Back in March the social media noise surrounding what to do with the kids at home, at times felt overwhelming. We dipped in and out of the daily Joe Wicks PE session or Jumping Jonny for the young ones, we drew with Rob Biddulph, we made rainbows, we baked a lot of banana bread, we did outdoor scavenger hunts, our daily walk was renamed fresh air walk, we tried to get through our homeschooling, we watched a bit of cbeebies bitesize, we camped in the garden and subscribed to Disney + any of these sound familiar?!
But now after more than 18 weeks I have children with low energy levels who are being dragged around the daily walk, the bickering is returning and my motivation is waning. As schools close and we face another six weeks as the kids full time entertainers, the boys and I thought we would share some of the activities that have worked for us during lockdown.
Just to note our boys are 9, 7 and 3!
1.Theme of the Day
Each day the kids get to pick a theme and we create activities around it! We have had Sharks, Jungle Animlas, Ninjas, Paw Patrol, and our favourite Toy Story where we re-created the Toy Story Cardboard Town, made our own Forkies and wrote Toy Story 5! The boys have watched documentaries, created posters, coloured in, dressed up, played games and are much more enthused when it’s something they are interested in, it also helps add a little structure to the day.
2.The Community Shop
Inspired by our little local library set up by a fellow neighbour, the boys were keen to do something for the community. We used the Rob Biddulph draw your own bookmark to help with creativity Bookmarks with Rob we then laminated them and put them out for free! They also make good gifts for family and the sausage dog draw with Rob works well for these too Sausage Dogs with Rob
3.Kids HIIT Session
The kids love doing this in the park, we take a speaker and I use simple activities like star jumps, side shuffle, frog jumps and squats. Each activity is 45 seconds and we do four in each set with a 1 minute break. Our favourite music is the Disney dance remixes on spotify.
4.Garden Tribe
Create some tribe inspired hats from whatever you can find in the garden or the local park! We also decorated some toys in the garden and found some large sticks to use as tribal equipment.
5.Cardboard Masks
Not sure on the health and safety guidelines surrounding this one but they love putting these on when friends come to visit.. Inspired by the music video LMFAO – Gurl look at that body!
6.Writing Books
This generally involves me printing lots of photos related to the theme but is a guaranteed 1-2hrs of quiet time for the older ones! The little one just likes to colour in.
7.Treasure Hunt
First we make each make a treasure box! Great as it can be done inside or outside! Depending on enthusiasm you can create a treasure map, place clues or blindfold and guide them to the treasure.
8.Lockdown Scrapbook
Yet to be completed but a good rainy day activity we have printed all our best moments to create a memory book as a keepsake! There are loads of scrapbook options on amazon.
Hoping this helps a few unruly households like ours!
Carly