Lockdown.....
Winter.....
Homeschooling.......
Great stuff.
My goodness it is a grim time. When it’s dry, it's more bearable. When it rains, its pants.
I’m running out of things to do to entertain the troops when it’s raining/dark/cold. I know it’s important to let children experience boredom to inspire creativity and self-sufficiency or whatever, but I do need a few tricks up my sleeve and my creativity pool is running dry.
Thus I have discovered the 7 second challenge. It can be a 5 second challenge, 10 seconds, whatever! Doesn’t matter. But an easy game. Our first time can be seen here:
You just need some challenge ideas, stopwatch/phone app, props where needed and a prize. Our prize - the ability to choose what we had for dinner. Olivia and Molly loved it!
The idea is that you complete a task in 7 seconds. Pick some that are easy, some that are hard and go from there. You could theme it towards a school topic to break up the homeschooling day. You can have bags with different age ranges with harder clues for the adults and teens. Sneak a tidying or cleaning one it as well! It’s such a simple concept, it’ll work for all. We loved it so I thought I’d share some ideas to break up the monotony for some of you guys too.
We did:
Lick your elbow (prank challenge!)
Name 3 animals
Name 5 Disney princesses
Take off both socks
Pick up a grain of rice with a pair of tweezers
Name 3 blue items
Eat a whole tube of smarties
Balance a book on your head
Act like a dog
Spin around in a circle
It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s fun. Below are more ideas I’ve thought of and gathered from Let me know how it goes for you guys too in the comments.
More 7 Second challenge ideas
Here are some other ideas to get you started (harder versions in brackets)
Active
Hop 5 metres
Bum shuffle 2 metres
Do 10 star jumps
Balance on one leg like a flamingo
Slither like a snake
Run up and down the stairs
Give everyone in the room a hi-five
Get them to sit down in the centre of the room then shout out ‘The floor is lava’ (a game where the floor becomes lava and they are only safe if they are up on something like a chair - should be easy to do but it's always one that keeps kids interested!)
Academic: Shapes
Name 5 shapes
Make yourself into a shape
Find something that is a circle or square
Draw 3 shapes
Academic: Math
Count to 20
Count backwards from 10
What is 5 x 5 (or whatever is appropriate for your child’s age)
What is 10+11 (or whatever is appropriate for your child’s age)
Academic: General
Write your name ( x ?times if necessary)
Spell out your name (or spell out your name backwards)
Name 5 colours
Sing heads shoulders knees and toes, with actions
Name all the days of the week
Name 5 months
Make your body into a letter that we can guess
Call out the alphabet
Skills
Put on a pair of socks
Butter a piece of bread
Put on your coat
Touch the four walls of this room
Lick your own nose
Hold your breath
Pick something up with your feet
Touch your feet with your elbow
Run and get a barbie (insert appropriately far away toy name here)
Bring me something that is red
Clean your teeth
Lie on the floor with feet straight up in the air - balance a book on your feet
Food/drink
Eat a whole donut/tube of smarties
Drink a glass of water
Eat a whole scoop of ice-cream
Name 5 fruits
Name 5 vegetables
Crunch up an ice cube with your mouth
TV/Films
Name 4 disney films
Name 4 YouTubers
Name 4 my little ponies
Name 4 barbie characters