Discover 10 playful and offbeat ideas to keep parents and children busy by David Horvitz for the Lifetime project. He offers us new perspectives on our surroundings in this time of lockdown.
1. On Familiarity of Place
In a place you are familiar with, a place you know as home, find something you are unfamiliar with, something that you had not noticed before. This could be your apartment, bedroom, street, etc... For example, you might discover the particularity of the ceiling corners of your bedroom.
2. On Water
Take a glass of water from the tap. Contemplate it. Look at it. Discuss and imagine its journey to get to you. And then imagine its future journey as it goes inside of you to become you.
3. On Measurement
In America they ask that you stay 6 feet apart. Discuss whose feet these are? Use your own feet to re-define what the foot is. With a string cut what your new 6 feet would look like. (You better not use this new measurement for social distancing!)
4. On Money.
Look around for a new kind of money. This could be acorns, rocks, leaves. Use it in your home.
5. On Time Zones
Discuss what a time zone is. Make different time zones for different rooms in your home.
6. On Distance and Faraway Places
Find the furthest away place you can see from your home. Maybe it's a tree on a hill outside your window. Now imagine a further away place that you cannot see. Maybe it's the Eiffel Tower or California. Learn the direction to this place from your home. Now point to it.
7. On the Moon
When the moon is visible, contemplate it in silence for a good length of time. Don’t discuss with each other what you thought. Keep it a secret.
8. On Letter Writing and Delivery
Sur l'écriture et la livraison d'une lettre
Write a letter to someone who you can walk to. Deliver them the letter.
9. On Story-telling and Movement
Read each page (or chapter) of a story in a different place in your home. Move through your home as you read through the story. If your house is small, even better!
10. On Seeds
Save all the seeds from the fruits and vegetables you eat. When you are outside scatter them around so that they might grow.