We find ourselves back in the familiar place of another school closure here in Hong Kong. Parents have contacted me (thank you for your text messages) asking what I would do with my daughter for the next 14 days. My brain buzzed with exciting activities but who better to ask than my 9-year-old daughter since she'll be at the receiving end of my ingenious plans
I've included screen shots of the activity sheets (sadly, this version of Wix, doesn't allow me to upload pdfs. Please email me and I'll send the pack on).
Story writing
Though my daughter loves to craft stories, I know that not every child is enamoured with writing. But let's make this fun, fun, fun. Think of it as making a smoothie chock-full of awesome fruit or grating carrots into your bolognese; they're full of hidden goodness.
- Batty Tales ensures that your child puts their knowledge of the English language into good use. They'll need to think up of nouns (people, places, animals and things) + loads of adjectives to make their tales funny, silly and interesting.
- How to Stay Healthy is a good way to check if they've got it right about staying healthy during the school closure. If you've younger children, why not 'play doctor' once you've talked about and written down the handy tips together. I enjoyed playing doctor with my daughter but that seems like ages ago now.
- Blog post has your child review a movie or tv show that they have enjoyed. It could be something very recent like, 'Spies in Disguise' or an old-time favourite of theirs. Take a photo of their work and upload it to our facebook page. We'd love to see your handy work!
Boardgames not bored games
There's one thing I've learnt from having a creative and active daughter is how to upcycle our games so that they are still fun and relevant.
- Reverse Snake and Ladders Have you tried playing the game backwards, moving from 100 to 1? Climbing up the snakes and falling down the ladders? It's great fun! To add a challenge, record the number from which you fall down from, then add them up at the end. The player with the biggest total wins the 'wooden spoon' prize! So even losers can be winners!
- Oh no, UNO! You know how different families have different house rules for playing UNO? Well, why not let every player create one new rule every round or every other round, and past the time with lots of laughter. A great way to use that noggin as you try to remember all the new rules.
- Scrabble Babble Don't worry, you don't have to put words down on the board but you'll start with an agreed number of points, let's say 150. Player 1 pulls a tile out of the bag and calls out an object (based on an agreed category) that starts with the letter on the tile. So if the category is 'country/city', upon pulling a 'T', Player 1 calls out, 'Thailand' and the other players have to think of another country or city starting with 'T'. For every player that fails to get it right, the point value of the tile is deducted from their total. In this case, 'T' has a value of 1 point.
My daughter and I hope that you enjoy the next few days at home with your children. Do let us know which activity you enjoyed the most by signing up to our blog and writing a comment.
We'll be back with new activities soon. Take care. Keep safe. Stay healthy.