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Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. It's the podcast for the

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Speaker 1: time poor parent who just wants answers.

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Speaker 2: Now, there's going to be a bunch of parents who

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Speaker 2: are going, yeah, this is all really great, but I'm

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Speaker 2: not in spite. I'm just tired and listening to all

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Speaker 2: of these ideas, like I'm struggling so much already and

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Speaker 2: I don't think that I could possibly do it. Last

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Speaker 2: piece of advice, fake it till you make it.

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Speaker 1: And now here's the stars of our show, my mum

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Speaker 1: and dad.

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Speaker 2: This is the Happy Famili's podcast. I'm doctor Justin Colson,

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Speaker 2: the author of six books about raising happy families and

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Speaker 2: the founder of happy Families dot com dot au. I'm

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Speaker 2: here with Kylie, my wife, mum, to our six daughters.

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Speaker 2: How come you're looking at me strangely? You're looking at me.

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Speaker 2: It's a funny look on your face. What's going on?

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Speaker 3: Keep going?

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Speaker 2: I feel like there's something on your mind and I

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Speaker 2: should ask you before we get into the podcast. I

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Speaker 2: should have asked before I started recording the podcast. Is

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Speaker 2: everything okay?

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Speaker 3: Everything's fine?

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Speaker 2: Okay? Everything's not okay with me? The lockdowns continue around

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Speaker 2: New South Wales. The Act and Victoria and fortunately I'm

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Speaker 2: so pleased there is more and more noise being made

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Speaker 2: about the mental health impact of these lockdowns. The more

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Speaker 2: prolonged they are, the more protracted they are, the harder

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Speaker 2: it is on our kids who should be at school

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Speaker 2: and living their lives, and they being asked to sacrifice

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Speaker 2: so much. We need to talk about our podcast conversation

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Speaker 2: to day because the lockdowns, even though we're in Brisbane

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Speaker 2: and when not being affected by them, it's affecting me

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Speaker 2: because of all of the emails that I get and

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Speaker 2: all the Facebook messages that I get, and all of

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Speaker 2: the concerned parents that I speak to who are just

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Speaker 2: saying this is that it's like that quiet hum in

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Speaker 2: the background that doesn't let you get to sleep at night.

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Speaker 2: This just won't go away. It's like, you know when

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Speaker 2: you give someone a knuckle nooogie, when you extend the

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Speaker 2: knuckle on your middle finger, you make a fist and

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Speaker 2: extend that knuckle on your middle finger and you drive

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Speaker 2: that middle knuckle into the rib cage of somebody and

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Speaker 2: you get the knuckle noogie kind of thing. It's kind

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Speaker 2: of like this, we'll never do that to each other.

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Speaker 2: Lockdown feels like that for so many parents because of

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Speaker 2: the low level agitation and frustration and stress and trying

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Speaker 2: to juggle home learning with the kids being in your

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Speaker 2: space all the day, all the day long, and trying

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Speaker 2: to get some work done if you're lucky enough to

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Speaker 2: be able to work from home. It's a big deal.

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Speaker 2: So we want to tackle lockdown boredom and how to

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Speaker 2: get your kids off screens and talk about the best

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Speaker 2: toys and games and other activities to survive lockdown if

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Speaker 2: you are in one of those states, or if you're

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Speaker 2: just a family who is always eager for toys and

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Speaker 2: games and activities and things that are good for your kids.

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Speaker 2: Oh and by the way, this is relevant. Just the

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Speaker 2: other day a survey was in The Guardian which captured

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Speaker 2: my attention. It says two thirds of parents are concerned

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Speaker 2: that lockdowns are affecting the mental health of their children,

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Speaker 2: and half are worried about emerging behavioral problems. It's such

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Speaker 2: a big deal, So let's kind of pivot to the

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Speaker 2: topic of our day and talk about best toys and games,

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Speaker 2: because if you are in lockdown, and if mental health

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Speaker 2: is declining, and if it is hard, at least we

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Speaker 2: can give you some ideas and tips for how to

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Speaker 2: make it better. So, Kylie, let's talk about how to

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Speaker 2: choose really great toys and games for kids. You've got

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Speaker 2: a background in an early childhood education. What are the

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Speaker 2: kinds of things that you've always encouraged parents to do

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Speaker 2: when you were involved professionally in that area, and what

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Speaker 2: have you done with our kids.

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Speaker 4: The most important thing when you're picking a toy first

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Speaker 4: is quality. Making sure that you're getting good quality product

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Speaker 4: means that it's going to work better. The kids aren't

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Speaker 4: going to be frustrated because things break so quickly. How

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Speaker 4: often do you get a toy and within half an

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Speaker 4: hour they've broken it.

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Speaker 2: I've noticed we've bought a couple of games for the

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Speaker 2: kids over the last year or so, and the quality

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Speaker 2: of the games, even the good games from Milton Bradley

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Speaker 2: or whoever, it's like the quality is dropped and the

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Speaker 2: plastic ybits are just not as good. They break. I

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Speaker 2: remember when I feel like they used to be sturdier

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Speaker 2: and better than that.

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Speaker 4: So that's my first thing, making sure that when you're

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Speaker 4: buying things. Going to the cheap shop to buy a

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Speaker 4: toy for your kid is probably going to give you

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Speaker 4: a few minutes of joy as opposed to little break,

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Speaker 4: as opposed to spending a little bit of extra money

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Speaker 4: and having less available. But the second thing is.

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Speaker 2: It's probably better than for the environment as well to

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Speaker 2: buy the better stuff.

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Speaker 4: I'm going to guess Yeah, I would say so, because

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Speaker 4: you're not replacing it so often, right. And then the

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Speaker 4: second one would just be looking at toys that are

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Speaker 4: open ended. There's not just one way to use them.

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Speaker 3: And so it's obviously.

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Speaker 4: Blocks, lego, duplo, magnetic tiles, all of those kinds of things.

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Speaker 4: You've got your connector what are those things called.

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Speaker 2: The connector things?

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Speaker 3: The connector you know what I'm talking about.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the metal things that connect and they go and

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Speaker 2: you can build stuff with them.

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Speaker 4: No, no, no, I'm still You've got the little flower connectors.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, those little plastic keys the tiles like.

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Speaker 4: But they look like flowers and you can kind of

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Speaker 4: connect them in.

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Speaker 2: But then you've also somebody will know what we're talking about.

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Speaker 2: There's mobilow.

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Speaker 4: So all of these kinds of toys we call them

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Speaker 4: open ended because children can do so much with them.

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Speaker 2: It's not just one way to play with this toy. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's a tennis ball open ended very Oh my goodness,

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Speaker 2: how much fun can you have with a tennis ball.

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Speaker 4: Or a roll of fabric or there's so many different

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Speaker 4: things that you can use a hammer.

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Speaker 3: Let's not go there.

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Speaker 2: You can have so much fun with the hammer.

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Speaker 3: Let's remodel the house a.

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Speaker 2: Bit of duct. Let's see what we can do with this. Kids,

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Speaker 2: even in.

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Speaker 4: Your you know, if you've got a craft cuppet or

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Speaker 4: an art draw or something, you know, paper scissors.

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Speaker 2: Rock didn't see that one coming.

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Speaker 3: I didn't see that one coming.

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Speaker 4: I love puzzles. Puzzles are so much fun. They start

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Speaker 4: off with big pieces and usually four puzzles with the

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Speaker 4: younger kids are really good because it's it's actually gross

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Speaker 4: motor skills as well as their eye, hand coordination.

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Speaker 2: And problem solving and problem how low.

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Speaker 4: Yes, But as they get a little bit older and

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Speaker 4: get more confident with puzzles, then you can get more pieces.

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Speaker 4: So Miss Emily, she's nearly two hundred pieces at the moment.

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Speaker 3: She just loves it.

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Speaker 2: So that's our seven year old two hundred piece puzzles.

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Speaker 2: And when we go to the shop, she's like, can't

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Speaker 2: buy a puzzle. I'm now now I've got to hate puzzle.

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Speaker 2: I hate puzzles. I hate them. But you know what

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Speaker 2: I do love. I love any kind of a toil

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Speaker 2: game that encourages social skills or that gets kids moving,

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Speaker 2: which is why I mentioned hammers and tennis balls and

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Speaker 2: just anything that gets a moving and outside, so good

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Speaker 2: for them. And also toys and games that encourage planning

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Speaker 2: and strategy, so things like strategics or battleship not strategic

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Speaker 2: sorry strategoe sorry stratego stratego Stratego str at eg o.

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Speaker 2: Fun game, really really smart game for strategy, and that

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Speaker 2: sort of stuff, risk, Game of Life, all those kinds

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Speaker 2: of well there's a bit of chance in some of them,

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Speaker 2: but really really cool stuff. And you know what I

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Speaker 2: like most, even though I've mentioned a bunch that involved this,

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Speaker 2: I love games that minimize competition, especially in a lockdown

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Speaker 2: situation and where if you're stuck in a competitive environment

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Speaker 2: with the kids in the house, you know it's going

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Speaker 2: to end badly and no one can kind of get

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Speaker 2: on their bike and go for a ride and calm down.

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Speaker 3: We could never bring out the cards in my house

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Speaker 3: when we were a.

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Speaker 2: Little minimize competition, just don't do it, and anything like

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Speaker 2: you've already said, Kylie. These open end things that encourage

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Speaker 2: imagination and creativity. They're our big list of rules principles

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Speaker 2: to live by when it comes to selecting games and toys.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, let's talk about some specifics after the break.

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Speaker 1: It's their Happy Families podcast for.

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Speaker 4: A happier family, try a Happy Families membership, because a

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Speaker 4: happy family doesn't just happen.

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Speaker 2: Details at happy families dot com dot au.

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Speaker 4: It's the Happy Families Podcast, the podcast for the time

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Speaker 4: poor parent who just wants answers now, and today we're

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Speaker 4: helping you, we hope to tackle the lockdown boredom.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I've had my rant about the impact that lockdowns

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Speaker 2: are having on kids. Oh, by the way, week commencing

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Speaker 2: the sixth, the September, we're going to spend an entire

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Speaker 2: week on what we can do to boost well being

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Speaker 2: for you as a parent and for children as a

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Speaker 2: result of the lockdowns, because, let's face it probably not

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Speaker 2: going anywhere for a while Like this, this is getting

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Speaker 2: very very serious, and the governments are doubling down on

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Speaker 2: their lockdown strategy until the vaccination rates go up. So

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Speaker 2: week of the six we've got experts coming in. We're

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Speaker 2: really going to be pushing this hard, not because we're

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Speaker 2: trying to. There's nothing political at all about it. It's

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Speaker 2: only solutions focused. But for now, let's talk about some

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Speaker 2: solutions as well. We've talked about great principles for choosing

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Speaker 2: toys and games for the kids to beat boredom, get

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Speaker 2: them off their screens, and hopefully improve the behavioral challenges

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Speaker 2: that they're giving. You, Kylie, best games, best toys, let's

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Speaker 2: just clup them all together and talk about the best

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Speaker 2: things that we can do with kids. We'll start with

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Speaker 2: the little kids. Okay, so under fives.

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Speaker 3: See, you can't go past Plato.

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Speaker 1: Plato.

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Speaker 2: You can make it yourself.

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Speaker 3: You could do the kids.

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Speaker 2: The problem with Plato, though, is the kids do get

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Speaker 2: it on the carpet, and they do get it in

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Speaker 2: places that you just cannot get grooves and cracks. You

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Speaker 2: cannot get it out of some of those places. That

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Speaker 2: is a challenge with Plato.

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Speaker 4: The good thing about Plato, though, is once it dries,

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Speaker 4: you can usually kind of scratch it off.

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Speaker 3: It'll all kind of.

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Speaker 2: It just yes, fair enough.

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Speaker 3: But slime, on the other hand.

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Speaker 2: Every time the kids come home from the shops of slime,

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Speaker 2: I'm like, would you stop mining this stuff serious.

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Speaker 4: This stuff is bad, bad, bad if it's not put

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Speaker 4: where it's supposed to be put.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, how much the kids love slime though, But.

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Speaker 4: They do and so messy play. Yeah, you can use

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Speaker 4: shaving cream or cornflower and water yogurt.

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Speaker 3: If they're very young, I guess yo, kids.

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Speaker 2: Play with the yogat. You could yogurt paint.

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Speaker 4: One of the things that I used to do with

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Speaker 4: the kids when they were.

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Speaker 2: Very little is you didn't like that one at all?

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Speaker 4: No, I did not, But our eighteen month olds they

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Speaker 4: used to love.

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Speaker 2: It, paint yogurt all over their faces. It's probably an

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Speaker 2: expensive use of yogurt.

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Speaker 4: But I used to put some food coloring and ice

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Speaker 4: ice trays and let the kids paint with ice cubes. Yes,

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Speaker 4: when they were younger, they had fun so simple as well,

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Speaker 4: just using a paint brush and a bucket of water

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Speaker 4: on the concrete and painting patterns into the concrete.

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Speaker 3: You've got chalk painting.

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Speaker 2: Our kids loved that. I remember went when we had

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Speaker 2: young kids and you just give them a paint brush

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Speaker 2: and let them dip it in the water and they

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Speaker 2: could paint anywhere with it because it's just water. And

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Speaker 2: they would they watched they'd paint something and then they

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Speaker 2: watched it evaporate and disappeared. They thought it was amazing.

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Speaker 4: And the other one that they loved doing is when

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Speaker 4: I just put some food, coloring and water into a

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Speaker 4: spray bottle and I used to attach pieces of paper

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Speaker 4: to the fence and they would just have a ball

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Speaker 4: spray painting.

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Speaker 2: Amazing stuff. So there's a whole bunch of boredom busters

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Speaker 2: for your under fives.

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Speaker 3: Oh I have a few others.

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Speaker 2: Okay, well, time's getting away and we've got to talk

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Speaker 2: about the big kids as well, So let's just do

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Speaker 2: the last few.

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Speaker 4: A whole jar of buttons. This keeps my kids entertained

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Speaker 4: for hours, sorting buttons, putting them into colors, putting them

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Speaker 4: to sizes, putting them into same things, so much fun.

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Speaker 4: Paddle pops sticks, putting them in with the playto's heaps

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Speaker 4: of fun as well.

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Speaker 2: So crafty.

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Speaker 3: And my kids love.

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Speaker 2: When you say my kids, do you mean our kids?

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, thank you, yep.

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Speaker 3: Our kids love the little plastic animals.

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Speaker 4: You can use them everything. You can use them, sampit

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Speaker 4: with your play do in the garden. There's so many

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Speaker 4: things that you can do with it open ended.

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Speaker 2: Some other fun games that are kind of open ended

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Speaker 2: and and just good value no matter the age of

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Speaker 2: the child. I mean, we even play this with our

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Speaker 2: seventeen year old hide and seek that can be lots

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Speaker 2: of fun. We turn off the lights in the house,

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Speaker 2: play it on dusk.

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Speaker 4: It's always one when you've got someone really little, because

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Speaker 4: you can put them in these really you know, crazy

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Speaker 4: places that nobody can find true because they don't freak out.

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Speaker 2: We have put little kids in some pretty fun places. Tip,

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Speaker 2: tiggy or cat whatever you want to call tag.

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Speaker 3: Everyone past making a cubby house.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yep, so so much fun. Botom Busters, there's some

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Speaker 2: ideas there. Let's talk about the big kids just briefly

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Speaker 2: before we wrap things up. I reckon I want to

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Speaker 2: go first with a couple of my favorites. First of all,

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Speaker 2: I love the idea of building a zip line for

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Speaker 2: the toys.

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Speaker 3: Oh so much fun.

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Speaker 2: Like just string up some wall or string up something

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Speaker 2: that's going to all out and then create a way

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Speaker 2: that it can zoom from one end of the room

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Speaker 2: to the other, stick the toys in a basket whatever,

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Speaker 2: And then whoo.

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Speaker 4: What about creating those the phone with the two cans

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Speaker 4: and the piece of screen string.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's probably better for younger kids, but big

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Speaker 2: kids might enjoy that one. I also jotted down here

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Speaker 2: tie dyeing because our girls love it. Whenever you decide

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Speaker 2: that you're going to talk, TI die And my favorite.

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Speaker 4: Another a cheap way of doing tied eye if you

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Speaker 4: don't want to go to the expense of buying all

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Speaker 4: of the different dyes is actually using bleach. So using

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Speaker 4: a colored T shirt or something and bleaching.

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Speaker 2: Oh hey, nice. Final point, there's going to be a

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Speaker 2: bunch of parents who are going, yeah, this is all

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Speaker 2: really great, But I'm not in spite. I'm just tired

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Speaker 2: and listening to all of these ideas, Like I'm struggling

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Speaker 2: so much already, and I don't think that I could

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Speaker 2: possibly do it. Last piece of advice, fake it till

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Speaker 2: you make it. It's amazing what happens when you start

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Speaker 2: to get involved in doing just one of these activities

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Speaker 2: a day. It can make such a really big difference.

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Speaker 2: As you know, Kylie, there are some days where you

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Speaker 2: don't feel like doing it, but when you start, it's

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Speaker 2: amazing how good it feels right.

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Speaker 4: It really does. And what I've found is when I'm

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Speaker 4: really struggling actually getting the kids involved in helping. So

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Speaker 4: if we're going to color past her, they get so

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Speaker 4: excited watching it happen instead of me having.

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Speaker 3: To do all of the work. Yep, it's actually part

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Speaker 3: of the fun.

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Speaker 2: We really hope that today's podcast has put a dent

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Speaker 2: in your boredom challenges or your stress as a result

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Speaker 2: of lockdowns that could be happening, or if there's no

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Speaker 2: lockdowns but you've got little kids at home because they're

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Speaker 2: not big up for school, for example. We hope that

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Speaker 2: these ideas will make a really big difference for you

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Speaker 2: so that you don't have to rely on screen so

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Speaker 2: much and so that behavior challenges aren't such a big deal.

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Speaker 2: Tomorrow on the podcast, we are having a conversation with

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Speaker 2: a guy called Jeremy McVean. He's behind one of the

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Speaker 2: biggest fatherhood initiatives in the country, if not the world,

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Speaker 2: and a really controversial conversation on Thursday, something to do

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Speaker 2: with big houses and Brady kids. We'll tell you more

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Speaker 2: about that on Thursday. It's The Happy Famili's podcast, produced

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Speaker 2: by Justin Rulon from Bridge Media and executive produced. I

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Speaker 2: don't know if That's how I should say it. A

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Speaker 2: month by Craig Bruce. If you like Mario about making

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Speaker 2: your family happier during a lockdown, premium content may be

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00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:35,120
Speaker 2: the thing that you need most. Please have a look

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Speaker 2: at our Happy Families premium memberships, where we give you

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Speaker 2: ongoing support to connect better with your family and make

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Speaker 2: things work even when times are tough. The Happy Families

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Speaker 2: memberships all available at happy families dot com, dot a