Difficulty Low
Duration 15 minut
Type of activity Main activities
Season Any
Occasion Any
Suitability Without limits
Locations Indoor, Outdoor
Tools
two chairs and a list of questions
Goal
Encourage intergenerational learning and understanding, active listening and answering, developing a bond between the generations.
Intergenerational benefits
Understanding and relationship building
Understanding and relationship building
The activity promotes the understanding and appreciation of the attitudes, opinions, and experiences which different generations bring to the relationships, understanding and avoiding generational stereotypes and fostering tolerance of different lifestyles and an appreciation for cultural heritages, traditions and histories.
Intergenerational learning and skill sharing
Intergenerational learning and skill sharing
The activity promotes learning and skill sharing among younger and older generations. It involves the sharing of positive resources that the young and old have to offer each other, especially the experience with novelties of modern times and valuable life lessons as well as cultural and familiar traditions.
Health and wellbeing
Health and wellbeing
The activity promotes physical and mental well-being. It has a positive impact on the quality of life (feeling of self-worth and a reduction in loneliness and isolation, promotion of physical and cognitive activity).
Personal impact
Personal impact
Developing soft skills (like empathy, confidence, communication abilities, learning skills) and developing their own strengths and talents.
Cognitive skills
Cognitive skills
Supporting mental / brain-based skills we need to do anything from the simplest to the most complex tasks:perception, attention, memory, motor skills, language, visual and spatial processing, executive functions.
Community involvement
Community involvement
The activity increases confidence and involvement within the community. It offers a starting point that could have a positive impact within the community.
Step by Step
- Seat a child and a senior on two chairs facing each other.
- Introduce the activity, tell them what they are going to talk about and what they might learn from each other (explain the meaningfulness of the exercise for both to understand).
- The child and the senior then ask each other questions about life and growing up (not more than 4 questions for each). The mentor presents one question after another (in written form) and gives them time to answer.
- The aim is to see if people from opposing stages of their lives can learn from each other.
- "Possible questions: What is the best/worst thing about being young/old? Do you wish you were older/younger? Why? Will you fall in love, how it will be like? Have you fallen in love, how was it like? If you could do one thing differently in your life, what would that be? Can you give me one important advice? What would you do if you were invisible for a day? Who is the kindest person you know? Why? What are you good at? What do you want to become when you grow older?/If you could do anything now, what would you do? ..."
Shown: 3x
