How To: Get Creative at Home!

Developing new skills and hobbies is a wonderful way to further support your child’s learning. Stuck for ideas? Here are some of the activities Compass students have been enjoying at home.

It might be challenging to come up with new ideas for fun and educational things to do at home, but with a little bit of creativity, the possibilities are endless. Today we’re sharing just a few hobbies and projects suggested by our teachers to inspire your child.

1. Being artistic

There are lots of different art forms your child may not have tried before which are fun, get them thinking creatively and can be on show around your home afterwards to celebrate their great work. If you have access to some outdoor space, why not pick some flowers, learn about the different species and try pressing or drying them to decorate a room at home?

Alternatively, for younger children, try a challenge: what can your child make using recycled materials? Our Madinat Khalifa Student Leadership Team recently created a ‘tote bag challenge’ for students to upcycle old t-shirts into shopping bags. Check out this video for details on how to make your own bag at home.

Year 8 at Themaid were challenged to make a homemade periscope as part of their Design Technology class. Rayan created a successful product using a shoebox, two small mirrors and tape.

Asser in Year 4 at Rayyan created an ‘extreme environment’ using toys and items from around his home as part of our recent STEAM challenge.

2. The big screen

There are lots of different ways film can be used to get your child thinking creatively…

Nayan in Year 4 at Gharaffa decided to ‘Be Ambitious’ and combine some of his computing skills with his physical activity challenges. 

Elisa in Early Years at Themaid is a natural presenter and proudly shared facts about her native country Brazil in this informative video.

2. Get musical

Music is a great learning aid and needn’t be limited by lack of instruments. Online tutorials can help your child practise or learn an instrument digitally, online tools can help with creating of new music, and song writing is an excellent way to refine musicality. Have a rising star at home? A musical can take any day at home from normal to Oscar-worthy. Making up a storyline, writing a hit song and performing it for the family is great musical theatre practice and entertainment for all involved.

Matthew in Year 9 at Madinat Khalifa learnt the 12 bar blues via a keyboard app whilst Sinag in Early Years at Gharaffa sang to his family and classmates about the importance of handwashing.

4. Create a challenge

A fun way to get thinking out-of-the-box and stay in touch with friends is to start a challenge which asks everyone to take part. Try one of these ideas:

• Choreograph a dance, get the whole family involved (if they’re willing…), and encourage your child to share the video with their friends for them to learn and film responses to.
• Feeling fancy? Hold a digital dinner party. Your child can nominate their friends to share their favourite recipes, cook each other’s suggestions (with support where needed), and sit down to share a virtual dinner together.
• Develop a quiz. Share some categories and encourage your child and their friends to think of a few questions each. Utilising any video platform, Skype for example, your child can enjoy a quiz with their friends whilst learning about some new topics or knowledge-testing the subjects they are covering in class.

The Madinat Khalifa PE team asked students and teachers to take part in the #stayathomechallenge and record a video of themselves doing kick ups with a toilet roll. Check out their efforts here.

Each week Marlon Devonish, an Olympic Gold medalist and Nord Anglia parent, shares a 1 minute challenge to encourage our students and their families to be active at home. Here is his latest challenge.

5. Photographer of the Year

 It’s not often that we can sit back and appreciate or explore the things we have right on our doorstep, so this is a great opportunity to get your child seeing their surroundings with new eyes. Get them thinking by setting different photography challenges which encourage them to explore the garden or different elements of the home. What’s the best photograph your child can take of a family member, the household pet or a flower in the garden? For older students, draw on inspiration from those they follow on social media, for example, or photos they can take to document a particular hobby they have. A blog could be an interesting next step…

Year 9 at Madinat Khalifa created some fantastic pieces of digital art using only their phones.

If this was useful, we’d love to hear from you on social media. Visit our Facebook and Instagram pages to get in touch and for daily updates from our four campuses! We’ve got plenty more ideas to share with you and we’d love to hear how your kids are getting creative at home too!