Piggyback Rides and Slippery Slides: How to Have Fun Raising First-Rate Children »

We are busy. Our children: busy. Our grandchildren: busy. We are busy providing our offspring with comfort, experience, and social and academic skills-and yet many parents still fail to provide their children with the most important asset of all: play. Piggyback Rides and Slippery Slides calls for loving caregivers everywhere to improve the well-being of children through the simple art of play. As you create memories with your children, you will provide them with the skills they need to succeed in life-skills like empathy, problem solving, impulse regulation, assertiveness, and creativity. As research demonstrates, children who have learned how to play are better prepared academically, socially, and emotionally than their busier, "more accomplished" peers. And as you spend time playing with your children, you will discover that spending time together is the magic ingredient to trust, even if that time is spent just feeding ducks, flying a kite, or enjoying blueberry pancakes on a lazy Saturday morning.

Playing with Our Children     1
Bedtime Is Playtime     5
Playing in the Great Outdoors: Hiking, backpacking, beachcombing, and other "worldly" pursuits     11
Playing with Your Food: How playing at the dinner table builds caring, responsible, intelligent children     21
Turning Work into Play: Ideas for having fun while you work together     39
What Does the Research Say?: Helping parents understand why playing is critical to a child's physical, social, emotional, and mental health     51
Imaginative Play: How pretending helps preschoolers learn, and why children need more of it     77
Right in Your Own Backyard: Outdoor play adventures     109
Playing with Dad: How great dads use playtime to build strong bodies, healthy minds, and emotional bonds     141
Playing with Teenagers: How to have fun together without being childish     153
All Children Must Be Accompanied by a Playing Adult: How grandparents who play bless the next generation     183
Making Space for Play: Finding a way when play is a challenge     201
Epilogue     219
Gallery of Ideas     223
Bibliography     225
About the Author     231