Are you stuck in the house?
If you are confined to home
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 ANOTHER 10 Easy Ideas that you can do to have fun & interesting Facetime calls or Zoom meetings.
Yes Another 10 easy Ideas
but you also might like to check out our previous posts
1. Where's the Rock?
We do not always have to be indoors to facetime.
We can go outside into the back garden sometimes and do things there that the kids would like to do when they visit.
On Easter Sunday we did a family Zoom Call which included the Banbridge Blacks (Fred & I), the Belfast Blacks (our son and daughter-in-law and the 3 grandchildren), the Malvern Black (our son who lives in England) and the Korean Blacks (really the Yoons - our daughter and son-in-law in South Korea).
I had hidden just 6 small Easter Eggs in two of the rooms and we took some time to walk round the house and do an Easter Egg Hunt for Matthew & Ruby.
In previous years we have done one inside and one outside in the back garden when of course they have been with us.
Another version of this is hiding large stones (possibly even painted ones) in the garden and then let the kids watch as you walk or run round the garden to see who can spot each stone first.
OR
The grandkids could hide stones in their garden and take you out to find them!
2. Telling a Story
As well as enjoying to read books together we can also tell stories.
Children like to hear about the grown-ups when they were little boys and girls so I knew our grandkids would enjoy short stories about things their dad and uncle Jonathan and auntie Linda did when they were young.
(Some day we need to get uncle Stephen involved to tell them stories of when he was a young boy growing up in South Korea because we don't know those things yet either.)
One way of doing this would be to show some pics of when their parents were young or of a family outing and tell the story from there.
eg. we could tell the story of the day we went to the Ark in Vlissingen in the Netherlands
3. Seek & Find Books
This type of activity book is great for this type of event.
We have
"Where's Wally?"
and
"Old Testament - find the parts of the pictures or find the characters"
Kids love trying to see who can find the things first.
In this I would hold the book and then Grandad could see if he could beat them in finding the items or people.
4. Ballerinas & Ninjas
This is something our grandkids are very much into at the moment.
We have Matthew showing us his "Ninja Moves"
These are mostly cartwheels now (but started off with forward rolls) with some punching of air thrown in as he runs about.
We also have Ruby showing us her "Ballerina Poses" and then running round the room.
She started off with dainty steps and standing still with arms lifted high but progressed to running steps and trying to stand on tiptoe now.
Then the youngest one Sarah has found a way to join in - she leans over forwards and puts her head on the floor, we guess any day now she will tip on over into a forward roll.
They have so much fun doing this that we just have ask them to show us and then have a good laugh and clap them.
In other words remember what they are interested in that is very active and get them to "show you their moves"
5. Colour, number, sound, action QUIZ!
This is actually a four-in-one idea but just think about things they might be interested in and it can be used several more times than this.
In the first "10 Easy Ideas for Face Timing with Kids" post I gave suggestions for quizes but this time you can use these new ideas and you can also have the kids use these simple ideas to prepare and be the Quiz Masters.
Colour Quiz:
Get various items they have seen before (of different colours) - then describe the item and see if they can remember the colour.
Number Quiz:
Can they remember or guess the number of items you have in certain places - lamps in the living room, cushions in the sun room, pictures in the hall, ornaments on the windowsill?
Sound Quiz:
Do some little recordings of certain noises and then have them guess what made the noise (or who made the noise - Grandpa snoring!)
Action Quiz:
A quick demonstration of something they will have seen you do before without any props.
A bit like charades.
6. Teach them to draw something.
I'd been learning to draw things to amuse the kids but some of the things I have learnt to draw are easy enough for them to try as they watch me do it.
So just warn their mum or dad that they will need some pencils and paper for this activity.
Here is a picture of the book I had bought to learn from
The birds, fish, rockets and robots are simple for them to start with and of course they will add their own flair to them all.
There is also a site online where you can get more ideas
7. Indoor simple exercises and dancing.
Just warn their mum or dad that they will need a bit of space.
Make sure you know what music you want to play.
Now this is good for you and them because we know we need to keep exercising too.
Make up some silly dance moves to go with some of their favourite songs and then have a few laughs.
8. Indoor Scavenger Hunt.
Make up a list of at least 5 or 7 items - make it an odd number so that there will be a winner.
Have grandpa race against the kids and they can work together or the kids can race against each other or they can all race against each other.
My list below is an example thinking of what I know would be available on the ground floor of the grandkids home so that there is no rushing up or down the stairs
1. 1 blue item
2. 2 cuddly toys
3. Hair brush
4. 3 crayons or colouring pencils or pens - 1 red, 1 black, 1 blue
5. a slipper
6. 4 coins
7. a musical instrument
9. Guess the family member.
Think of 10 different things that would either describe a certain member of the family or tell something someone did when they were young or think of something one particular person likes and have the kids guess which family member you are talking about.
You can easily reuse this idea just by getting grandpa to do the thinking of the descriptions, or have the kids do it for you to guess.
OR
Print out 5 pictures of different family members and cut them each up into 4 /5 pieces.
Then place one piece down after another and see if they can guess the person after just two or three pieces - keeping the head to the last of course.
10. Learn a Bible Verse.
There are several ways to do this that will be fun for the kids.
1. Do it as a rap.
2. Use puppets.
3. Dress up as a pirate or an astronaut or anything else and use a silly voice.
4. Use a whiteboard or chalkboard
5. Use Word Cards
6. Use Picture Cards
7. Make it into a Jigsaw
8. Sing it
1. I have done this years ago and I regret it was never taped.
2. See Video
3. Our son did this for his church during lockdown - see video
4. See Video
5. See Video
6. Same idea as 5 but with pictures instead of words
7. Pic
8. See Video
