The Home Play Challenge was a series of creative play prompts designed for children and families during the COVID-19 lockdown.
When schools and activities suddenly stopped, the project aimed to encourage children to continue exploring, building, and experimenting at home using simple everyday materials.
The challenge was structured as a short digital play calendar. Each day introduced a new creative prompt, inviting children to design, build, or invent something using materials commonly found at home. The activities combined playful engineering, storytelling, design thinking, and experimentation.
Rather than following step-by-step instructions, children were encouraged to imagine their own solutions. Prompts included challenges such as building the tallest structure, designing playful architectural forms, creating chain reaction machines, or inventing imaginative holiday scenes.
Families were invited to document their creations by sharing photos and results, turning the experience into a playful collaborative event even while participants were physically isolated.
The Home Play Challenge demonstrated how simple prompts and accessible materials can support creativity, problem solving, and playful exploration — even outside a classroom or workshop environment.
