"Out" of town family in need of shabbos advice

lovessleep

Wed, Apr 03 2013, 10:38 pm

Our family lives in an aging community in NJ and we send our kids to a yeshiva a short drive away. My older children (ages 8 and 6) get incredibly bored over the long shabbosim without friends to play with. For the older one, we do sleepovers as much as possible, but when her friends join us for shabbos it can sometimes be a bit too long without enough intervening shabbos activities (eg Bnos or drop-in shabbos visitors). Any ideas- especially from people in similar circumstances - would be hugely appreciated! Thanks!

amother

Wed, Apr 03 2013, 10:47 pm

I don't have advice for you but I just want you to know that I live very "in town" in NJ and have this problem sometimes too! With kids that age they need their parents to make arrangements and I'm not always up to it. So I feel bad to my kids too and can't wait till they grow up and can go out and socialize on their own a little. When the weather is warm often there are kids playing outdoors but honestly they are not the ages of my kids and that is only for 3-4 months a yr.

anonymom

Wed, Apr 03 2013, 11:19 pm

Do they enjoy each other's company? Are they both girls? I don't have experience with girls, but my boys 3 years apart often (not always) play together.

amother

Wed, Apr 03 2013, 11:29 pm

I'm very out of town and my kids have only each other most of the time. They're slightly younger - my oldest is 6. But they play nicely together. We play a lot of board games. WE because I must play with them - they can't manage these games on their own yet. I take them for a short walk to the playground. We have a yard B"H where they can run around. We daven together. They help me set the table, clear the table, etc. Anything to pass the time. It wears me out but it's better than whiney bored kids.

sheindl

Thu, Apr 04 2013, 11:28 am

What about organizing your daughters and friends to drop in and visit an older couple? You can present it as a chessed, but I'm sure it will go both ways, the older couple will surely have interesting stories to tell and will likely give the kids some attention, while the girls will feel good that they are bringing some happiness to the couple. You can alternate people every week, or even just stick to the same ones. The girls can bring "oneg shabbos" packages, make a whole project out of it.

amother

Thu, Apr 04 2013, 12:13 pm

something that I do - I make all shabbos preparations on Thursday. Fri. after lunch I take my kids to target or walmart and buy a new game or some cheap items to keep them busy with. Sometimes it works and they are busy for hours (with nothing!) and you know how it is ... sometimes you think it will work but they end up bored and fighting : (

The idea about visiting an older person is nice if you are up to it since it involves you to.

Rubber Ducky

Thu, Apr 04 2013, 12:45 pm

We used to set aside some toys just for Shabbos -- magnet based toys were favorites here. Nowadays there are quite a few to choose from, such as Magformers, Magna-Tiles, and Magnetix.

If you get a Jewish newspaper or magazine with a kids' section, hold it for Shabbos.

We have an extensive collection of Duplos and Legos. We don't keep them only for Shabbos, but they've always been a Shabbos activity.

If you have a backyard, consider getting a trampoline (and for safety reasons you really should supervise it).

lovessleep

Thu, Apr 04 2013, 10:13 pm

Thank you all for some great suggestions! I particularly like the plan of visiting an elderly couple- I'd like to try that next time we have a friend over. To the anon poster who suggested davening, playing, and cleaning with my kids- though it doesn't sound like the most pleasant of solutions, it is probably the best approachfor the reality of our situation.
I guess now is a good time to be thankful that the long shabbosim are usually accompanied by nicer warm weather as well:)