I recently got sent a fabulous book – Art of Roughhousing: Good Old Fashioned Horseplay and Why Every Kid Needs it (2010)
“Roughhousing” is apparently what the American call physical play – what we Brits call “rough and tumble”.
The book is packed full of ideas for physical games you can play with children – all with lovely diagrams and cool names such as Houdini, Magic Carpet Ride and Alaric the Barbarian. And whilst at the moment my baby is too small for many of them I cant wait to play some of the more advanced games and am getting excited just reading about them. After all one of the joys of being a father is that you can be a kid again and I cant wait to spend the afternoon white water rafting on a mattress or having a pillow fight with my daughter.
For all fathers out there I highly recommend it.
And what a good idea too – lets stop wrapping kids in cotton wool.