“We’ve been trying to think of all the ways to bring some smiles to our kids faces during this quarantine. It’s been over 4 weeks since they’ve left the house. We are new to this homeschool thing and it’s been rough for everyone. We decided to do something that was not only educational but lots of fun.
We turned our economics homeschool lesson into a movie theater! The kids had to earn money for the ‘theater’ on Friday which was showing the newly released Trolls movie.
I made a Trolls World Tour movie poster and hung it up on Saturday. This gave them 7 days to earn money. I made a list of ways they could earn ‘cash’ and hung the sign in their rooms. It was up to them how much they wanted to earn to use for concessions, but the movie ticket was $4, so without at least $4 they couldn’t see the movie.
I bought a ton of theater style snacks. I found digital files for free fake money to print offline and found free printables for a concession sign, movie tickets, and the menu, which I used to customize the menu for our snacks and drinks.
My husband and I dressed up in all black and put on our name badges. We acted exactly how theater employees act. We only only called them sir or ma’am. We kept telling them, ‘Ma’am! You need to wait in line like the other patrons of this theater!’ After they were finished at the ‘concession stand,’ I ran to the living room door and waited with my phone, pretending to scan their tickets.
Once they were done at concessions, ‘security’ led them into the theater and sat them down as the movie began. Before starting the movie, we made an announcement stating, ‘Please, no cellphone usage or speaking during the movie!’ just like you see at any theater. They thought us pretending to be employees was the best part of this entire thing.
The kids were giggling and laughing the entire time and began to talk back to us as employees, addressing us as sir and ma’am as well. They asked where the theater restrooms were and where they could put their trash like, ‘Excuse me ma’am? Does this theater have a trashcan for my trash?’
My son kept running up to me afterwards giving me kisses and saying thank you, still giggling about the entire thing. They all asked for another movie night like this. I highly recommend trying this. It got them doing lots of chores while learning to count money!”
This story was submitted to Love What Matters by Alisha Palmer, MSN, RN. You can follow her journey on her website and Instagram. Submit your own story here and be sure to subscribe to our free email newsletter for our best stories, and YouTube for our best videos.
Read another story by Alisha here:
Read more ways to help children during Covid-19 here:
Provide strength for others. SHARE this story on Facebook and Instagram with your friends and family.