6 Ideas to Try Right Now
Interactive Storytelling
- 1Start telling a story about a character.
- 2Pause at key moments and ask your child to make the decision.
- 3Continue the story based on their choices!
Shadow Drawing
- 1Place a sheet of paper under a lamp.
- 2Line up small toys to cast shadows on the paper.
- 3Trace the outlines of the shadows and color them in.
Stop-Motion Animation
- 1Set up figures on a flat surface with consistent lighting.
- 2Move figures a tiny bit, take a photo. Repeat 20–30 times.
- 3Use a free stop-motion app (or just flick through the photos fast).
Even 20 photos makes a surprisingly good animation.
DIY Maze Game
- 1Glue plastic straws inside a box lid to create paths.
- 2Leave openings to form a maze.
- 3Place a marble at the start and tilt the lid to navigate it to the end.
Shadow Puppet Theater
- 1Cut a large window in a cereal box and tape tissue paper over it.
- 2Cut puppet shapes from cardboard and tape them to skewers.
- 3Shine a flashlight behind the box to put on a show.
Code a Paper Robot
- 1Write a list of 'robot commands': Move Forward, Turn Right, Pick Up, etc.
- 2Draw a simple maze on paper.
- 3Write the exact sequence of commands needed to get the robot through the maze.
This is computational thinking — the same skill behind real coding.
