What does your 6-8 year old do in their free time (not including rest/quiet time or outdoor activities or electronic games)? Just looking for ideas. Thanks in advance for sharing!
Erica

My son was just really getting into Lego around that time. He'd sit for hours and build. My daughter was really into Barbies and dolls then.

Sam is almost 7. In his free time, he enjoys reading, writing, making art, playing with toys like lego, playmobile, silks and little animals (setting up elaborate scenes), and playing chess.

Tara

Ava is seven. She reads, plays with dolls and animals, chases the dog, draws, paints, makes bracelets...typical kid stuff.

Katie just turned 8 and she likes to look at books, sew, crochet. She loves to create! She plays outside- jumping on the tramp, make-believe with her brothers, digging in the dirt. Dolls, cooking. I think she is pretty typical too.

For their "quiet time" right, not organized activities like sports?

Dane is 6 and loves to build cities out of stuff. Any old stuff. Usually a mixture of blocks, boxes, polly pockets, bendies and dinosaurs. lol. He also loves to draw and play tic tac toe with me or a sibling. He's really starting to show interest in cards and board games too.

My 10 yoa daughter liked barbies and doll house stuff at that age 6-8. She could spend hours quietly dressing and redressing dolls...and rearranging furniture.

Together, they make elaborate make-believe stuff. They really like playing shop/store. Cops and bad guys is another mainstay. I love listening in on this one, bad guys get sent away to jail for like a "thousand bazillion" years for stuff like theft. lol. Oh and everyone wants to be the cop/judge. So that's cool.

Roller blades, scooters, and bikes are always moving in the driveway. They shoot hoops, boot hockey...draw house floor plans (or streets) with chalk....

sheesh, they're really busy. LOL.

In his free time my ds likes to play with playmobil, legos, dinosaurs or army men. He and his brothers will have elaborate set ups or battles. Also we are not TV free so he will watch TV. At night he likes to watch sports with dh.

He loves to play games. He got Uno for his birthday. Also they discovered our Pente game from pre children and he has been playing it with his brothers.

Right now all the boys love to hold the baby so he will do that for me while I am getting dressed or doing laundry.

Grady (6) likes to play pretend with his sister. They have elaborate story lines they pick up from tv shows or their own imagination. Other things he likes to do build/play with cars/board games.

Jacob is 7. Let's see, he likes to read, play outside, make elaborate cities with blocks he's had for years, depending on what day it is, he might play 'pretend' with his younger sister or playstation with his older brother. One day not long ago he wrote a letter to the editor of our local paper - which was published, woohoo. Sometimes he writes, sometimes he draws. Or plays his trumpet.

He is a child who enjoys time on his own, he's always been like that. Even with 4 siblings, he will find a way to be on his own with a chosen activity. Sometimes he amazes me with his focus - it can be quite chaotic around here at times, but he can just ignore all of it and do his own 'thing'. He definitely follows the beat of his own drummer.

My 7 yr old likes to draw, paint, glue, write little stories (or dictate stories to me if they get long). She likes to do pretty much any sort of art. She is using the oil pastels until they are nubs right now. lol She spends a lot of time playing with small wooden animals and her Breyer horses. She also likes pickup games with the nieghborhood kids- kickball, soccer, tag etc. She spends a lot of time playing make believe-- either with others or alone.

Ds is almost 7. He likes to draw (right now he's been designing golf courses), play with his Imaginext stuff (castle, pirate ships, island, dinosaur thing). He also likes to set up football or soccer plays with little plastic guys. Read books. Plays football or dances with his little brother.

Nico is eight. She spends a lot of time playing with Kaya ~ they play things like store and pet shop and restaurant and Cinderella, etc. They play with their Calico Critters or ponies.

She likes to write to pen pals and draw/paint pictures. For the last two days, she has been drawing and cutting out Autumn and Halloween decorations ~ pumpkins, trees with fall colors, owls, etc.

She has been making hemp bracelets and beaded bobby pins for gifts for the holidays. She has wanted to sew a lot of clothes for the groovy girls and pillows for her dolls.

She will also curl up with a stack of books or magazines on the couch and read. Or, yesterday she spent almost an hour bouncing around on the yoga ball.

She also likes to cook and bake, especially things she can make without help.

Mickey will be 7 next week. She loves to play mad scientist by running experiments using various ingredients etc in my kitchen, play lego, write stories, read books, do crafts, bake, organize, clean, play dress up, play the piano, to name a few - the kid is NEVER bored....

My 6 yr old likes to paint and play with polly pockets and animals in her fisher-price doll house.

Sydney (7) likes to draw, write and illustrate books, watch movies, play with neopets and Snoopy stuffies, read, paint, chase Bella around and make her scream (lol), make commercials and movies with her video camera, photography, pretend play (zoo, restaurant, store owner, etc.), and she likes to play games on the computer.

Emily (7) likes all crafts, she likes to embellish anything with feathers, beads, etc. She likes to sew (but I broke her sewing machine. :eyes: ). She also likes pretend play and watching movies. She loves music and likes to dance and sing. A lot of the time, she just follows me around the house telling me stories and asking me questions! :lol:

My 6yo spends A LOT of time outside. But when he's inside and not playing video games, he's often playing with legos or his trainset, drawing, or just goofing around with his siblings.

Ethan's 6. He's currently obsessed with baseball, so anything and everything to do w/ baseball, pretty much. He'll play catch anytime he can round up someone to play with him. Or he'll just bounce the ball off the wall and play with himself! A few days ago he made a booklet of all the players on his favorite team, organized by position. He said it for when he plays "coach".

He also likes to draw and write and do crafty stuff. He loves to sit and flip through books and read to himself. Sometimes he's really generous and will sit and read to his little brother, board book after board book after board book.

He likes to set up elaborate "sets" for his pretend play. He'll make signs and pretend computers/keyboards/etc w/ paper and cardboard boxes for his office, be it his police office, fireman office, army office, etc.

He loves to play with the other kids in the neighborhood, either just playing outside, digging up worms, etc, riding bikes, playing baseball/catch/frisbee/football, climbing trees