Two Calm Drawing Games for Video Calls With Grandkids
Two quiet drawing games for evening video calls with your grandkids. Finish the Drawing and What Changed? need only a printed page and a pencil, and they get children talking without being asked.
Some video calls happen at the worst possible time. It is evening, everyone has had a long day, and your grandchild is in pyjamas, half asleep, being held up to the screen by a parent who would like them to say goodnight.
A game that asks them to run around the house is not going to work. A pencil and a piece of paper might.
These two drawing games are made for those calls. They are quiet, they don’t need much explaining, and they get children talking about what they have drawn, which is usually much easier for them than talking about their day.
What you need
Both games are in our free Video Call Play Pack. Print the same page in both homes. Each of you needs a pencil, and crayons if you have them.
If you are planning to play, send the page to the parents earlier in the day. At seven in the evening nobody wants to look for printer paper.
Finish the drawing
You both start with the same half-finished picture. The pack has three to choose from.
- A house with a roof, a chimney and a door, but no windows and no garden
- A robot with a body, but no face, arms or legs
- An ice cream cone with nothing in it
Pick one, set a timer for three minutes, and finish the picture however you like. No looking at each other’s paper. When the time is up, count down from three and hold your drawings up to the camera at the same moment.
The same house will look completely different. You might add window boxes and a cat on the sill. Your grandchild might add a slide coming out of the roof and a dragon in the garden.
That difference is where the conversation starts. “Who lives in your house?” “Why does your robot have four arms?” “How many scoops is that?” Children who give one-word answers about school will happily explain their dragon for five minutes.
Three minutes is a guideline. Some children are finished in forty seconds, others want ten minutes. Follow their pace.
What changed?
This one needs a little more attention, so it suits children from about four up.
The page has three animals: a dog, a cat and a pig. You each have the same page.
- Hold your page up to the camera and show the dog.
- Your grandchild looks at it carefully, then closes their eyes.
- You quickly add one detail to your dog. A hat, glasses, a bow tie, a moustache.
- Show the dog again and ask, “What changed?”
Once they find it, swap. They add something to their dog while you close your eyes.
Keep adding one detail per turn. By the end, the dog may be wearing sunglasses, a party hat and earrings, and have a mouse sitting on its head. That is a good result.
Draw your details big and dark. A thin pencil line will disappear on a phone camera. A thick dark marker works much better.
Keep the change visible. A tiny freckle on the dog’s paw is very hard to spot on a small screen. A hat is fair.
Making the drawing visible on camera
Most of the frustration with drawing games on a video call has to do with the camera.
Hold the paper closer than you think. About a hand’s length from the lens usually works. Hold it still for a moment. Phone cameras need a second to focus on paper. Watch the light. A lamp behind you will turn your page into a dark rectangle. Sit facing the window or the lamp instead.
It helps to ask, “Can you see it?” before you start explaining what you drew.
Keep the drawings
Ask the parents to send you a photo of your grandchild’s finished drawing, and put it on your fridge. The next time you call from the kitchen, there is a good chance they will spot it behind you.
If your grandchild wants to keep drawing after the game is over, let them. Sitting together on a call while you both draw, without much talking, is a perfectly good way to spend ten minutes.
Get the pages
Finish the Drawing and What Changed? are part of our free Video Call Play Pack, together with ten Guess Who? boards.
Get the free Video Call Play Pack
What is the strangest thing your grandchild has ever added to a drawing?
