There's nothing wrong with doing nothing with your kids. By that, I mean that you don't always have to have a planned activity to have fun; unstructured time can be some of the best time.
A couple of Saturdays ago, I asked my wife what we had planned on the calendar. She replied, "Nothing". We talked for a few moments, then decided to take the kids up to Glen Park. It was a sunny, fine Spring day, with temperatures in the mid-50s and a cool breeze.
The kids balked. Tommy wanted to go to Putt-Putt or bowling, and Jill wanted to watch cartoons. Explaining that it was a little chilly for the first option, and too nice of a day for the other two, we piled in the car and took off. Three minutes later, we were at the park (for out-of-towners reading this, Glen Park is located in the heart of the Village of Williamsville in Amherst, New York, and is a "natural" park; no slides, swingsets, or ball diamonds). While my wife and I admired the clear blue sky and the smells of spring, the kids quietly sulked in the back seat.
When we parked and got out of the car, the first thing that Tom noticed were all the birds. He immediately picked out a robin and some ducks, and when I explained he had just done part of Electives 13a and 13d, he got excited. Jill got into the game, and within a few moments they had found a few more birds. As we walked, we watched the squirrels scamper around, the ducks float through the water, and the water pouring over Glen Falls. We noticed the buds popping out on the trees and plants, the first few flowers poking up, and the small stream that cuts through the middle of the park. I explained that this stream was part of the millrace that powered the water wheel on the mill a long time ago, and we followed it up to the mill, where we could see where a wheel might have once been mounted on the side of it. Along the way, we saw two more kinds of birds, which we didn't recognize, but noted what they looked like so we could look them up later.
We walked up to the top of the falls, and watched the water pour over it and onto the rocks below. That's all we did for quite a few moments. Then, we walked up to Main Street, around the front of the mill, then down Rock Street and back into the park. We stopped by a small, spring-fed pool near the base of the cliff, and watched small bugs flitter along the bottom, and pockets of trapped gas burble to the top. Tom and Jill found some small stones to throw in it, and we spent about fifteen minutes doing just that. We then started back towards the car, which was parked on the other side of Glen Avenue by the unfinished park building.
As we got near the car, I suggested we walk back into the woods. We followed some trails, worn down by other adventurers, walked past a campfire area someone had built, and finally found the lower part of the creek, which had an eight-foot-wide bank of stones lining the shore. I showed Tom how to skip rocks, then he and his sister proceeded to throw stones in the creek for a while.
We finally went back to the car and headed for home. When I asked if they had fun, the result was an enthusiastic "yeah!" We went home, washed up, had something to drink, and then my wife and Tom went to the library to get a book on bird identification while my daughter and I rested and watched cartoons.
So, by doing "nothing", we ended up having a lot of fun!
-- Dave Yearke