5 Activities for Laugh-Out-Loud Fun with Your Child

A riddle is a head-scratching question put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Here are a few examples:

1. Question: What’s white, black, white, and black?
   Answer: A panda walking down the stairs.
2. Question: What’s green and has goose bumps all over?
   Answer: The Hulk when he’s cold.

Share the following tips with your child so they can make up their own riddles:

• Choose a subject (e.g., an object, fruit, animal)
• Think about a ridiculous situation involving your subject (e.g., a fly that stops breathing, a plane that bounces)
• Come up with a question for which the answer is the situation you made up (e.g., What goes boing boing? A plane that bounces.)

To take this activity one step further, invite your family to take part in a friendly riddle competition:

• Vote for the funniest riddle
• See which riddle gets the most laughs
• Pick a subject that everyone has to use
• Etc.

The Collins English Dictionary defines a joke as “something that is said or done to make you laugh, for example a funny story.” While there’s no magic formula, a good joke should include the following:

• A subject
• Not too many words
• An element of surprise
• An unexpected ending

How a joke is told can play a big part in maximizing laughs. Here are a few things your kid can change up in their delivery:

• The rhythm
• The volume
• Their facial expressions and gestures
• Where they look
• Their words (e.g., invent new figures of speech)
• Etc.

Children’s literature is full of funny books. Whether they’re comics or novels, they all have the same goal— to make the reader laugh. After reading a book with your child, ask them to do the following:

• Read their favourite passages out loud
• Sum up the story in a joke
• Do an improv sketch based on the story
• Etc.

With a little imagination, anyone can write a funny story! A funny story should include at least the following:

• An exaggerated character
• An unusual situation
• An unexpected ending  

You can help your child write a funny story by suggesting a main character:

• A duck that doesn’t like water
• A giant ant
• A girl with a thousand legs
• Etc.

A caricature is a drawing that exaggerates a person’s appearance or personality. For some family fun, do a little research on famous people who have made history. Then, have each member of your family do the following:

• Identify the caricatural features of the figures you researched
• Choose one person and draw a caricature
• Have everyone else guess their famous figure
• Draw a caricature that exaggerates a famous person’s behaviour or job
• Etc.