Play catch – I was just playing catch with my youngest grandson. He is 9 months old, and has no idea really what is going on. We have a partially stuffed orange, fluffy ball. We’d toss it to him. He would laugh hysterically and try to throw it back. His laugh was one of pure joy.
Nature walks – Exploring with kids is fascinating. They wonder about things we’ve long forgotten that we had questions about. They don’t feel as if they have to prove themselves by being “knowledgeable.” They understand an important secret – the key to knowledge is “why.” While it is easy to get frustrated at a constant stream of whys, one of my favorite things is to be able to answer “I dunno, let’s find out.” Of course that’s followed closely by “let’s take it apart and see how it works” - much to the consternation of my parents growing up.
Make music – Sitting with children and playing the piano or guitar and singing with/to them is a lot of fun, especially when they really get into it. Enjoying music is another one of those behaviors we actively train ourselves out of. The singer Ben Folds commented on that in a television singing contest – that in the U.S. today, we enjoy music, but at the appropriate time, which seems to be at a karaoke bar with friends after several drinks. I’ll go to a concert, and I see a band really rocking out, and the audience is loving it – all while completely holding still. You can just feel their inner souls itching to get out. I’m reminded of an early iPod commercial while the guy is walking down the street while is shadow is dancing up a storm. It is even worse for men. It’s ok for women to dance, but men, now that’s not manly enough. Bah humbug. Children haven’t had all the joy taught out of them and will move to the music. They will beat on things, strum things, and sing at the top of their lungs given half a chance. And they don’t worry about getting the lyrics right. Even the Old Testament makes it clear that dancing and music are how to express joy. Psalms 149:1-5 - Sing unto the LORD a new song…Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp…let them sing aloud upon their beds. Or in Psalms 150:3-5 - Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. For those Mormons like me, we can add D&C 136:28 If thou art merry, praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing, and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving. So bring on the tunes.Take Stuff Apart – It doesn’t matter what it is. Kids love to take things apart. I still do. Taking things apart is like asking “why” with initiative. It’s a way of saying “gee, I don’t know what it is, but let’s see how it does it.” No need to wait for someone to tell us what it does. When my wife was a cub scout den leader, I would find something complicated (like an old tape recorder) and instruct them to take it apart and leave out a few screwdrivers and pliers. You can hear the excitement in their voices a they start to take components apart and see what’s inside.
Play with a box – the bigger the better. The box can be virtually anything. Heck, to kids, anything can be virtually anything. I remember in third grade, a group of us would play Star Trek on the playground (yes, in case you hadn’t discerned this by now, I am a geek, pure and simple). The slide was the transporter. In fourth grade on the other side of the schoolyard, we’d bring our toy cars and carve cities into the irrigation ditches. A box can be a house, plane, ship or rocket. So get the box out and let’s fly.
Color - Preferably with the big box of 64 colors complete with the sharpener on the box. I figure that infinity must really be numbered about 64 because that box sure seemed like infinity. I think it was Robert Fulghum (All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, et al) who suggested that crayons could solve many of the world’s problems – he suggested mailing boxes to terrorist leaders. I’m not really that naïve, but they problems seem a lot less when you have a box of crayons and a child to guide you.
Virtually anything – OK, the final item is a catchall. Probably because I’m only mentally about 12 (my wife might argue that number down a bit…), I find that about anything worth doing is better with a kid. They don’t have a bunch of learned behaviors making them behave with a modicum of decency (I personally am against modicums of all sorts), they can just have fun. If there is one philosophy we need more of is having fun. Unfortunately I know people that haven’t had fun for years. They just choose to grump about. Me, I want there to be a glint in my eye and the hint of a grin at all times. I’m not there yet, but I don’t mind being accused of a little irreverence at times (the right times, of course).
