What do you do with your child if you're out and about?

[Manana]

and have 5/10 spare minutes waiting for something (collecting sibling/waiting for doctor!)? I've exhausted the times tables! What can I quiz the poor boy on that I can pull out of the bag without any thought!!?

[hermanmunster]

At the doctor's you could try giving him the BMJ to read - usually keeps them quiet for a few minutes.. otherwise maybe he is better reading a book of his own when he has a few mins spare

[scarlett]

Oh no ...at the doctors the best game is to try and guess what's wrong with each person ...the prize going to the most imaginative ailment ( remember to use indoor voices with this one ) .

I agree otherwise with Herman ...If I try to pull that one in the car the groans are probably heard up in Scotland ...it depends how old your boy is ? I can't post links but there was a thread a while back about games to play in the car which might be the sort of thing you need ?

[DC17C]

My DD takes her kindle everywhere - just in case she has a few minutes of boredom heaven forbid!

[Blitz]

We play a game called 'Give me 5'. It's very simple, you say "Give me 5..... and a category."

The list of categories are endless from vegetables, shapes, towns etc. for 5 year olds to breeds of dogs, square numbers, woodwind instruments, rivers (abstract nouns, compound words!!!!) etc. for 11 year olds to family birthdays, formula 1 teams, previous addresses lived at for OH on long car journeys.

Can anyone's OH name 5 family members' birthdays?!!

[scarlett]

We play that game too Blitz ! It does have endless possibilities and always makes me smile because the first time DD played it, she was about 2 1/2 and DS1 spent ages explaining the rules to her and then told her to name 5 fruit...she spent ages carefully thinking and then shouted out " fish ! " in her loudest voice

[doodles]

We play the ABC game. Choose a category and name an item with each letter of the alphabet. The more obscure the category the harder it is - boys names, girls names, countries and fruit and veg are good for starters. On more boring car journeys we have been known to progress to footballers and rugby teams which probably stretches me more than them!!


(He once got a double red mark at school for knowing a country for every letter of the alphabet )

[ourmaminhavana]

I love your waiting room game Scarlett!!
We play the alphabet one too, anything from adjectives with DD, 6, to countries that one of us must have visited, authors etc The possibilities are endless and it's great for children of any age (and their parents! )
We also make up a family story contributing one partial sentence each until it's finished with some very interesting ideas.
I like the 5 one too, Blitz. Will have to give that a try.

[MrsB]

We like ABC games too. If you want to be doing something 11plus related, trying thinking of words that sound the same , and ask your DC to make up a (silly) sentence with all the variations - eg "once he took over the reins, the King reigned until it rained "
Everyone needs some down time though - I think there's nothing wrong with a game boy for the waiting room!

[Amber]

Everyone needs some down time though - I think there's nothing wrong with a game boy for the waiting room!

Feel very inadequate here..I gaze out of the window, fiddle with my phone, look at my watch, tell my children to be quiet, sigh, tut, maybe chat to them to check the symptoms which brought us there in the first place have not disappeared...I do not engage them in word games, timestables or other useful things, though I did once read 'The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me' all the way through, out loud, with funny voices for all the characters, and the whole waiting room was listening in the end. My daughter made me promise never to embarrass her in such a way again. Mind you, she was 15 at the time.*

*not really