How to Play with Kids
Because some people actually need an instruction manual.
There is no greater improv practice than playing with kids. They have abounding joy and imagination, and they expect you to be swept up in their schemes as much as a martinet expects to be obeyed.
If you don’t want to slow down their pace and temper their mood, you have to roll with the punches and think fast. The good news is that children are far more forgiving than a typical improv audience.
The title of this post might seem absurd. Who needs to be taught how to play and have fun? But some people really are terrible at play, especially with children. They are afraid to look foolish or think they have better things to do with their time.
Or worse. They think they always have to be teaching the children something, bestowing “wisdom,” to make the time worthwhile. Any game or toy needs to have a STEM sticker slapped on it. Any fun is looked at with suspicion. One example is the father in Mary Poppins, who needs to learn something as simple as flying a kite.
But literature is also full of positive examples, and one delightful book gives us a character worthy of emulation.