Posted on

What to do with your kid: COVID-19 – Day 19 – International Children’s Book Day

It’s me, Deanna, the teacher with 20+ years experience who, like you, is practicing social distancing at home with my child. I have decided to use my training and experience to develop a daily list of activities for you to do at home with your kids.

Note: I have been doing more to support teachers in my board as they are supporting their own students. This means I have less time to work on these posts. But feel free to look at previous ones for inspiration. I am also going to start slipping in some suggestions for teachers as I know these blog posts are being shared by teachers.

Today is International Children’s Book Day. The day was chosen by the International Board on Books for Young People and it is traditionally chosen to be the same day as Hans Christian Anderson’s birthday.  I thought this would be a good time to revisit reading as an activity for your child.

Reading for pleasure is one of the best indicators of future success. Once you account for socio-economic background, the children who read for fun tend to do better in school. And children are made readers in the laps of their parents. So one of the things that is hopefully happening in your house is time for reading every day. Some of that should be independent, silent reading and some should be shared reading (a.k.a. reading with your child). Or have them read to you while you are doing something like laundry. And don’t forget using some of those teleconferencing tools we have all had to master in the last few weeks to have your child read to family and friends.

There are lots of places to get books, even with everything shut down. Your local, independent book store is possibly still making deliveries. Check with them first. Then there are your big online retailers. You can also check with your local library for digital options like ebooks.

There are also a lot of places that have made their electronic catalogues free during the time that schools are locked down. This is a mix of fiction and non-fiction.

One of the other things that are happening is that celebrities and authors are using their social media feeds to read stories to us all. Please take advantage of them as some of these people are gifted storytellers, readers and voice actors.

  • Mo Willems – the award winning author and illustrator is hosting a daily doodling session for kids. Each day, he includes instructions for people to download.
  • Josh Gad – The star of Frozen and Beauty and the Beast is reading a story a day on Twitter. 
  • Neil Gaiman – the author reads all of his book Coraline on his website.
  • Dolly Parton – this starts tonight, April 2. Once a week she will be reading selections from her Imagination Library
  • Levar Burton – will be having three storytimes a week on his Twitter feed. (And seriously, if you have Tween aged kids and up, check out his podcast.)
    • Mondays – 12pm EDT – Kids
    • Wednesdays – 6pm EDT – YA
    • Fridays –  9pm EDT – Adults
  • Peter H. Reynolds – Author of the Dot, has multiple ones on his facebook page. Loads new ones, Monday through Friday. Live at 11 am.
  • Mac Bennet – Reading on Instagram every day at 1

More are listed here.

Please take some time to share (or discover) the love of books with your child. We are a species of storytellers. Help your children appreciate that.

Deanna Toxopeus is a teacher with 20+ years of experience teaching students from Grade 1 to Grade 8. She is currently an Itinerant Teacher of Assistive Technology with the OCDSB. The opinions she expresses in this blog are wholly her own.

Posted on

What to do with your kid: COVID-19 – Day 18 – Fake News!

It’s me, Deanna, the teacher with 20+ years experience who, like you, is practicing social distancing at home with my child. I have decided to use my training and experience to develop a daily list of activities for you to do at home with your kids.

Note: I have been doing more to support teachers in my board as they are supporting their own students. This means I have less time to work on these posts. But feel free to look at previous ones for inspiration. I am also going to start slipping in some suggestions for teachers as I know these blog posts are being shared by teachers.

Reminder: The neighbourhood walk is today, April 1, and the theme is jokes. Write out your favourite pun or joke and hang it in your window. A tip from a teacher, make your letters big and a solid colour. Avoid using lighter colours like yellow.  Or challenge your kids to make a visual pun. Like these ones. 

Despite it being April Fool’s Day, today’s list is not about pranks. The last thing you need right now is an escalating prank war between your children and the hurt feelings and mess that will come with it. Instead, I want to focus on hoaxes and fake news. In this day and age, the ability to tell the two apart are really important. So important, that for my last few years in the classroom, I spent a lot of time teaching kids how to apply critical thinking skills to what they see on the Internet. Especially on a day like today when fake news stories proliferate on the web.

For younger children, one of the best entry points is Hoaxes. I always started with this page on the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. Read it over and discuss it with them. I would then move on to the Great Spaghetti Harvest. Then let them spend some time at these sites:

Once they’ve done that, ask them if they see any similarities in the hoaxes. What makes a hoax a hoax?  Then have them create their own hoax.

For older kids, especially the ones with social media accounts, spend some time discussing fake news with them. Especially its negative effects. Then have them look at these guides for spotting Fake News:

You can have them use a tool like Google Slides to make their own infographic to help people sport fake news.

And once you’ve done all that, there is the Bad News game. It is a simulation that has the user pretend to be a social media influencer. They try to increase their influence by pushing fake news. The game shows you the techniques that purveyors of fake news use to increase their reach. The researchers behind the game theorize that by playing the game, users will develop an immunity to the techniques used in fake news. I have used this successfully with 11 to 14 year olds and they have gone on to play it after they left my class. 

Deanna Toxopeus is a teacher with 20+ years of experience teaching students from Grade 1 to Grade 8. She is currently an Itinerant Teacher of Assistive Technology with the OCDSB. The opinions she expresses in this blog are wholly her own.

Posted on

What to do with your kid: COVID-19 – Day 17 – Boardgames

It’s me, Deanna, the teacher with 20+ years experience who, like you, is practicing social distancing at home with my child. I have decided to use my training and experience to develop a daily list of activities for you to do at home with your kids.

Note: I have been doing more to support teachers in my board as they are supporting their own students. This means I have less time to work on these posts. But feel free to look at previous ones for inspiration. I am also going to start slipping in some suggestions for teachers as I know these blog posts are being shared by teachers.

Reminder: The neighbourhood walk is tomorrow, April 1, and the theme is jokes. Write out your favourite pun or joke and hang it in your window. A tip from a teacher, make your letters big and a solid colour. Avoid using lighter colours like yellow.  Or challenge your kids to make a visual pun. Like these ones. 

I want to focus on a very important activity you can engage in with your kids: board games. There are a lot of benefits to playing board games. But we all need to find a way to bond and connect with what is going on. You can also try using your favourite video conferencing software to play a game with a friend you are socially distancing from.

Most of us played board games as children and learned to hate Monopoly, but board games have grown and evolved. I am going to recommend some more modern options. I know stores are shut in many areas, but check with online retailers to see about having some delivered. Or better yet, see if your local game store is doing deliveries. In Ottawa, one of my favourites, Kessel Run Games, is doing deliveries and parking lot pick-ups.

Camelot Jr. – A wonderful, hands-on brain challenge puzzle where you play the role of a knight trying to rescue a princess. Or, if you are my son, you play the role of the princess rescuing a knight, because not all princesses need rescuing. Really good for young kids.

Forbidden Island – This is a great co-operative game that you can play together as a family. It is your family against the game as you try to collect the treasures and get off the island before it sinks out from under you.. This might be a good thing after a day of strife. Play together and build relationships as a family.

Apples to Apples – This is a great game where players try to match descriptions to things. It is a game of knowing the other players in the game and playing cards that you think will appeal to them.  Lots of laughs and an opportunity to be really silly.

Prime Climb – A great math game where you try to get 101. Practice multiplication, division, factorization and prime factors. Definitely for your tweens and teens, but it is fun.

Dixit – Is similar to Apples to Apples, but participants have to match pictures to a phrase. The art is stunning and quirky (and could be used as writing prompts, fellow teachers) and there are multiple expansions so you can keep adding new ones to the mix. This is a family favourite.

Dungeon Mayhem  – This is a superfast card game from the people who brought you Dungeons and Dragons. You play as a Barbarian, a Paladin, a Rogue, or a Wizard and try to be the last one standing

Fluxx – A fast paced card game where the goal changes literally each time a card is played. There are multiple versions of the game, but our favourite is the now out of print, Cartoon Network Fluxx

These are but a few that you should try, but don’t forget there are many more out there. You should also check out Steam, the App Store and Google Play for electronic versions of these games and more. Many have multiplayer modes that you can play over the internet with a friend. 

Or have your kids make their own game and then you can all playtest it.

Deanna Toxopeus is a teacher with 20+ years of experience teaching students from Grade 1 to Grade 8. She is currently an Itinerant Teacher of Assistive Technology with the OCDSB. The opinions she expresses in this blog are wholly her own.