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The Center for Assessment and Educational Services (CAES)

Fun, Educational, and Meaningful Family Activities

Published 4/2/2020

 

These are unusual times.  Many of us are home with our children as never before.  While many of us want to keep a sense of normalcy, these are not normal times so it is perfectly okay to make adjustments and do the best we can!   There are opportunities to do activities with our children that are fun, meaningful, and educational to keep their brains working and even do something positive!  

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Here are some recommended activities for families to enjoy and learn from.  Some activities are more academic and some are more fun but all will help your child’s educational skills!   

 

If you are struggling with assisting your child(ren) educationally or need more specific recommendations on quality educational resources and activities for your child(ren), we can provide consultations and set up weekly educational learning plans. Please contact us at 702-732-0304 or email us at CAES@jfsalv.org for more information! 

 

1. Work with your children on CCSD’s Learning Extension Opportunities and Packets (Packets). Even if your child does not attend CCSD, you can use them!

- A list of CCSD’s Learning Opportunities can found at https://sites.google.com/nv.ccsd.net/covid-19updates/student-learning-opportunities?authuser=0#h.fhb8w39rqyzu. 
- You can download Packets by clicking on the following link:  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CKigMgl_P-d0BivUP1Bjq0sm7TDbgwd3  or pick them up from school sites across town. 
You do not have to have your children do the whole Packet. You can pick activities from it your children might like. 
If your children are struggling in school, you can pick up Packets at grade levels below your children’s current grades and have them work on those. 

 

2. Work with your children on https://www.ixl.com/

IXL is a learning portal.  There are simple educational questions for children to respond to and show their knowledge in Math, English, Science and Social Studies by grade level.  Topics are aligned with educational standards so parents can rest assure their children are moving through academic skills.  When children get a question wrong, IXL provides an explanation of the topic/skill and helps guide children towards the answer that demonstrates an understanding of the skill.  


3. Read/listen to a book/article or watch a movie/tv show/video/podcast and engage your children in critical thinking skills about it.

  • After reading/watching/listening, ask your child to summarize the main idea/purpose of the content and a few details that supported the main idea/purpose  

  • Ask your child any of the following questions based on your child’s ability to answer questions:

    • What did you like about ________________? 
           What didn’t you like about ______________________? 
           Why did you like/dislike ___________________?

    • What did you learn about/from _____________________?  
           Why do you think that is important or interesting to an audience?

    • What do you think the author/creator of ____________________was trying to tell the audience?
           Why do you think that? 
           Why do you think that might have been important to the author/creator? 
      You can have your child research background information on the content or author/creator to answer this question.    

    • Did you notice any interesting ways ___________________ was presented/written/displayed? 
           Why do you think it was displayed/written/presented that way?

    • Do you think __________ was supposed to make the audience feel a particular way? 
           Why or why not?    

 

4. Have your children draw or write a paragraph, outline, essay, or article based on an area of interest.

  • You can have your children describe their pictures and writing to the family and friends, scan/send them via email or “publish” them in a newspaper or magazine.

 

5. Have your children learn family recipes/traditions/stories.   

  • Cook with your children and have them write down the family recipes.  Your children can also add a special ingredient or adjust the recipe to contribute to making a new family recipe!

  • Teach your children family traditions.  Explain to your children what the tradition means.  Create new family traditions and talk about how they can teach their children these new traditions. 

  • Have your children interview family members and record or write down the interviews

    1. Questions for interviews can be found at https://www.genealogy.com/articles/research/70_tipsoral.html

    2. Your child can send the interview to other family members

 

6. Take a virtual tour/field trip with your children and discuss the experience.

 

** Keep in mind that any activity or information can be turned into an educational one by engaging your children in critical thinking skills and having them express themselves out loud or in writing.  Almost all national and state educational standards involve children:

  1. being exposed to content (in many different subjects); 

  2. gathering information from the content;

  3. being asking their opinions or critical thinking questions about the content; and

  4. expressing those opinions/answers clearly to their audiences to show their understanding of the content. 

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