Entertaining kids now

Can you use some of the government’s Oak National Academy stuff? If she’s now year three, use year two stuff, especially if she’s a bit behind. It’ll help consolidate and give her confidence.

My GS are "writing books". Each day they write about how being home during this time feels to them. It is amazing how they view these days from fears to laughter. They have talked about loneliness missing friends, the fun of learning to cook, the tedium of household chores and yes, doing school work. Their books will be tucked away and shared when they are grown up.

I've had success here with the help of a plastic inflated beach ball. When distancing was an issue we threw, headed, kicked or punched it between us sitting down. Now with introduction of bubbling we also run around semi football style. Other success has been with supply of cardboard boxes (courtesy supermarkets), string, sellotape, scissors etc. Interesting outcomes! 'I spy' has it's educational merit too.

I'd do some school work either stuff school has set or using resources easily available on tv and internet I'd start keeping a diary together (english composition spelling and writing practice ) go for a walk (exercise/pe ) baking (maths and science) I would also choose a book to read together a chapter or two per day (reading) do some craft teach her a skill like sewing knitting crochet Make learning fun and enjoy gran time with DGD

What I do with my grandson (he’s only 3 but I’m talking about my system) is using a schedule like they do at his preschool. We have different activities, spaced by 10 o’clock snack, lunch or fruit. We have put up drawings illustrating those different parts of the day. Activities varie from drawing/painting, puzzles and reading to sand-and waterplay, gardening, ball, swing etc. He loves to watch TV, and he’s allowed, but we try and limit it a bit. A (very flexible!) schedule helps a lot against boredom and to have a bit of structure in the day!

Paint a stone with pictures or words eg be happy then take to woods or park to be hidden but not too well. Hopefully someone may swop hers with their stone. Very popular activity at the moment. After any activity try to get either a picture or a little written work on describing what you have done. Look on line for activities for 8 year olds, sure you will find plenty.

Let her help with making her lunch, and if she has online school work tackle it too.

My 3 year old GD has me in stitches, when she ‘visits’ me on Messenger. Her favourite game, with her Mum, is “I’m the Mummy and you’re the Baby” ‘Baby’ pretends to misbehave, and gets lectured by ‘Mummy’ about waiting her turn, etc. So funny. I can hear echos of her Mum, and the daycare team.

I agree that your GD needs to have some schoolwork included in her day, but it can be disguised as play. A bit like sneaking vegetables into her meals!

Granddaughter loved when we played school with the dolls as pupils and she the teacher. She used file cards folded to make little books for each. She wrote cards for the wall, window, bed etc with those words on so the dolls could practise reading them. Yours, being older, could write inthe little books.

My Brownies used to love making a house for a fairy ! I told them that some fairies were due to visit the area but they were very shy, so they wouldn't see them, but they needed some nice places to stay. The idea was that they would find some big tree roots and then gather leaves, bits of sheeps wool, stones - anything that could be found lying around (not breaking leaves off trees etc) and then use different areas of the tree roots as the rooms of the house. Some were really imaginative with "slides" (big leaves) from upper to lower rooms, comfy sheepswool beds, tables, chairs etc - it's amazing how this fires the imagination. They also liked pond dipping, cooking a mini burger on an upturned empty tin can with holes made with a can opener in the bottom and a tea-light under it and on pack holiday they even liked learning to clean the toilets, peel potatoes, tie-dye a t-shirt and, (randomly), sit and wash their socks and peg them out on a line. (interesting to see how some managed to fix the socks to the line even though their pegs were upside down!)

Outside - gather different leaves / flowers to identify then make a picture with them
Baking / cake decorating
Hopscotch - use alternate legs to hop on, will help cordination
Watch a short programme on ipad / TV and ask her to write you her version of it
Growing salad vegs - radish, cress grow very quickly

Make use of the ipad. First thing make a timetable for the day with you and your grand daughter looking online at activity suggestions.

I saw a great idea for encouraging the children to look at flowers. Get a piece of cardboard, Draw a simple figure (about 1 ft high) wearing a skirt. Cut the figure out, then take the remaining cardboard out to the garden and hold it against some flowers and see the different outfits the figure can be wearing - a green outfit held over grass (or brown depending on the grass), or roses, primula etc.? Enjoy!

Not fole cards, file cards

I didn't take granddaughter out, I used photos I had been sent by mum over the last few years.

Scavenger hunts can be fun, take photos rather than collect item. Good for walks I either use colours IE. Find something begining with... I've even played this virtually with my grandchildren cousins.

Teaching literacy to those with learning difficulties I used to take lots of photos of them and where we went when we took them on outings and then put simple sentences on each photo and make them into a book. They were very incentivised to read as it was about them; I this in teaching 5 year old granddaughter over zoom until she went back to school and she liked reading pages about herself too.

You could get granddaughter to take photos and make a book from them putting the sentences on the pages. They could be printed out, as I did for the college learners, or online, as I did for granddaughter.

I used fole cards in different colours too to make games. You write words that are opposites on a half card like laugh and cry, black and white and suit the vocabulary to the ability of granddaughter. My grandson, now much older, loved playing pelmanism with cards like that. You turn them all over face down and mix them up. First player turns over two and if they are opposites they keep them and have a second go., If not turn then back face down in the same place and other person's go. By the end you are trying to rememebr where the other opposite was.

Granddaughter didn't want to do that but took cards and drew on each one and said she had made a story and then put them in order and told me the story . 5 times the first day and a few times since. And she knows the cards and story.

Others have said cooking is fun and you need to read recipes and maybe write them in her own recipe book. Keep one?

Reading a longer book, a chapter each day as a serial, might be fun.

Yes I agree this is a great chance to do some work to boost the child's confidence with school work. If you want to make art work with nature a bit more educational and focused you can link it to the work of Andrew Goldsworthy, look images of his work up on Google. You can then collect sticks stones leaves etc and arrange them in patterns on the ground. Try taking photos of your finished pieces. When back at home look at your photos and describe orally or make up stories about your images. You could then both write up your stories/ descriptions and maybe print out your images and commentaries to make your own art gallery.
There's a website called something like once upon a picture that has some lovely images to talk about with children and to use as stimulus for making up stories. Again encourage children to do this orally them in writing. You can both write your own story or you can write it collaborativly, each taking turns to write the next sentence after you have rehearsed it orally. Use as many describing words (adjectives and adverbs as you can) Websites can provide wordbanks to help you choose good story vocab, try Twinkl. Twinkl also has educational powepoints and worksheets and games for all subjects ages and abilities. Check out BBC bitesize and YouTube for short educational videos on any subject children are interested in. Play games to practise times tables facts, number bonds facts(pairs of numbers that add to make 10 or 20 or 100eg 7+3=10, 17+3= 20, 70+30=100) and look for links patterns between the facts, aim is to instantly recall these facts. YouTube has lots of times tables facts linked to popsongs that are fun to sing a long to. You can practise times tables facts or spelling words by making the letters/ numbers out of playdough, or in lots of different coloured felt pens or paint.
Do lots of short educational activities spread through the day and do them together. And find things to read together. Ask the child what they find hard and would like to work on or what they enjoy and would like to do. Contact their school for ideas.
Good luck and enjoy yourselves

Audio books

Card games, clock patience, Whot or Uno, 3s and 5s dominoes, ummm

This is it:
Model Magic.
www.amazon.co.uk/Crayola-CYO574400-Model-Magic-Bucket/dp/B000MMR7TS/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=model+magic&tag=gransnetforum-21&qid=1592559009&sr=8-3

If she is addicted to her iPad, then you can help her by downloading maths, English, geography, history and science programmes and doing them with her, if her school isn't doing this already. If she is behind, then this would be an excellent chance to help her catch up with one to one help.

If you can afford it, Hama beads and Crayola modeling paste (think it's maybe called paste) are always loved in our house ages 5-55 too!

Collage?

Get work books online for her age, reading and maths. Make them fun, most give rewards, stickers etc or baking/playing afterwards can be the reward!
Board games too where they have to think/plan gets brains working!