Children’s Day in Seychelles will be celebrated on June 1 and in honour of this annual celebration, Seychelles NATION spoke to a few parents to gather some ideas for how children can celebrate in ways which are fun, creative and educational.

Below we present and propose to you the three most meaningful activities that we chose from a pool of ideas. Parents and teachers can choose to organise and include these as part of Children’s Day celebrations at home or at school.

Children’s Day Quiz

Ahead of the day, browse the internet and learn about Children’s Day; what it is, the purpose, where and when it is observed across the world, who can play a part in honouring this day, and how it is celebrated or can be celebrated.

Using this information, put together a fun questionnaire for the children and organise to play this with them on the day. It does not matter if they are unable to answer many of the questions; it is about them having a fun, interactive and educational activity to play. They will be able to learn about this day, its significance and importance, and they will end the questionnaire being more informed and aware.

Learn about other children

Get children to learn about other children in their families like their sisters and brothers, or other students in their class.

Ask each child to write down their name and their likes and dislikes on a piece of paper. Once they are finished, collect all the papers and one by one, read out the likes and dislikes of each child without mentioning the child’s name. Ask all the children to guess which child it might be based on what you are reading.

Again, it does not matter if they are unable to correctly guess who the child is; the game encourages them to have fun while thinking about who it might be. They can learn about the other children around them in their home or school, they can learn about each other’s likes and dislikes, and they can create a bond / deepen existing bonds between each other. At the same time, the parent or teacher can mention to the children during the game that learning about others can help us to learn to respect individual choices.

Learn empathy for children with special needs

A fun activity to do with children on their special day is to gather and watch a children’s movie together. Watching a movie can also be a great way and opportunity to teach children about something important. For example, you could choose a movie that creates empathy within the children for others who have special needs.

An example is the famous Disney/Pixar film ‘Finding Nemo’. It is a family/animation/adventure/comedy film which centres on a clownfish who sets out on a journey to find his son who has been captured, and throughout the film, we are able to see some of the characters dealing with anxiety and memory loss.

Source: Seychelles Nation