During this lockdown, I was honoured to be invited from Kate of Hello Mums to one of her coffee breaks.
She asked me to talk about how children can use photography in their activities. You can watch the chat here
But just in case you don’t have time to watch it now I will quickly sum up.
Are you ready?
So what photography activities could you do with your children at the moment?
N.1 is surely a Photo Scavenger Hunt!
This is funny, kids of every age will enjoy it, I’m sure.
- Prepare a list with objects to photograph. I would suggest about 5-6 to start with if you have a toddler and about 15 for school-age children.
- For toddlers and children who cannot read yet use colours, shapes or simply draw (or print out) things they are familiar with and have to look for.
- For older children, you can get more creative! You know your children best so you will know how to challenge them. You can write a specific list of object you can find around the house (or/and garden), you can ask for objects starting with a specific letter or of a specific shape. Or you can ask to photograph two things that thyme together. This will get their brain to work! 😉
- If there are siblings get them both involved! Maybe one could photograph a list of things but only a little detail and the other one has to guess what it is! This could be quite fun!
N.2 Photograph Toys and Make a Story Book
Ask your child to grab his/her favourite toy and to go on an adventure!
Allow your child to take the lead and come up with a great plot, taking the toy around the house or in the garden or out to your daily walk.
Take photos while your child is holding teddy and jumping off the couch saying “let’s fly Teddy!” or a photo while Mr Dinosaur is chasing a little toy car and your child is narrating the scene.
Remember what they say and then go to Canva (it’s free), upload the photos and add your child’s lines and some funny stickers. Then print it out and you will have a wonderful personalised book to read a bedtime.
I think this is a great idea esecially for the little one!
N.3 Stop motion videos
This is the grown up version of the previous activity. While little one will take a toy for an adventure, school-age children can create their own movie independently!
They could use an app called Stop Motion or I believe Lego has a similar feature in its app.
But even a slideshow of the different photos they take with special filters and effects is surely something that will keep them busy for a while 😉
I hope this blog gave you some ideas and you are now inspired to try something out. And show me the photos tagging me on the social media!
