Zoom with extended family - What's 'cha got?

[Lumpy1106]

My Dad is going through chemo so very high risk and my parents are really shut in right now. To keep them entertained, we've been doing a weekly Zoom with them and my brothers' families (total 4 groups calling into the Zoom). Here are the details;

1. Grandparents in their 70's
2. My family, me, my wife, kids 17, 15 and 6
3. My younger brother, his wife, kids 7 and 3
4. My older brother, his wife and daughter 16, sometimes son 18.

Here's what we've tried;
We did the Zoom without activities and that got dull quick.
We introduced trivia. That worked OK, but the kids got bored because of the big age range.
We tried Houseparty but the audio quality was bad and we couldn't figure out how to play the games with more than 2 people.
We tried Teams because the audio and video quality was far better but it doesn't allow everyone to show up on the screen at the same time.
We went back to Zoom but don't like that group chats more than 2 people shut off after 40 mins with the free version.
Finally, we started doing Zoom, and played Scattergories. There is a website that will generate game cards and has a countdown timer. I have a second screen that allows me to control the Scattergories without hiding the Zoom meeting. That works really well, everybody likes it, but I am always interested in what else is out there. We do want to continue doing the chats on laptop computers - not cell phones, because we are in groups, not individuals.

SO - what have you got? Anybody else Zooming regularly during the shutdown?

 

[cabanafrau]

Would something like Heads Up work?

 

[Southernmiss]

What about 2 truths and a lie? Or mom and dad tell story about their life? Or share a skill? Or bake something together, yet distant.

 

[Kittyblue]

I gave up on zoom, I spent an hour trying to explain to my mom how to find the app store, find the app, download it. I don't think she ever got that far. We've been doing online dominoes while we talk on the phone - my sister sets up a group call. I can make a private room and share the link but I think it's max 4 players https://dominoes.playdrift.com/ I wonder if you could run it while running zoom?

 

[Snowysmom]

We celebrated our grandson's 3rd birthday on Zoom. 3 generations, grandparents, parents, and grandkiddies. It was nice to sing happy birthday to him and watch him blow out the candles. Next will be a trip planning zoom meeting. Have to keep busy!

 

[WDWJDS]

Hubby did a Zoom where they had a scavenger hunt (find something to put on your head, etc), they played Heads Up, my family did one where we were told to draw different things and we had to guess what they were (favorite hobby, what does love mean to you, etc).
My hubby’s was more fun . They also make it a happy hour Zoom, as in they are drinking during the call .

 

[NYCgrrl]

I only Zoom people who are far away in distance but I've an ongoing group text going on with my sisters and an aunt. We just talk about whatever we want and since we all inherited a wicked sense of humor there is a lot of laughter.
A running game sounds like it would be fun.
Elder sister Zooms daily with one of her grandchildren in Australia as she's his designated story teller.

 

[Wendy1985]

What about a book club read a chapter if a book and talk about it

 

[mikehn]

We attended a sing a long with Katy Perry, Alicia Keys and a cooking show with Jose Andres over the weekend on House Party.

 

[emer95]

I do Google meets with my 4th graders several times a week. The most popular activities we do are Bingo, Hangman, Scavenger hunts (so much fun!) and Pictionary. I’m guessing those would be fun for Family Zooms too.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

Our extended family zoom didn't go great. One of my SILs didn't like everybody talking (we were all having fun) and put two of her sisters in "time out". When they found out, they both logged off and one drove over to the original SILs' house and let her have it. Entertaining to the rest of us, but not ideal. We're not organized enough to have any set agenda.