Last weekend was Hannah's 9th birthday and an occasion for two online birthday parties.
The first was an organised 90 minute event with a paid entertainer doing magic, games (such as finding things around the house, dancing to music), and various spy activities. We kept the online group small, around 6 kids, and had a break in the middle for cake (each parent provided some for their children who were mostly in Kenya, except for one in Israel). Overall it went well; the entertainer was full of energy and made a lot of effort to keep it engaging. The children enjoyed it and Hannah was very happy.
It couldn't work as a hybrid event, but with everyone online it was quite good. Ultimately once everyone starts getting webcam for smart TVs (and the video conference apps work on smart TVs, which they generally don't at the moment - I should know as I have tried and the only one that does is Google Duo) so that people are much more life-like compared to using tablets and laptops, then I think it will become much better. I have heard there are also ways of doing Virtual Reality meetings, which I think would also be fantastic, but almost no-one yet has such headsets. Who knows, maybe in a year or two it might be viable and then I think it would work even better.
The second was using houseparty with our family; something that we have done several times, usually doing the drawing games (someone draws, and everyone else has to guess), though there are also acting games that can work well, especially when children can read. Karaoke might work well for adults, but house party doesn't yet have any kids songs, which is a shame. We also tried online uno, which was alright for a short while though might not engage everyone for too long. House party works quite well for an hour or so normally and is important for children who are not really used to just sitting and talking on a video conference app. If you observe children in real life, they never just talk, they always talk whilst doing something else, whether it is playing with toys or playing outside. House party has a lot of other games built in and I think it is a great idea, and will be helpful for people who have friends overseas who they want to socialise with, even after lock downs end.
We've also tried watching TV together, very much something that didn't exist before the pandemic. The idea is that some software synchronises the show and has a chat box built in. We actually used WhatsApp to discuss by voice rather than text chat, since it was easier for the kids, and selected We vs Wild, which requires viewers to make plot choices every few minutes, so we would pause and discuss and then make decisions. This was a pretty good idea and quite good fun, though unfortunately it confused the software (because after each option it has to jump to a different part of the show and had trouble synchronising). There is promise for more of such games.
Hannah is still very happy being a child, which I think is great; sacrificing aspects of maturity or more extracurricular activities for playing more. We believe childhood should last as long as possible, developing creative and not being too exposed to the world too soon. It probably helps that she has a younger sister; they play together a lot, or a lot alongside each other with various dolls, cars, lego and the like. Despite the odd call of "I'm bored, can I watch TV or play games", when they get a no, the kids are perfectly able to entertain themselves with toys, role plays or other activities with us. Recently Leah has especially got into playing jigsaw puzzles, and also likes playing some education games on the computer.
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