No Batteries Required: Getting Kids to Play the Old Fashioned Way! Submit an Idea to Win a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

Our living room and family room floors are both strewn with various different toys throughout the day (and many nights too when I skip clean-up detail!)

And most of these abandoned toys have been left alone because the batteries ran out. So while I am certainly not bashing all toys here, after all, many of them do provide educational fun too, I admit I get tickled when I see my kids leave those aside for a while and choose instead to play imagination-based games instead. Balance is a good thing, after all.

I love hearing them lay out the 'rules' of their latest role-playing games, and then watching (while pretending not to watch, of course!) them as they take on their roles and play their game. This kind of play brings them closer together, encourages them to solve problems together and share ideas. Plus they are moving, not sitting on a couch!

 Good old fashioned playtime is hard to beat. So in brainstorming "No Batteries Required Activities for Kids," this is what I have come up with (so far):

Freeze-Tag
Kick Ball
Hand Ball
Hide 'N Seek
Duck Duck Goose
Hop Scotch
Hula Hoop
Jump Rope
Blind Man's Bluff
Bubbles
Charades
Musical Chairs
Indoor Camping
Pillow Fights!
Start a Story- each person continues a 'Once Upon a Time' story with a new word
Imagine a Monster - each person adds a characteristic to an imaginary monster
Have a Tea Party/Hot Cocoa Party
Bake Cookies

But this list is just a mere starting point.

What old-fashioned kid games and activities you would add to the list?? 

Win a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

Submit your suggestion by November 20. Winner will be drawn November 21. Please leave a valid email with your entry.


Extra Entries:
Tweet this giveaway - one extra entry per each daily tweet
Follow Happy Healthy Families on Twitter
Like Happy Healthy Families on Facebook
Share this giveaway on Facebook

Good Luck!

And be sure to enter our Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 DVD Giveaway!

$50 Gift Card Giveaway To The Happy Easter Store

Just in time for Easter, the Happy Easter Store is offering one lucky reader of Happy Healthy Families a $50 gift certificate for their online store! But I must warn you, choosing from their wonderful selection of Easter gifts and Easter treats will be not be easy!

Sweet Gift Card Giveaway Plus Cookies!! (An Early Valentine's Day Giveaway)

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and is ready for an exciting new year! I am happy to get the year started with a fun new giveaway that will help with grocery shopping,, bring some yummy treats your way (just in time for Valentine's Day!) and  make sharing these treats and new memories easy-peasy!


Betty Crocker, GladWare® and the Safeway Family of Stores, wants to keep the warmth and spirit of the holidays going in homes everywhere all year long. And so they have decided to give one lucky reader of HHF a wonderful gift basket that includes a $25 gift card for shopping at Safeway, Dominick’s, Tom Thumb, Randalls, Vons, and/or Genuardi’s, plus a package of Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix, a GladWare sample pack. Perfect for baking some yummy Valentine's Day cookies!!


We received a gift pack ourselves for review. Can I just gush about how excited I get over new storage containers-- and the new GladWare I received just had me grinning from ear to ear. Really--just ask the hubby! Of course my kids wanted to start baking cookies right away, and since our package arrived during Christmas week, we made some extra special cookies just for Santa! We saved some for our family's Christmas Eve party as well, where I happily put my new GladWare to good use (Grinning!)

ENTER TO WIN A GIFT CARD AND GOODIES GIFT BASKET!!


Leave me a comment sharing your favorite memory from this holiday season! That is it! I cannot wait to hear how everyone's holidays were (smile) Please leave a valid email with your comment. Note: this is a mandatory entry requirement.

EXTRA ENTRIES


1. Visit BakeSweetMemories.com and leave me a comment telling me which recipe you would love to bake.  (3 extra entries)


2. Play the Sweet Memories Game at BakeSweetMemories.com and let me know if you win a prize, and which one!! (Make me jealous...go ahead, I can take it, hehe) (3 extra entries)


3. Become a subscriber of Happy Healthy Families. (3 extra entries)


4. Like Happy Healthy Families on Facebook. (3 extra entries)


5. Tweet this giveaway (one extra entry each daily tweet)


6. Follow Happy Healthy Families on Twitter. (3 extra entries)


7. Join Google Friend Connect on Happy Healthy Families. (3 extra entries)


8. Post about this giveaway on your blog or on facebook. Leave me the url in a separate comment. (5 extra entries)




**This giveaway will end on Jan. 14th at 11:59 EST. I will be posting the winner here on the blog shortly thereafter. Please check back to see if you won-- I am having trouble with emails I send to winners going to spam mailboxes and not getting confirmations. Therefore I am going to just be posting winners here and once posted, winners will have 3 days to confirm.**i


**disclosure: I was provided a $25 gift card, information and prize pack by Safeway, Betty Crocker, and Glad through MyBlogSpark.