Creative games for all ages
Many of you will currently be stuck inside with children and they will be trying very hard to destroy your life. If you are homeschooling you may be struggling to keep things entertaining but as you know the key to parenting is to make everything a game. Here are some ideas for creative games that you may even want to play yourself after a glass of wine come the blessed oblivion of evening:
Draw a map of the world by memory, no Googling allowed. You think it’s easy but wait until you begin. I did this once and ended up drawing Greece as one big island. It’s a lot harder than you think and can take some time.
Wait for someone to walk past your window- who are they? What is their name? You might want to call them something silly like Somerset Maugham. Make up a story about their life, where they were born or what their favourite cheese is. You could even make up a cheese! Make the story as elaborate as possible.
Create an A-Z of fantastical creatures and write a small explanation of each. For example: A- Abracadabradon - a dinosaur that does great magic tricks. You might want to draw a picture of each if you can be bothered to do 26 drawings. I came up with this exercise for one of my poetry workshops on worldbuilding and the results were weird.
(You might need a rest after all that so have a look at this sub on Reddit which lists all the full films on YouTube. There are a lot of really cool old and obscure movies that all kids should watch, you can even filter by decade).
Phone alert poetry. This is a fun way to make kids stop what they are doing and become instantly creative. Every time anyone’s phone makes a sound, it’s time to write a line of poetry. It doesn’t have to be much, just a few words but at the end of the day you should have a masterpiece. Make it a matter of urgency! Stick the work on the wall so you can access it immediately.
These are just a few ideas and I hope they help. If the kids are a bit older turf them out in the garden and make sure they get some sunshine. Schoolwork is important but the sun on your face is a different kind of learning.