Match Activities
Age ranges are guidelines only – many activities are appropriate for children of all ages! Please remember to regularly talk through activities with your Little’s parent or guardian—they are an important part of your match.
Ages 5-7
- Bake and frost cut out cookies
- Fly a kite on a windy day
- Go on a walk and collect interesting rocks, leaves or other items
- Feed the ducks at the park
- Make a present for someone special
- Play UNO, Crazy 8s, or Old Maid
- Play badminton or croquet
- Go for a walk and find interesting places to practice “balancing”
- Have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich picnic
- Visit a pet store and decide which is the oddest pet
- Go on a Big or Little hunt and collect all things with the words Big or Little in them.
- Cloud watch on a bright summer day
- Make a collage using seeds, rice, cereal and old buttons
- Catch fireflies together
- Play hide-and-go-seek
Ages 8-10
- Start a scrapbook with a page for pictures of favorite things
- Go on a camera scavenger hunt to find odd objects to photograph
- Make greeting, get well, or holiday cards for special people
- Make a bug cage and catch lightning bugs together
- Visit Potter Park Zoo
- Read a selected book out loud and tape record it
- Work on a jigsaw puzzle
- Play miniature golf or go bowling
- Play Monopoly, Life, Sorry, or hangman
- Go on a field trip to the museum – focus on one exhibit and discuss it
- Go for a bike ride
- Make a lemonade or a hot cocoa stand – learn basic business principles
- Got to the library together
- Participate in seasonal activities – go apple picking, carve a pumpkin, make a snowman, go puddle jumping, paint Easter eggs
- Get out some gardening tools and find a neighbor who could use some free yard work
- Make applesauce or ice cream together
Ages 11-13
- Watch a TV program and identify negative stereotypes
- Look up your state on the Internet: what is the major industry?
- Build and paint a bird house – watch for occupants
- Make a resume (click here for an example)
- Rent rollerblades and learn to skate, safely
- Make a list of people you admire – look them upon the Internet
- Take a long ride on public transportation to the end of the line
- Mow the lawn or wash the car together
- Play computer and video games together
- Participate in a community service activity to show your Little the importance of giving back
- Plan or plant a garden or visit a community garden and offer to help
- Pick and press wild flowers
- Share your greatest fears with each other
- Make a list of all the items in the house that use electricity
- Check out a local high school or college sports game
- Go to an airport and watch planes take off and land
- Play charades or "Guesstures"
Ages 14-16
- Research what happened on the day and year each of you was born
- Figure out how to program your VCR or DVD player
- Visit the fish market, meat market or other place where food is not prepackaged
- Check out the classified advertisements and discuss what each job requires in terms of education and experience
- Go out for dinner at an ethnic restaurant – who else is eating there? What is your favorite dish?
- Explore a new radio station together – discus ads and target audience
- Plan and shop for ingredients to cook dinner together
- Go to a concert featuring a favorite performer
- Try mastering something difficult: juggling, cooking a soufflé, water color painting
- Watch a professional or semi-professional sporting event
- Talk about today's news
- Buy ten shares of stock in an inexpensive company that your Little will recognize and watch it make or lose money
- Take your Little on a tour of your place of work
- Go fishing
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