With schools up and down the country now closed for the foreseeable future you may be starting to run out of educational ideas to keep the kids on track with their education (and your sanity!). Fear not we have done the digging for you and have come up with 5 projects for kids that you can get involved with.
Number One – Creative writing project
Get those creative knuckles cracking by setting some creative writing challenges and projects. Maybe your kids would enjoy coming up with a Haiku or maybe a short story? How about getting your kids to start a weekly family newspaper column?
Our good friend Luke Richardson aka The Fiction Coach is on hand with some great free tutorials , 5 minute writing challenges and a great “Write a Spy story” course for 10-14 year old kids – Check out his website here
Whilst you can stick to old fashioned pen and paper we would suggest using all the features available with a modern word processing package and even if you don’t have Microsoft Office on hand you can download and install Open Office completely free or use Google Docs, again for free.
Check this page out for more inspiration
A great way of improving spelling and vocabulary is to get a game of scrabble going – This website offers an online version for the whole family
Number Two – Have a go at a coding project
Being able to understand the principles of coding is so much more than a technical exercise. It teaches children logical thinking, encourages acceptance of ‘getting things wrong’ and it also engages the part of the brain that deals with language – Code is after all another language!
A program that we are familiar with (used by many of the schools we support) is Kodu – A visual coding tool allowing children to create stories and games without the need for any specific equipment. Check it out here
Another great project tool is Tynker – During school closures they have generously granted free access to premium features so check them out here
Number Three – CAD Design
If you think you have a burgeoning Christopher Wren in the house then why not get them to design something, and cathedrals are not the only thing they could design. How about a new supercar or spaceship? Historically this meant using the likes of AutoCAD and other expensive software, but now you can design for free with FreeCAD – Check it out here , Lots of CAD projects to get working on!
Number Four – Help with online shopping
Ok on the face of it that does not seem very educational and not really a ‘project’ but you can turn it into a educational game!! Why not ask the kids to add certain items to your online grocery basket and give them a budget – If they come under budget without looking at the total amount then they get to pick something they want?
You can also get them to create an Excel spreadsheet with all the required weekly food items and see if they can apply some formulas or rules to the data in the cells?
Failing that get them to look into the cupboard and fridge/freezer and pick out what tins and other ingredients you have and use an online tool such as this to work out what meals can be made with the ingredients you have available (division / subtraction its all in there)
Number Five – Databases and catalogues / Bug Survey
Have access to a garden with plants and grass (even pot plants)?
If the answer is yes then why not take part in a garden survey project such as this , get the kids to catalogue all the critters and plants in your garden and make a database using Microsoft Access (or Excel / Google Sheets etc).
This type of task is great as it engages task compartmentalisation and processing – Essentially encouraging your child to break a job down into smaller chunks and to process in a logical way not to mention its great data for scientists to establish the state of our flora and fauna. Also that outdoors (yet isolated) experience will improve morale and flood the system with endorphins (the mood enhancing chemical).
As always if you need help or want to know more about what we do check us out here – www.redpenguin.it