Activities With 11 - 13 Year Olds

Guidelines for parent / carers

The following four co-operative activities have been designed for you to work alongside your child.

Each activity requires input from an adult and a child. It is suggested that you become familiar with the activities by reading through them before completing them with a child. Activity pages can be downloaded and printed off as and when you require them. Once they have been completed, we recommend you and your child together choose a place to put them on display - eg the fridge or a notice board. One-by-one, they can then go into a folder the child has made (or decorated) for occasional revisiting. This will reinforce the important work that you have both completed.

Find a time when you and your child can work quietly and uninterrupted through the activities. You will need approximately half an hour for each activity. There is no set time in which you should complete the four activities for each age group. However, a guideline is a minimum of one activity per week, with a goal of completing the activities in a maximum four-week time period.

Talk to everyone else in your home about the activities that are going to be displayed. Let them know that the work you and your child are doing is important. In particular, encourage older siblings to comment positively on activities once they are on display.

Finally, you are about to talk to your child about a very serious subject, perhaps one that you have not previously discussed. So, have fun completing these activities. This is a great opportunity for you to have open and honest conversations with your child.