Play Wales has produced top tips for mums, dads and carers – for Playday and all year round.

Quality time
Children’s idea of quality time is different from ours – simply, they just want and need time to play and to know that we are around if they need us.

Prioritise time for playing
Playing makes a very important contribution to all children’s learning and physical and emotional health – equally as important as lessons, homework or football practice – and it is what they want to do.

Time out
Outside is where children want to be – time spent in natural outdoor environments with friends costs next to nothing. If there isn’t a good park or field nearby, it’s time to start campaigning for one.

Switch off the screen
We need to encourage children to go out and play – limiting screen time is a must for some children.

Go back in time
For hundreds of years children have gained pleasure from dabbling in streams, building dens in the woods, larking about in mud and rain, and making fairy houses from moss and leaves. These cost-free opportunities are valuable and timeless.

Time to chill
If there is a worry about children’s safety, find a way to keep an eye out for them – go sit somewhere nearby, take a newspaper and a picnic and let them make their own adventures while you relax.

Time for cheap and cheerful
There are low-cost or no-cost alternatives to ‘holiday activities’ and expensive toys and games. Find out about local play schemes, adventure playgrounds or scrap stores.
Also, check out Playday on a shoestring.

Reproduced with kind permission of Play Wales.