how many kids can you have Zoom before you hit chaos!

[whatdayisitandotherquestions]

Dd's birthday's coming up and she wants to invite her friends to a zoom party. She's got some games planned.

How many 7 year olds do you think we can have on a zoom call before it descends into total chaos?!

DD talks to her best mate on zoom and they spend half the time making silly noises at each other and trying to show each other their tonsils!

I'm not sure how it'll work with lots of them if we're trying to do games over the cameras, will they respond to me trying to impose a bit of structure so they can all ay a game or will it just be chaos (and should we embrace it?!).

I'm saying to DS we can only have limited numbers to try to give it a chance of working but - predictably - she wants to invite loads!

Has anyone done a zoom call with loads of DC? How many did you have and how did it go? Have you got any tips?

Thanks

DD not DS! (was that my phone or my brain? No idea!)

It'll be chaos with more than 3 as they'll all talk at once. (We've fine a few class ones)

But they work it out and have a great time. So just embrace it and leave them to it.

(& hide somewhere with earplugs!)

Haha good advice! (Do I need gin? )

We've invite 6 so far. I've said no more. DD is desperate to invite more, shall I stick to my guns then or open the flood gates and let chaos reign?!

I'd say it will be chaos with more than one! However they won't care. I wouldn't bother trying to put too much structure onto it though as it will probably fail and drive you mad. If you did want to do games then maybe something where they can use something visual to hold up to the camera rather than talking would work - scavenger hunt maybe?

My DS (10) has had zoom form time, so 16 10 year olds and a teacher. It was very successful, but the teacher had total control over it. She chose who should speak and muted anybody who interrupted. They were all very sensible though and it worked well.

I, on the other hand, had a zoom meeting with my team of 9 intelligent adults all used to being in a meeting together. It was chaos and we spent a lot of time making silly noises at each other. We have vowed to practice and be more sensible!

Structure and somebody in charge is the key- which doesn’t sound much like a party!

My ds’s reception class had a zoom session the other week

There was about 15 kids. Nothing really got said as everyone just kept saying hello and wanting to show their friends their houses

Probably better with older ones

I supervised for the first 10 mins before I ended up in the kitchen rocking myself back and forth as I heard hello for the 1000th time

Well.... We tried a class zoom yesterday. It was quite good actually but DS's teacher was controlling things and you could only speak when she asked you a question. So she went through all present and asked individual questions. It was controlled chaos but lovely. I think there were 25 (and parents) involved.

We tried Pictionary using the whiteboard function. This was too techy for some of the parents let alone some of the kids. Scavenger hunt went well. I'm on the lookout for anything else that might work. I think 6 is plenty, maybe do 6 in the morning and another 6 in the afternoon?

We were thinking of hide and seek. One person hides while the parent covers the camera. Then shows the others the room and they have to guess where they are. Everyone who guesses right hides on the next turn and the rest guess.

Will probably go totally wrong, haven't tested it!

The other game we thought of trying is musical shapes. So, when the music stops they have to freeze as whatever we say - eg when the music stops, be a bear! Or a cat, or a banana or whatever. Nowinbers, just for fun.

Plus considering using Facebook instead of zoom so they can use the silly augmented reality things (turning their faces into frogs etc) with each other.

That should say "no winners, just for fun"

Scavenger hunt is a great idea!

Soubriquet yes that is exactly what happened for the YR1 that my DD1 joined .. 16-20 kids shouting “hello X” (repeat..)

I, on the other hand, had a zoom meeting with my team of 9 intelligent adults all used to being in a meeting together. It was chaos and we spent a lot of time making silly noises at each other

Not sure the hiding would work as needs a parent to be there (and puts pressure on them to tidy up first!!!!!)

Could you do a quiz? Your dd puts the questions on screen share - can be age appropriate questions, pictures, popular logos, TV characters, music and first to answer in the chat function wins the point? put them into teams?

Ask each of them to get their mums to email a baby photo, put it into a collage picture a,b,c, etc and they all have to guess who each one is?

We did twelve and no one could hear each other and it was nonsense and didn’t work at all! X

DD is 6, 4 seems to be our limit. 4 is just about manageable, we've done 6 - it was too many!

Just be aware it's 40 mins max isn't it?

Not sure if the 40mins thing really applies though?

I did 3.5 hrs last week with my friends, drinking wine and chatting

I’m a cub leader and have done 3 Zoom meetings so far with up to 24 children - aged 8 to 10.

They’ve been fine - a lot of fun , and not too chaotic as if you are the host you can mute people at will ! Though it probably helps that they’re used to listening to me give instructions etc at our usual meetings. It also helps that we are insist on a parent being present in the room for safeguarding purposes - but most parents seem to really enjoy joining in anyway!

So far we’ve done a scavenger hunt (lots of fun!), a craft session and a first aid session using toilet paper for bandages. Next week we’re going to do bingo.

Give it a go, it’s fun, but I think parental supervision and organised activities are key.

We did twelve and no one could hear each other and it was nonsense and didn’t work at all! X

Oh no, it's going to be utter chaos isn't?!

Your first hosted meeting is free, then you're charged or cut off for subsequent meetings you host over 40 mins.