News & Blog

Making memories


Author: Nikita Phadnavis
Award Winning Trainer and Education Specialist

Stuck at home on a rainy day or need a new idea for an exciting adventure for your quality time together? Out and about running errands or need something to do while waiting to see the dentist? We all have these situations when our children tend to get bored, and we are tempted to hand them a device. But these are the moments that we can use to make memories.

You don’t need plenty of resources, just an open mind and creative thinking.

Playing charades

All you need to do is think of a word and mime it to your children, for example, a tree. They need to guess the word. Next, they mime, and you guess. If you can involve your family, you could also play the game in teams. And for more ideas, you may print some free printable cards from the internet.

An activity like charades requires little to no resources and can be played anytime, anywhere and with any number of players. Since it is a quiet activity, it can be played in a waiting room or on a train. Charades can be a fun, engaging and entertaining activity that supports children’s language development whilst strengthening social skills. If played in teams, it promotes teamwork and collaboration.

Miming words in front of your family is the first step towards developing acting skills and fostering children’s self-confidence. In addition, it improves their communication skills- verbal and non-verbal. Playing turn-taking games like this also builds listening skills and patience through focus and turn-taking. So why not give it a go and create some fun memories?

Chalk obstacle course

The Britinesh International School, Ukraine

Invite your child to make the obstacle course exciting and unusual by adding instructions such as walk backwards, hop on one leg, walk like a crab/duck, make a funny noise, spin with your hand on your head or balance a leaf on your head. Encourage your child to use symbols if they are not yet writing words.

Besides being fun, physical activity of this sort can also be used to help children learn letters, numbers, addition, subtraction or phonics. For example, you could draw hopscotch or letters on the ground and get your child to hop on numbers/letters that you call out. You could vary the rules as children get older by saying, “only hop on even numbers”, or “skip the vowels”,etc., to practice more academic concepts in a fun and exciting manner.

It also promotes children’s creativity, imagination, and physical development. This activity fosters growth and learning by encouraging children to use large muscles to move and balance while managing their actions and behaviours.

Finally, it’s a great way of bonding, passing the time, learning and growing and creating wonderful memories by participating in such funny, silly races with your children.

Children grow up to be confident and independent when we create memories instead of expectations!