Your child prepares a 3-act circus show and performs it for you. You are the mandatory audience. The constraint of a real audience with real expectations activates something screens cannot: the desire to make something that genuinely impresses another person who is actually present.

What you need

whatever they find — any props, costumes, a blanket for a curtain

How to do it

1Announce: 'You're putting on a circus. You have thirty minutes to prepare. I'm the audience.'
2Leave them to it entirely. No suggestions, no checking in, no help.
3After thirty minutes: sit down, put your phone away, and watch the whole performance.
4Give a genuine standing ovation at the end. Every time, without exception.

Variations

Korb-Tür: If they freeze on the idea, suggest a one-trick show — one magic moment is all they need to start rehearsing.
Ausstieg: Give a standing ovation the moment they finish, before they have time to doubt the performance.

💡 Parent tip

Do not help with the show. Suggestions from you turn their circus into your circus and halve their sense of ownership. Your only job is to sit down and be amazed.

What your child develops

Creative planning and execution — making something from an open brief with a deadline
Performance confidence — doing something in front of an audience changes how children commit to it
Completion — finishing what they started because someone is genuinely waiting for the show