Activity Blog Week Six This week is a little different. While we all find our balance with our responsibilities, children, work, cooking, cleaning, exercising, and trying to squeeze in a little time for ourselves, to read, watch a movie, or even just sit with a cup of tea and have ‘a minute’. For some of us, lock-down isn’t getting any easier, we are just adapting! “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, the fastest, or the fiercest. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” Charles Darwin. We all have different routines, varying from day to day, and we hope that these activity blogs are helping to provide some ideas for spending time together as a family, creating projects and art that you can learn along the way. As we adapt to life in lock-down, screen time, social media and internet use undoubtedly is on the increase. This week’s activities are all about Internet Safety. The first is from Think U Know, a website that focuses on keeping children and young people safe online. They produce quality, easy to digest information that is useful and concise. They have a bunch of activities for different ages, asking important questions and suggesting areas for discussion between parent and child. Take a look at their activities which include videos and stories, here: https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/Support-tools/home-activity-worksheets/
This week’s second activity is an Online Safety Quiz from Safer Kids, which is an easy to use quiz, asking relevant and thought-provoking questions. They also provide encouragement or advice depending on the answers given throughout the quiz. https://www.safekids.com/quiz/
This week’s third activity is to create a ‘Family Internet Rules’ contract. Don’t yawn! This can be made fun! You can all come together as if you were in a business meeting, dress up, wear your tie if you like! Have a plate of nibbles in the centre of the table, each have a drink, paper and pen/pencil. Bring together your ideas about how to stay safe as a family and make sure you include your promises to reach out to one another if you need help or are in a situation where you feel unsafe. You can create a sign with the agreed rules on, with everyone’s names and the date you all agreed. If you get stuck for ideas, here’s some from Common Sense Media: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/family-media-agreement
You can make the sign as creative and personal to your family as you like, think about colours, symbols, you can add emoji’s, ‘do’s and don’ts’, work together and enjoy the creative process. You could also ask your children to create their version of a social media guide and tell you about the apps/websites that they already use, and how they safely use them. Suggest topics for discussion such as friends requests, bullying, age restrictions, and purpose (talk to friends, edit pictures, create videos etc).
Social Media Age Restriction information can be found here: https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/blog/age-restrictions-social-media-services
Remember to check out our Safeguarding Page to find our e-safety newsletter, links for advice, guidance and our policies.
Stay Safe, Stay Positive.