Would you like to decrease the psychological distance and increase the intimacy between you and your children? Of course you would. Then it’s time to get eye-to-eye with them, on their level. Therefore, Mom, get up off the love seat, and Dad, up out of your easy chair. Bend your knees, and keep going until your bottom has bottomed out onto the floor.

As soon as you do, you will observe a transformation in your children. Their expressions, their posture, their attitude, all exude eagerness and anticipation from your “visit.”

What occurs from that point forward is up to you and them. There is no right or wrong way to fulfill the experience. Just let it happen—and it will. Here are 18 games we repeat, because of their popularity:

• Horsy
• Wrestling
• Face Anatomy
• Staring
• Ball Rolling
• Choo-Choo Train
• Steam Rolling
• Helicopter
• Marco Polo
• Tickling
• Under the Bridge
• Flip Me Over
• Make a Letter
• Bucking Bronco
• Boo in the Blanket
• What Animal Am I?
• Pile It Higher
• Make a Muscle

Some of these activities’ names probably make sense. I’m sure others appear puzzling. I will leave it up to you; I am sure your imagination is every bit as good as mine. It doesn’t matter what you do—just that you do it. Take even a traditional activity such as reading, and move it down to the floor; you will find it greatly enhanced.

Let’s face it, sitting in furniture and standing on the floor are largely restrictive and one-dimensional. Conversely, the floor has no boundaries or presumptions. It is fertile ground for parents and children to become physical, impulsive, and close.