Are you stuck in the house?
If you are confined to home
or self-isolating
or just a long way away from your grandchildren
then you probably need some good ideas for things to do
when face timing or on a Zoom call with your grandchildren.
If So
THEN
This is the place to find 10 Easy Ideas that you can do to have fun & interesting Facetime calls or Zoom meetings.
Our grandchildren are used to being interactive with us each time they are with us and they will feel such a difference when they feel they can only talk or show us a picture they have drawn or a model they have made with their lego. We will feel it hard to ask them questions all the time or try to tell them what we have been doing when we have hardly been outside our homes.
Hence we have had to adjust our thinking and we came up with several ideas to do in our face times which usually last for 45 minutes - not too short not too long - we all want to enjoy our time together.
1. Hunt the Bear
Of course it doesn't have to be a bear, it can be any cuddly toy that the kids love.
We have a little cuddly toy bear that is called Charmin because it came free with Charmin toilet roll many years ago.
This bear sits on the window sill of our bathroom just as it sat on the window sill of our small toilet in our home in Belgium from 2004 to 2010.
The idea of hiding Charmin started when our son (who had remained in Northern Ireland when we moved to Belgium) would come to visit and we would hide the bear and one of the first things he had to do was hunt the house to find Charmin.
Now I hide Charmin before facetiming our grandkids (his children) and they have to tell their grandpa where to take them to look.
One time Charmin was hiding under the duvet cover on the Daybed in the room the kids would sleep in when they come to sleepover at our house.
The last time he was hiding behind a photo frame that holds a picture of our three children when they were young.
Of course you can hide the same thing each time or a different thing each time.
2. Drawing Objects
So far I have drawn - dogs, cars, trees, buildings, cats, rabbits, flowers and a knight in armour.
Example:
The first time, Ruby guessed my dog and then wanted a another dog so I drew it slightly differently.Matthew guessed my car and even knew the longer one was a Limo.
If you want to know just how easy it is drawing these dogs and cars you can see me drawing them in the video below.
Here is a picture of the book I had bought to learn from
and inside for how to draw the dog
If the children want to learn to draw there are various books you can get for them such as:
3. JigSaws
It was based on a photo taken the day our third grandchild Sarah was born so it consists of Fred and I and the 3 grandchildren.
We thought this would be a good choice to start with.
The next face time they helped us do some of the faces, etc.
I was very fortunate earlier this year to find this Portapuzzle on a Facebook Marketplace where I only paid £10 for it and it is in such good condition - hardly used at all.
We used one mat for holding this jigsaw and the other for placing on top while we had it sitting on the table in the sun room before the facetime calls.
When I am working on a larger jigsaw I can do it on one half of the open Portapuzzle and the mats can be used to sort the pieces.
I can not see it on Amazon - although there are several solutions there but mostly roll up or very expensive similar versions of the one pictured above.
Jigsaw Puzzle storage on Amazon
I was able to see it Here on Argos for £30
4. Sticker Fun
They could then post their creations to you or show you on your next face time together and it gives you something to thank them for and show your appreciation to them which is so good for kids.
Matthew and Ruby did some for us and posted them to us.
I like hearts and butterflies and Matthew had in the past helped Fred to put together a Pirate Ship which he plays with at our house.
Some drawing and colouring and stickers on the outside and then there were more on the inside.
You could even buy them some new stickers and post them off so that they could use them for your pictures.
5. Learning a New Song
We have always loved doing kids songs for church so it was very natural for us to want to teach our children and grandchildren lots of kids songs.
You can see some examples of Kid's Songs on the Kids Resources Page on this blog
We have even done some hand washing videos teaching some songs that are at least 20 secs long. You can see them at Kids Songs for Hand Washing
Of course you can always get the kids to teach you a new song too.
And don't forget it's more fun if there are actions involved
All kids love puppets and you can easily make up a little story from when your own kids were young and have the puppet tell the grandchildren.
Here are some Song Book & CD suggestions on Amazon
Little Songs for Little Souls (Wonder Kids: Music)
6. Puppet Shows
I used puppets for kids clubs and church events and then our daughter studied drama and used puppets during her studies and projects.
So our house has loads of puppets of different types.
Fred and I got these two out the other day and made a quick 40 sec. video as a birthday treat for a friend.
If you don't have a proper puppet use a cuddly toy or use a sock on your hand.
So our house has loads of puppets of different types.
Fred and I got these two out the other day and made a quick 40 sec. video as a birthday treat for a friend.
If you don't have a proper puppet use a cuddly toy or use a sock on your hand.
7. Reading Books
You don't even have to get any new books just use their old favourites that you would read to them at other times.
I had got a book I was intending to review and I like to include Matthew and Ruby in my reviews so we just went ahead and Fred read it to them over face time while I tried to video him, the book and the kids.
You can see the result in the video below:
8. Quizes
Try to think of types of Quizes that would suit your grandchildren (this will differ greatly because of ages)
Example:
Matthew would like something based on cars or dinosaurs
Ruby would like something based on clothes or butterflies.
You may be able to find something to suit you at FUNQUIZES or QUIZGLOBAL
Or if you want to get a book to keep try HERE on AMAZON
I like to have some simple number cards ready to for scoring a quiz.
To make simple numbered score cards:
- cut out several squares of card all the same colour and size
- write a number on one side of the cards*
- leave the backs of the cards blank
These squares of card act as scores for when they answer correctly, keep them turned face down on the table and the children choose the card they want.
I had these round craft pricing cards lying in a box in the craft armoire - they had been there for a few years so they were ideal for me to use.
Perhaps another time the grandkids could make up some questions and you have to see if you know the answers.
9. Memory Boxes
If you do or if you keep a picture diary or if you have a little memory scrapbook then why not show the kids a few items or pictures or pages and tell them about why these things are special.
Then you can encourage the children to start memory boxes of their own.
Below is one of my memory boxes - maybe I'll put all the contents into a scrapbook sometime!
You may not be in the same room or the same house but you can still play games together.
Matthew and Ruby love playing games whenever we are together so they can still enjoy playing short games with us on face time.
Just be careful which types of games you chose to play, not to long and not too involved, simple games are better in this situation.
Pen and paper games are probably the easiest to start with such as X & O's or hangman so having some notebooks at hand will be a good idea.
I love the large A4 size notebooks I get from The Works Website and I use them for everything I want to write down.
This is the notebook I used to write down all the ideas I had for what I wanted to do during the lockdown time.
Other ideas for individual games to play together are available in another post on this blog
10. Playing Games
Matthew and Ruby love playing games whenever we are together so they can still enjoy playing short games with us on face time.
Just be careful which types of games you chose to play, not to long and not too involved, simple games are better in this situation.
Pen and paper games are probably the easiest to start with such as X & O's or hangman so having some notebooks at hand will be a good idea.
I love the large A4 size notebooks I get from The Works Website and I use them for everything I want to write down.
This is the notebook I used to write down all the ideas I had for what I wanted to do during the lockdown time.
Other ideas for individual games to play together are available in another post on this blog
And there is also
