A Couple of Fun Things to Do with Your Four Year-Old

They've got energy. Lots of it, and then they're still on a roll after a full day of running, screaming, coloring, and taking a short nap. Here are a couple of ideas to help keep your four year-old busy and happy. (They might learn something, too, but don't mention that part. It ruins the fun.) You can play, too!

My all-time favorite activity to do with a four-year old is playing with shaving cream. It's an oldie, but it's uniqueness never wears out. Spray out some shaving cream on your kitchen table, put your kid in an old set of clothes or dress shirt, and let him or her have at it. They put their fingers in it, draw pictures, smear it around. They will also get it in the floor, and on themselves, but it's a quick clean up. Your table top gets clean, too, from the shaving cream.

To make the whole thing even cooler, squeeze out a couple of drops of food coloring into the mess on your table, and the shaving cream becomes alive with color. This is a great way to learn how the primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) mix to become the secondary colors (like green and orange). Besides that, it's awesome to squish your fingers through the colored shaving dream to mix it all together. I've spent some time doing this (obviously), and it's so much fun!

The shaving cream activity is a messy one, granted. Here's another idea to expand your child's imagination. It's a sit down activity where you, the parent (or caregiver) help drive your child's mind to new places.

You and your child sit on the floor, put your feet together, and bounce your legs up and down a little, like the wings of a bird or butterfly. If this is uncomfortable, sit in a chair and maybe flap your arms around some. As long as you're interacting with your child, that's all that matters.

The idea is that you're both birds/butterflies going on a trip. Have your child help you figure out what to pack, and where you're going. You can dodge trees, fly down to take a look at some cows hanging out in a pasture below, or you can rocket into the clouds to see what they're made out of. My favorite (and the kid's ) part is when you get to do a dive bomb movement. You have to make the noise of a plane hurtling toward earth and, if possible, propel your butterfly/bird legs/arms toward the earth with movements to match. Usually this happens a couple of times throughout the story-telling adventure, and then at the very end when the butterfly/bird hears his/her mom calling for dinner to start. Then the game is usually over.

Embellish it however you want. Make it your own. You and your child will use your imaginations to go on a great trip together, all without leaving home!