Looking for a rainy day, or school vacation activity to do with your kids? Teach them how to make stop-motion videos. This boredom buster is fun for the whole family.
We are always striving to come up with new, creative activities to do with the kids’. The thought of them hiding out in their bedrooms and spending countless hours playing video games and watching YouTube videos just doesn’t fly with me. I don’t mind them having a little downtime to do that, but they need to do something else every day that’s either educational, fun, electronics-free, involves face-to-face interaction with others, or that gets them moving.
Although they love to watch videos on YouTube, they’ve both also expressed an interest in making videos and one day having their own YouTube channels. For a while, Marisol and her friends were making music videos together, but Flynn expressed more of an interest in the technical side of things. He wants to learn how things work and really get into the behind-the-scenes. Neither of us had tried stop-motion video before, so for a couple of hours recently, he and I decided to make a video together. He put together each of the scenes, while I was in charge of the camera and editing. I think he did a much better job than I did. We ended up doing a combination of stop-motion and regular video, and then pieced it all together.
He was fascinated by how stop-motion videos worked and has asked me to create even more with him now. He has a great idea to use a space shuttle he built that we bought him on our trip to NASA last summer along with a space-themed backdrop. Apparently, we have to work on that one tonight. This makes me all kinds of happy that he’s found a creative outlet that does use his electronics, but helps him to learn, role play, and have fun at the same time.
He had some fantastic ideas on how to set up our video and incorporate things he loves into each scene that we shot.
You can watch the full video we made right here:
Have you created videos with your kids?
How To Make Stop-Motion Videos With Kids
- Download the Stop Motion Studio app and test it out.
- Create your own backdrops, or pick up scrapbook paper ‘scenes’ from the craft store.
- Add toys, clay models, or other household items to your scene – such as LEGO
- Make sure you either use a stand for your video or have one person hold the camera while the other moves the items, this way the still-shots will line up.
- We used iMovie for piecing our scenes together.
Check out GoldfishSmiles.com for some inspiration on creating your own video or still smile-worthy tale. And don’t forget to tag yours with #GoldfishTales.
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2 comments
This is adorable! I loved the video and how clever to use the toy set up you guys had. Goldfish crackers are so fun for kids all around.
What a super fun idea for kids! I’ll bet they can make some headway with it over Spring break….