The recent stay-at-home orders have caused Carolina Demography’s under-5 staff population to grow substantially.
Though our temporary new colleagues generally prefer crayons to Excel and chalk drawings to data analysis, they are willing and able to help with our ongoing Census work. Below are some activities we’ve tried with our kids that may also work in your house or neighborhood (if you’re looking for civically-themed activities that hold toddlers’ attention for a moderate amount of time.)
We’ve also suggested some activities for older kids — now is a great time to learn about how Census data helps determine where hospitals and other important facilities are built.
I have two kids under three, and we are spending a lot of our time drawing with chalk on sidewalks and discovering other drawings that our friends and neighbors have made. Recently, we’ve started decorating the sidewalk with encouragement to fill out the Census and be counted.
My colleague Trevor Berreth, who leads graphic design for Carolina Demography, has been coworking with his 17-month-old daughter. Together, they worked on a window display for their house showing that their family would be counted.
Download the poster-sized and letter-sized versions of Trevor’s poster, draw your own household, and hang it in your window!
The North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management has released an “I Counted NC” coloring sheet for you to color and display.
The Census Bureau and Statistics in Schools have created activities specially designed to be engaging and appropriate for each grade level. Learn how the Census impacts your own community, and how the Census Questionnaire has changed over time! You can also explore languages spoken in the United States and how to make visual representations of data.
The Census has released Census-related videos which include a virtual tour of the Census Bureau and a sing-a-long.
