As a child, I loved to let off steam creatively in a variety of ways. I remember having frustrating days at school and needing a distraction after coming home to recharge my batteries and continue with everyday duties. That's why it is important to me to offer the children a short break and distraction after school in order to continue the rest of the day energized.
During the week, when there is not much time left for bigger projects, I like to do this with little games that are fun but also activate the brain. These are games like Skip-Bo, Sudoku and Twister - which includes physical movement, memory or chess.
memory. evaluation of “twister”. Skip-Bo.
“Activity” was also one of the games’ highlights so far, as all the children joined in two groups and played competitively: one player had to act (pantomime) or describe or paint a phrase given on a card, and the other members of his team had to find out what that should be. What I like about “activity” is that it combines creativity with knowledge and vocabulary training and has therefore a learning effect that takes place subconsciously.
Another way to get thoughts off everyday life for a while is drawing and craftwork. Mandalas/coloring pictures are known to have a stress-relieving and calming effect. As the girls love doing this, we have already spent time painting a few times. Sometimes combined with colouring by numbers, which is popular with the younger children and practices easy math.
Colour by numbers. craftwork project - bookmarks.
The Hope House girls once again demonstrated their talent for creativity and handicrafts in our pottery project, which took place on a rainy weekday. We used polymer clay, a versatile material that is becoming increasingly popular in the art and craft world. It was important to me to give the girls as few guidelines as possible so that they could give free rein to their creativity. And the results were as varied as I expected: some formed figures and animals with the clay, some made key rings, and some even earrings and rings.
Playing games and crafting is something you never get too old for; it‘s fun at any age. That’s why it is particularly suitable for the Hope House children, as there is a wide age range among them: the 6-year-olds naturally have different interests from the 16-year-olds, which sometimes makes it difficult to appeal to everyone with the activities. However, for the crafts and games, everyone comes together and enjoys it and - most importantly - gets some time off and generates new energy for the rest of the day!
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