Home And Family

It is sometimes not easy to slow down from our busy lives to figure out what would be a fun day of activities with our kids. It may be particularly difficult for fathers to figure out what to do with their daughters. Well it is pretty easy to ask them but sometimes they don’t know either and you end up just hanging out, which by the way, is not bad at all either as long as they are getting your full attention. The goal is to build your relationship with your daughter and to build a bridge between the two of you at a young age. This “bridge” can stand for a long time and can be used as a foundation of support for her in later years.

Depending on the age of your daughter, there are several easy and inexpensive ways to have a great time with your daughter. You will be surprised at what a young age your daughter can have fun with many of these activities. They don’t have to last all day but only a couple of hours or so to be an effective relationship building experience.

One of the best days I have ever had with my daughter was to take her to the beach. One of our local beaches has a pier and an amusement park it was a great day full of many different activities. We have had other fun days, bowling, ice skating, snow skiing, playing soccer, swimming and riding bikes at the local park.

Sometimes different than boys, girls love to learn new things and they will concentrate for a long time trying to learn new things. I enjoy sitting down and teaching my daughters how to play a game like pool or chess. I have been teaching my youngest daughter to play chess. The lessons go on for months but each time we sit down we review the previous lesson and start with a new game and always naming the pieces and the way each of them can move before beginning our game. I always help them with their game and always let them win a few and save a few pieces as we play.

When teaching your young daughter to play a game, it is best to let her win some and lose some, don’t ever let her win every time, unless of course, she is really beating you.

How about bowling? An older pastime that is virtually non-existent in California, it is a lot of fun for kids to play this game. They have children’s “rails” that they can pull up so every ball they, or you, bowl does not go in the gutter. The rails allow the balls to bounce off and continue down the alley to eventually hit the pins. They knock some down with every single roll and they have a lot of fun doing it. It is inexpensive and requires you to get away from the house to do it, which is always an adventure for the younger kids.

Hiking in the mountains or even the local parks can also be a great adventure with your children. When I hike with my kids we like to talk about the animals and what it would be like to have to live in the wilderness with nothing. Their imaginations are so great that they can come up with a ton of interesting topics to discuss on their own while hiking. Hiking is great because it gives you a lot of time to talk and interact with your children. How about counting the rings on a tree or hugging a tree and talking about it being alive and how it grows. There are so many things that you can teach your children on a trip to the hills.

Whatever you decide to do with your daughter, or your son, be sure to give them your full attention. No cell phones or texting while you are with them. Try to think of looking at the world through their eyes while you are with them and you will have a lot more fun yourself.