Read on for some fun, family-friendly games to keep your children engaged this half term- all while developing key soft skills!
Today marks the start of half term for many schools across the UK! Whilst a week off school is always an exciting prospect for young people, we know that finding fun and varied things to do can sometimes be a struggle for parents. Therefore, we have compiled a list of fun activities to play with your children whenever you are faced with the dreaded phrase: "I'm bored!"
Listed below are four games played across our Debate Mate curriculums, adapted for family fun at home! Not only are these activities engaging, they are also designed to develop key communication and critical thinking skills in young people. It's win-win!
1) Give Me That Chocolate Bar! 🍫
Next time your child asks for a treat, why not turn it into a game? To earn the chocolate bar, your child must use plenty of speaker style to persuade you that they deserve it. This works brilliantly if you can get more of the family involved; everyone must compete for the chocolate bar, each trying to be as persuasive as possible in their speaking. Encourage everyone to use techniques such as eye contact, good posture, hand gestures, facial expressions, direct address, personal anecdotes, rhetorical questions and more!
2) Sales Game 🗣
This game is all about persuasive speaking! Next time your children complain of being bored, give the family 1 minute to find a random object from anywhere in the house. Next, reveal to them that they will now take it in turns to sell their object to the rest of the family in a Dragons Den style pitch! Emphasise that this is not about the value of the object itself but the way in which they pitch it.
3) I Couldn't Disagree More! 🙅♂️
This activity works great around the dinner table! Go around the group, and challenge each family member to give an unpopular opinion with a one-line justification. Then the group should take it in turns to respond 'I couldn't disagree more' with a new justification. After that's been exhausted, move on to the next unpopular opinion! Encouraging your child to directly argue with the previous person's justification is great practice for targeted rebuttal during debates.
4) PEEL Your Own Superhero 🦸♀️
In this activity, your child should design their own superhero capable of tackling climate change. Encourage them to get really creative with it- they can even draw them, annotate them and give them a catchy name! When they have finished, they should use PEEL to argue why their superhero would be the best suited to help stop climate change! PEEL is an acronym we encourage students to use to structure their arguments. It stands for: Point, Explain, Example, Link.
Stay tuned across socials for exciting announcements about Debate Mate summer camps, coming soon!
