What do you do at home with age 6-8-ish?

[Rainallnight]

I can’t quite put my finger on why I need to ask this question, but I’m in need of inspiration! I guess it feels as though they’re beginning to move on from their younger kid playing style and I’m not in the groove of what’s next. And I want to do more to support them in developing their interests, life skills and so on. And I’d like us to have more fun.

So what do you do? Play and non-play 😊

DS1 is 8.5 so on the older end of this scale, but he's really into sports - outside of the home he does swimming, football and karate.
At home he plays football n the garden, but to connect he absolutely loves planning a movie night, we go to the local supermarket with £5 for treats, set up with duvets etc in the front room.

Weekend days he helps with breakfast, he loves to draw and craft, he's currently at the dining table with an ipad making a start on his list for Santa (apparently he will narrow it down closer to the time hah)
He likes going to the local tesco cafe for a hot chocolate, and he has suddenly found a love for reading.

I think it's an age where it can be quite variable - some 8yos are "older" for their age and others younger. The one I know has a 4.5yo little brother and thus the house is still full of little kid toys. So he may default to playing games on his tablet a lot of the time but he also builds things with duplo and train tracks and magnatines and marble runs! He still enjoys building dens and doing make believe type games, turning his bedroom into a space station kind of stuff.

@QforCucumber Your DS sounds lovely

@givemushypeasachance yes, I can totally see that. I have a DD 8, and a DS 6, so toys are still a thing here, thankfully, but it does feel like things are shifting a bit.

Keep the thoughts coming!

Our 8 year old loves football cards, Lego, reading (mainly comics or comic books like Bunny versus Monkey). He'll sometimes play nicely with his younger sister at her level so more make-believe type games. He does a lot of activities and is therefore possibly a bit overscheduled, so generally I just let him do his own thing at home. Am trying to avoid a games console for as long as possible.

My younger boy is 8 and he mostly plays with his older brother (11) so has never really needed entertaining, but some of the things he enjoys are:

sports (swimming & football)
bike rides
drawing & painting
reading (at bedtime)
making things (I don’t facilitate this)
playing in the garden
going up and down our road on his scooter (it’s not a busy road)
word searches & mazes
chess

Grandchildren, not children, but games such as snakes and ladders, top trumps, connect 4 etc.

My DC are the same ages.
When they aren't having screen time (tablet or Nintendo Switch) they seem to spend a lot of time doing pretend play (schools in particular for some reason) or wanting to be out on bikes or scooters. Occasionally the play doh or similar stuff comes out of the cupboard & they spend a happy afternoon with that. Both like to spend some time reading (DS is enjoying Bunny vs Monkey atm)

We sometimes get the board games out or play top trumps, uno, dobble etc
But their favourite past time is definitely bickering / screaming at one another for simply breathing or just looking at the other 🙄🤬

Endless board games…DS2 is a fanatic (always has been, would play Orchard games with his teddies, carefully taking each go). Now he’s 8 and it’s Ticket to Ride, Monopoly, Scrabble (he had a friend round and they were playing Scrabble…the spelling was interesting and the scoring non-existent but they were having fun).

DS1 at that age was all about Lego and books.

Neither have ever been much into craft. Both will bake with me if sufficiently bored.

I still don’t feel like I’ve cracked this. There’s way too much TV going on.

My dd at that age almost always had some craft project on the go. Colouring, diamond painting, Lego, painting plaster models, knitting, sewing. All sorts of craft related projects. She also had an obsession with home made slime and had a slime recipe book. She had building things like gravitrax and marble run and she played with action figures (usually scooby doo).

She is 14 now and has spent this evening wiring the lighting for a book nook model she is building. She wants to be a civil engineer. She cannot just sit and watch the TV she has to be doing something.