Sunshine Coast Council

Make play part of your day! Having time for play is as important for adults as it is for children and it’s a key way to get more joy out of your day!

“Age doesn’t make a difference in terms of how playful or fun life can be.” Brit Morin 

1000 Play Streets is a movement for Australians to reclaim quiet residential streets across Australia as places for neighbours of all ages to connect and play on a regular basis, and to ultimately improve the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities.

The Genius of Play have some great resources, here are their 10 tips for being more playful:

1. Use unscheduled time to be creative, to daydream, reflect and decompress.
2. Appreciate playtime whether it’s alone or with other adults or children.
3. Smile and laugh often throughout the day.
4. Try new things and experience the unexpected.
5. Participate in a variety of activities whenever you can to expand your horizons.
6. Make mental connections (e.g. “how else can I use this,” “what else can this do?”)
7. Sing and dance just for the fun of it.
8. Spend time with the children in your life, observing them as they play, listening to their conversation, and following their train of thought.
9. Cultivate a happy, joyful, positive attitude, full of gratitude for even the smallest, everyday things.
10. Plan to make play part of your day. 

Ideas for neighbourhood play

• Search Facebook and Instagram with #funathome for plenty of pages with fun activities for the whole neighbourhood, you can also try #ideasforkids #playallday #familyactivities.
• Nature Play Queensland have some great ways that you and your family can use nature and play to calm anxiety, improve your wellbeing and have some fun - whether you have access to your local park, backyard or balcony! They even have some great educational pieces if you're looking at doing some learning at home. 
• Have your own comedy night with 202 hilarious jokes for kids!
• Here are some awesome fad dances to teach your kids for the next neighbourhood concert. 
• Visit the Laughter Online University get your Certificate of the Inner Child [81KB] and explore 40 ideas to experience childlike playfulness as adults.

Get dressed up and do things differently

• host an international dinner night and get dressed up
• have a themed movie night
• create a glamorous neighbourhood photo shoot
• have a karaoke night and get out your best rock star look.

How about some old school fun

• play board games
• get out the deck of cards
• learn some magic tricks
• hide and seek
• hopscotch 
• simon says
• skipping rope
• play handball.