Guest Blog from Anna – North Leeds Mumbler
As social distancing continues, we have found the children starting to lose interest in family zoom calls so we have been looking at ways to keep them interesting. It means that they are always excited to get on the calls (and means that they have a fun time with their Grandparents). Here’s summary of the games that have worked well for us and have kept all ages engaged!
1. Bingo – Grandma has played virtual Bingo with all the cousins who range from 2-10 years. It has also been handy as she entertains them for a bit whilst I get a few jobs done! Grandma is the bingo caller and has a bag with numbers 1-90 in it, we downloaded and printed Bingo cards from myfreebingocards.com/numbers
2. Scavenger Hunt – One family member creates a list of things you can find around the house and then set people off to find them with the first finding each one the winner. You can find some ideas here. You can also do themes, e.g. six things that are red, five things you can wear on your head, come back dressed as a superhero.
3. Pictionary – In Zoom you can use the whiteboard to play Pictionary and create your own words or you can use the word generator here. Remember the person screen-sharing is the only one who can draw at a given time.
4. Name that Tune – If you are prepared and have a speaker or your phone ready you can have the first few seconds of a song ready to play and the others have to guess the name of the artist and /or the name of the song (bonus points if they get both). A different way of doing this is naming a famous line from a song and ask them to write down (or even better, sing) the next line!
5. Charades – The old favourite which all ages can play. Why not make a theme depending on the age and interests of those that are playing, there’s some great ideas for kids here. You can also play Heads Up on Houseparty for a simpler alternative.
6. Build a Beetle (aka Beetle Drive!) – The aim of the game is to be the first player to draw a complete beetle! Every family needs a dice, paper and a pencil. Players take turns to roll a dice and use the number key to draw the corresponding part of their beetle. You must, however, throw a 6 first for the body before they can add any other part. The first person to complete the drawing and shout ‘beetle’ is the winner!
6 – The Body – (1 per beetle)
5 – The Head – (1 per beetle)
4 – The Wings – (2 per beetle)
3 – The Legs – (6 per beetle)
2 – The Antenna – (2 per beetle)
1 – The Eyes – (2 per beetle)
7. Generation Game – One person prepares and shows lots of different items for 30 seconds and then your family have to write down as many as they can remember afterwards. Don’t forget the cuddly toy!
8. Family Fortunes – Everyone’s favourite. The quiz master prepares various answers to questions with the number of people that would have said it out of 100 (favourite flavour of crisps, favourite tv soap, etc) and those taking part have to guess as many of these as they can. They get the points for all those that they got right.
9. Talent Show/Karaoke – Your very own ‘Family Has Got Talent’ with points for the best! You can adapt this for ages and do a singalong to Disney favourites for younger children.
10. True or False – Each person tells others 3 things that are true about themselves and 1 thing that isn’t true. You have to guess which one isn’t right.
Another game we like to play is Cards Against Humanity Family Edition – they have a free download on their website you can print off yourself. (Suitable for children 8+ years but our 6 year old likes it)
Thanks so much to our guest blogger Anna. If you have family or friends in North Leeds be sure to let them know about the North Leeds Mumbler site.
There’s plenty on Gateshead Mumbler to help keep little ones (and big ones!) busy at home, with local virtual classes (including free resources!) & other useful blogs.
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