Activities

A weekly challenge

Keep your group together by setting a weekly challenge that you can all participate in (from home), and share and compare with each other. You could use your group’s existing social media (or create a new account) so each member is able to post their progress, story and/or finished product. You can select a challenge that reflects what your group is about, or focused on. Here are some ideas to get you started:

  • Haiku challenge – write a haiku during the week and share.
  • Window-view challenge – record changing views through your window, or create stories about the views seen through it, and share.
  • Cooking challenge – choose a theme and make and record making meals around this theme. Share with the group and possibly review.
  • Random object challenge – choose an object around the house and see how many times, and in different ways, you can repurpose this object throughout the week.
  • ‘Slow food’ challenge – focus on making food/drink that takes time. For example, make a sourdough starter, a kombucha scoby, pickles, sauerkraut, jam, stock etc. Record and share the progress of these creations.

NOT talking COVID19
Create discussion-based catch-ups. These could focus on a book or film, or perhaps be about problem-solving, or a theory/philosophy. During this discussion, everyone can take a breather from the 24-hr news cycle, and think outside of their fairly contained everyday. You might like to set particular questions for you group to think about whilst reading and/or watching, or work out an aim for discussions which focus on general concepts/idea development. Again, these discussion groups can cater to your group’s general aims and interests.

Meet on any of the above-listed video chat platforms. Here are some suggestions for plug-ins to help you facilitate focal-discussions:

  • https://www.netflixparty.com/ – A chrome plug-in which allows multiple people to watch Netflix simultaneously. All party-participants require access to a netflix account.
  • https://www.kastapp.co/ – Available as an app for Windows and iOS, and online through Chrome for Android, Kast allows you to stream movies or other applications (youtube, games) to a group. Kast also incorporates live text, audio and video chat alongside its streaming capability.
  • https://app.houseparty.com/ – An iOS and Andriod application that allows you to chat to multiple people .The video window sits above any other apps you may be using, so you can multitask important other jobs (like finding that meme you saw three hours ago) without losing sight of your friend’s beautiful face.