can play together.

Because although my toddler tries his hardest to keep up with his big sisters, he just doesn’t have the same attention span, patience for taking turns, or impulse control to stop himself from turning into the Toddler Hulk, flipping over the whole board when the game doesn’t go his way.

With my first toddler many years ago, I asked around about the best board games for toddlers, and I got lots of recommendations for games like Candyland, Chutes & Ladders, and Hungry Hungry Hippos.

But those games happen to have one very big problem. They’re mind-numbing for the adults playing along.

The Problem With Most Board Games for Toddlers

The typical toddler board games require no strategy. They’re all chance and no thought, and at best they prepare your kid to understand the concept of a scratch-off lottery ticket.

Plus, the whole point of playing a game with your toddler is to have fun while connecting. If you’re bored out of your mind, your child will sense that. Kids are more perceptive than we give them credit for.

Your toddler may take your annoyance personally and assume you don’t want to play with them.

Not exactly a recipe for fostering a healthy connection between you and your child.

And yet as much as I’d love to groom my toddler into a Trivial Pursuit prodigy, some of the best family games are way too advanced to be board games for 3-year-olds and 2-year-olds (and definitely 18-month-olds).

Toddler board games don't have to be boringToddler board games can actually be fun for toddlers *and* adults

But You Don’t Have to Suffer Through Boring Toddler Board Games

Ever since my oldest daughter reached board game maturity years ago, we’ve been on a quest to find the best board games for families. The ones that won’t make you want to gouge out your eyeballs with your toddler’s favorite spork.

Over the years, we’ve curated a well-loved collection of toddler board games that are actually fun for the whole family.

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Bored Kid? The Best 50 Activities That Will Keep Kids Busy + Happy

Inside: These are the best activities for kids at home because they’re independent and open-ended, which means they’ll keep your child busy and happily engaged.

One hour into a full day at home with your kids, and they’re bouncing around the house like Tigger, scattering toys across the floor of every room in the house, and interrupting you every 7.2 minutes to ask for a snack.

If you work from home, need to catch up on household chores, or just need a break from being “on” for your kids all the time, 12 hours a day can feel like a lot of hours to figure out how to keep kids busy and entertained.

And so understandably, you find yourself always on the lookout for activities for kids at home. Fun activities that might even be a little educational to boot. And maybe, just maybe, one day you’ll find the perfect list of activities that will keep your child from wasting the day away on video games – or on watching videos of other kids playing video games.

Bonus: As a bonus for joining my weekly newsletter, download a free printable of the best 50 activities for kids at home that will actually keep your child happily engaged.

3 Essential Ingredients You Need to Keep Your Child Busy + Engaged

This list of activities for kids is different than some others you might find. Because this isn’t about having 20 gabazillion activities listed in one place. This isn’t about buying a bunch of special supplies or materials your child will use once and never touch again. And this isn’t about the activities that make the prettiest pictures so they earn likes on Instagram.

This list of activities for kids at home is about what works.

In other words, the activities listed later in this post will actually keep kids engaged so that your child doesn’t lose interest after a few minutes and announce, “I’m borrrrrred.”

First, here’s a quick run-down of three essential ingredients when it comes to activities that keep your child busy and engaged. The activities in this post take care of the first two factors for you, and you’ll find a bonus section at the end of this post to help you with the last factor.

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The Ultimate List of the Best Board Games for Preschoolers (And Parents)

Inside: Get those boring preschool board games out of your house and play these kid-approved (and parent-approved!) board games for preschoolers instead. Endless fun!

My preschooler’s favorite time of day isn’t a mealtime or going to the park on nice days. It’s not even when I let her watch an old rerun of Mister Rogers during her little sister’s naptime so I can get some work done.

Her absolute favorite time of day is after her little sister goes to bed at night because that’s when we bust out a board game or card game to play as a family.

There’s just one problem.

The games specifically designed for preschoolers are kind of…soul-sucking.

The people who invented Candyland, Chutes & Ladders, and Hi Ho! Cherry-O must have had some deep-seated hatred for parents of the world because playing those preschool board games will slowly kill off every brain cell that sleep deprivation hasn’t already taken care of.

Those typical preschool board games require no strategy. They’re all chance and no thought, and at best they prepare your kid to understand the concept of a lottery ticket.

And yet as much as I’d love to groom my preschooler into a ruthless Scrabble whiz, some of the best family games are just too advanced to be board games for 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds.

Looking for awesome toddler board games? Jump straight to The Best 25 Toddler Board Games That Will Become Family Favorites!

Life is too short to play boring preschool board games

But You Don’t Have to Suffer Through Candyland

Ever since my oldest daughter reached board game maturity many years ago, we’ve been on the hunt for the best board games for families. The ones that won’t make you want to gouge out your eyeballs with a junky plastic game piece.

Over the years, we’ve discovered that the world has a ton of absolutely delightful preschool board games to offer families. It’s just that Candyland and its ilk have infiltrated the mainstream psyche as the quintessential board games for preschoolers, so you don’t hear about most of the awesome preschool board games that you’ll actually enjoy playing with your kid.

In our family, we play a board game nearly every night, and we even cleared out our pantry in the kitchen to devote to storing our family board games.

We're a little nuts about family board gamesIt ain’t pretty, but it should give you some idea of how nuts we are about board games…
and now I’m realizing we still need to donate our copy of Candyland!

Board games and card games are one of the best ways you can connect with your kids after a busy day, but if you play a mind-numbing game like Chutes & Ladders, it can have the opposite effect.

You’ll be bored out of your skull, and your preschooler will pick up on that. Instead of reconnecting and laughing together, you’ll be anxious for the game to end, leaving your kid to wonder why you don’t want to play with her.

Related: Forget Candyland! This Is the Best List of Board Games for All Ages

21 Awesome Preschool Board Games That You’ll Love, Too

Get those boring preschool board games out of your house and play these kid-approved (and parent-approved!) board games for preschoolers instead.

Because life is too short to be pulling out your hair when you could be giggling with your preschooler. Use this list of fun board games for 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds to beef up your family game collection, and you won’t be sorry.

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Forget Candyland! This Is the Best List of Board Games for All Ages

Inside: Most lists of board games for all ages include boring games that adults can’t stand. This list is different. These games really are for the whole family.

Sometimes the daily grind of family life can leave you feeling disconnected as a family.

It could be that you retreated to your individual corners of the world to indulge in separate screen time. Or you got focused on the “list” instead of on each other while you ran a bunch of errands. Or maybe you rushed through the homework/dinner/bathtime routine because your eyes were on the prize at the end of it all: a glass of wine + couch + mindless TV.

When this happens, your patience can run dry or your kids may stop cooperating – usually both.

When our family is feeling that disconnect, one thing seems to have a magical power for bringing us back together with smiles and laughter.

Games.

Family Board Games for All Ages Don't Have to Be Boring

This Is How Much We Rely on Games to Bring Us Together

In our kitchen, we have two shallow pantries.

We squeeze all our food into just one pantry even though it doesn’t really fit because the other pantry? We’ve devoted entirely to all our games and puzzles.

Six shelves stacked from top to bottom with board game boxes and puzzle boxes, plus all the little card games shoved into every nook and cranny in between.

When it comes time to pick a game, the kids stand in front of the pantry, their little faces lit up with anticipation of what’s ahead.

But Here’s the Problem With Board Games for All Ages

We have a 11-year-old, 6-year-old, 4-year-old, and a toddler. Which means:

  • The toddler destroys whatever we’re trying to play, so we have to wait until he’s asleep at night before we can play. This is understandable, and we know it’s temporary.
  • We have to play games to the lowest common denominator: our preschooler. If a game is too advanced for her, she gets bored and assumes her baby brother’s role of wreaking havoc on the game in progress.
  • Playing “younger” games isn’t the end of the world, except for the fact that…
  • Most games designed for younger kids are boring.

Candyland, Chutes & Ladders, Hi Ho Cherry-O? MAKE IT STOP.

Call me the Board Game Grinch if you want, but I firmly believe life is too short to play a game so tedious it makes you want to gouge out your eyeballs.

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The Best Halloween Jokes That Will Make Kids Laugh

Inside: This year, trick the trick-or-treaters! Hand out these printable Halloween jokes for kids (with candy!), and kids have to use their brains to get the answers.

My first year as an adult to have trick-or-treaters on Halloween? I was THAT house.

I bought kids’ books at Goodwill for 25 cents each, and I handed those out instead of candy.

That’s worse than handing out fruit.

And if that weren’t bad enough, I printed out bookmarks to put inside each book, bearing this quote:

“A library is a candy dish for the mind.” – Iyanla Vanzant

Trick-or-treating class of 2000, please accept my deepest apologies.

The Best Halloween Jokes for Kids That Will Make Them SmilePhoto by Julia Raasch

What Possessed Me?

I like candy. I like costumes. I like kids.

The truth is I thought I’d be making those kids’ nights.

Would they really care if they got home and had one fewer Reese’s peanut butter cup?

But a book. That, they’d remember.

I pictured a mini Power Ranger getting home with her bag of goodies, pulling out her new book, and grinning as she sat down to devour the book first.

Most of the little ones did reward me with a big smile. Some even busted out with “Is this really mine?” or “I can take this home?”

So maybe I didn’t ruin as many kids’ Halloween nights as I thought.

These Halloween jokes for kids are perfect for trick-or-treaters

Now I Know Better

What I should have done is give out candy and a book together.

I still love the idea of doing something a little extra special to surprise kids on Halloween, but even 25 cents a book starts to add up fast.

So I designed a printable puzzle to hand out to trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

Here’s how it works: Kids solve math problems to get the answer to a Halloween joke or riddle.

Even if a child doesn’t particularly like math, they’ll probably stick it out to get the answer to the joke. Sneaky math pretty much rocks.

Today, I’m sharing this free Halloween printable with you so you can hand it out to the kids in your neighborhood. If you’re philosophically opposed to handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, this works great as a non-candy treat.

Otherwise, do me a favor? Please give the kids a piece of candy along with the puzzle. Don’t be THAT house.

Pair these Halloween jokes for kids with candy for happy kids

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