Activities to make the most out of video chats with kids
Plus three free bilingual Swedish- English scavenger hunts that you can use on your next video call!
When you’re teaching your kids Swedish abroad, one of the biggest problems can be the fact that there are no other Swedes around to expose your kids to the language every day. And we all know that speaking and listening to the language daily is the BEST way to get your kids to know and love Swedish - so what do you do? Enter our secret weapon - the Swedish relatives and grand parents!
After going through our umpteenth week of Corona lockdown here in the UK, yesterday I was stuck for ideas on how to entertain our little boy: we’d read all our books a million times, played all our board games and done more obstacle courses and crafts than I could even begin to count.
But after what must have been my fifth cup of tea, the idea struck me: why don’t I simply enlist mormor to virtually ‘babysit’ out little boy from afar? Surely that’s what video calls were invented for?
Kids don’t always find video calls that much fun
The only problem with a video call is that young kids don’t really engage in long conversations - and you end up sitting by the screen on your own with the kids running round the house instead.
But not this time round - we were preparred! Mormor kept our almost four year old entertained with reading an exciting book in Swedish, and she asked him to go and collect all the ingredients needed to make a cup of tea for fika, and then they finished off with looking at all of his toys and talking about them in detail.
Lucky for me, my mum is very chatty and inventive and I got a whole hour of peace and quiet to check on work emails - and mormor and our boy were happily chatting away in Swedish.
1 hour of baby sitting plus Swedish language practice + mormor and the little one getting to know each other better all rolled into one - perfect!
So next week we’re doing all again - but this time around, I’m going to be even more preparred and I’ve made some fun scavenger hunts that I’m sharing here on the blog today, along with some tips for video calls that I hope you’ll find helpful, too.
Download your scavenger hunts here:
Simply right click on the image, save to your computer and print them off. Easy peasy - lätt som en plätt!
Activity ideas for video calls with young kids
Set the kids up for success and plan a time of day when they are unlikely to be hungry or restless.
Ask the grandparent (or whomever the kids will be chatting with) to have their props ready so the kids don’t have to wait while they’re scrambling to get ready.
Read a Swedish children’s book and share the pictures on the screen. Stop and ask questions about what the kids think the characters will do next, or what they think about the story.
Sing songs in Swedish and ask the kids to sing along, or just let them listen. Don’t worry if they wander off briefly - kids are good at multitasking and love moving around.
Try one of the fun attached bilingual scavenger hunts! It’s best if you both have a copy and a pen ready before you start.
Can you play an instrument? Show and tell!
Tell the story of when mormor/farmor/morfar/farfar was a little girl/boy just the same age as the grandkids are right now. What did you play with? Where did you live? What did you eat for breakfast and dinner?
Show a photo album and talk about the pictures.
I hope you found these tips and the scavenger hunts useful - please share your own best video chat tips in the comments below!
