Plays for children in Pakistan have become silly and stale, sadly. The main play time most children indulge in is spending time on iPads, browsing through YouTube videos and playing on tablets. Or on the other extreme, play is strictly regulated classes with timetables and curriculums. To rectify this situation, Scaryammi held a winter play date with a simple mandate: children had to conduct activities to entertain other children. Reading Nook, a reading club being run by Sana Waqar, conducted a unique impromptu theatre activity where the children only had 30 minutes to put on a version of ‘Mary Poppins’. “This was the very first time I did something like this,” she said. “It was quite remarkable to see the kids pull this off so sweetly and in such a mature fashion.” “Our winter play date was aimed towards re-introducing simple and fun games,” the force behind ScaryAmmi Ayesha Nasir said. “We wanted mommies to get their children involved so the activities were actually fun and happening.” ‘It was quite remarkable to see the kids pull this off so sweetly and in such a mature fashion’ All the mothers came up with extremely unique and innovative ways in which to keep children motivated. Pre-school teacher Amina Usman helped her daughters conduct two super cool activities. “My older daughter wanted to do sorting out the rainbow which was a game where children had to use straws to separate multicoloured M&Ms,” she said, while talking exclusively to Daily Times. Another super fun and hit activity was by Aahil Salim Nasir of the aahilkeyaan blog. He managed a massive spinning wheel called Spin to Win It where every child had to spin it and if the wheel stopped on the green section, the child playing the game would get a prize. “I have had more fun today than I have ever had at any play date,” Aahil Salim Nasir said, smiling widely and exuberantly gathering the children who wanted to play the game into a line. “I think all play dates should hire children to conduct activities rather than adults.” Probably the most popular food activities were the ones by Delish Pizza Bar and Chocolate Wrappings. The latter had kids decorating cupcakes with cookies and sprinkles while at Delish, children went crazy topping their pizzas and baking them. An art activity done by Just Us girls was also a huge hit with all children, boys and girls, going crazy making unicorns out of toilet paper rolls and more. The piñata by Piñata Lady was as always a huge hit. Published in Daily Times, January 22nd 2019.