Adam Pelling-Deeves: Video Production, Oxford – Corporate & Creative

Posted on October 6th, 2014 by Adam Pelling-Deeves

While waiting for an overdue baby, I’ve been looking into ideas for family activities over the coming years. I found plenty of sites with lists of 101 family activities and suggestions from local organisations, but in the end you’re still left with a decision to make from seemingly endless options. What I’m looking for is a way for much of the decision to be taken out of the family’s hands, avoiding the need for debate and creating new experiences and surprises.

Why not let the dice decide?

There are a number of online shops that offer personalised dice — the image above is from You Name It, for example — and I’ve come up with a set of words that combine to cover almost any fun family activity. Just copy and paste them into your order.

Below are the words to be engraved on the dice along with suggestions of how to interpret the 36 possible combinations. Feel free to interpret them however you want and maybe even change some of the words to suit your own family’s interests.

Dice 1:

Make
Explore
Play
Active
Learn
Visit

Dice 2:

Food
Game
Words
Pictures
Sounds
Nature

MAKE FOOD: Cooking
EXPLORE FOOD: Raining — takeaway night / Sunny — picnic
PLAY FOOD: Raining — potato printing / Sunny — apple bobbing
ACTIVE FOOD: Go shopping for a meal
LEARN FOOD: Try a new recipe
VISIT FOOD: Eat out

MAKE GAME: Raining — create a board game, blanket tents / Sunny — hopscotch
EXPLORE GAME: Hide & seek, puzzles, treasure hunt
PLAY GAME: Any game! If it’s raining — board games, card games
ACTIVE GAME: Raining — charades, obstacle course / Sunny — frisbee, hula hoops, any ball game
LEARN GAME: Try a new game, juggling, magic tricks
VISIT GAME: Watch a professional sports game, Raining — swimming pool, bowling, ice skating / Sunny — amusement park, fair, miniature golf

MAKE WORDS: Create skits, plays or puppet shows, write a letter
EXPLORE WORDS: Take turns on an evolving story, create a secret code
PLAY WORDS: I spy, hangman
ACTIVE WORDS: Simon says
LEARN WORDS: learn a language (foreign, sign, morse etc.) and name the objects around you
VISIT WORDS: Library, theatre

MAKE PICTURES: Paint, draw, collage, sculpt, including clothes & jewellery. If it’s sunny — chalk art on the driveway
EXPLORE PICTURES: Take turns on an evolving picture, make portraits of each other, family scrapbook
PLAY PICTURES: Movie night, video game night
ACTIVE PICTURES: Raining — second-hand shopping / Sunny — sketch nature, make rubbings, take photographs
LEARN PICTURES: Try a new art medium or craft such as knitting, talk about pictures
VISIT PICTURES: galleries

MAKE SOUNDS: Make a song or a movie
EXPLORE SOUNDS: Record interesting sounds around the house or out and about for each other to guess
PLAY SOUNDS: Listen to music
ACTIVE SOUNDS: Dance to music, sing songs
LEARN SOUNDS: Talk about music, learn to play an instrument, try a new one
VISIT SOUNDS: Go to a concert

MAKE NATURE: Gardening inside and out
EXPLORE NATURE: Go for a walk by some water, in the woods, in the city, in your garden, camping
PLAY NATURE: Make and float boats, fly kites or planes
ACTIVE NATURE: Go for a bike ride, boat ride, pick your own fruit and vegetables
LEARN NATURE: Try a science project, take old things apart to see how they work, learn first-aid, star gazing, bird watching
VISIT NATURE: Aquariums, museums, botanical gardens, or just visit friends & relatives (they’re nature too!)

Of course, this is all based on the assumption that there will be any free time at all!

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