“Before we
start, a quick reminder. It’s important when we go out for exercise, and as lockdown restrictions are eased, that children continue
to understand the importance of washing their hands properly. It is tricky to
know sometimes whether older children are washing their hands when they have
their own independence and privacy. This BBC CBeebies video showing how soap
keeps germ away is a useful visual reminder that I would recommend showing
toddlers, children and even teens. Singing while you wash your hands together
is a helpful tip as children love catchy songs! Here’s a simple how to wash your hands song
from the NHS or you could try making up your own words to your child’s
favourite tune.
Fun activities
for the morning
1. Wake
up and shake up!
We are not
moving about as much as we normally would, which is not good for us. Some
schools run a daily morning wake-up activity to get children going and ready
for the day ahead. Try out this wake-up dance by Out of
the Ark at the start of your day and you are certain to end up with the song in
your head by the end of the dance!
2. Recreate
PE lessons
Exercise
is important both for our physical and mental health. Have a look online for a
routine video that you can participate in together. The Body Coach Joe Wicks, for example, is running
free PE classes from his YouTube channel on Mondays to Fridays at 9am. Or try
out one of the many child-led Zumba videos online together. I would highly
recommend joining in as children really enjoy doing this with adults, and if
you are as uncoordinated as I am, then they will also find it very funny!
3. 'In
every job that must be done there is an element of fun, you find the fun and
snap, the job’s a game!’
With
many of us still at home, there are more chores that need doing and these should not
just fall to one person to do. It is important to help each other out and know
that not everything is going to be done for you. Sometimes it can be difficult
to encourage children to tidy up or help out with chores. Try turning cleaning
into a game or adding a fun element to it to inspire children to help out. For
example, use fun music to dance to while cleaning, sing a clean-up song to a
familiar tune, or race to see how quickly they can put all the toys away.
Cleaning is a great way to get moving, so you can have fun cleaning up and
exercising at the same time!
4. Write
a letter
Writing a
letter is something that you don’t see very much, it is a lot easier to send a
message, pick up the phone, facetime or email our friends and family. These are
great ways to stay in touch with your family, but there is nothing like
receiving a handwritten letter, it is so personal. Asking children to write a
letter or draw a picture to send to a family, friend or neighbour will help
them feel less alone during isolation. It is also a good way to get children to
practice their letter formation or develop their fine motor skills by giving
them a specific aim. If the child is too
young, role model by writing it for them.
5. Craft
a picture with objects from your garden or local park
If you are
lucky enough to have a garden or access to a park, get the children to go out
and find some natural objects to create a picture, such as leaves, flower
petals, small twigs and grass. Please be aware of any plants that are poisonous
and keep an eye on your children. Once you have collected your objects you can
arrange what you have collected to create a collage picture using child friendly
PVA glue. Seek inspiration from the artist Andy Goldsworthy and you’ll be
surprised at what’s possible. If you can’t get outside, try creating a new picture
from torn up magazines or flyers.
6. Homemade
bread
Making
soda bread is an easy baking activity to do with children, and you should have
the ingredients in your cupboard. If you’re having difficulty getting hold of
flour, you might find that wholemeal, spelt or rye flour is more readily
available. Soda bread does not need yeast, which means it is easier and quicker
to make. Children really enjoy baking and it is a good life skill. Learning to
cook at an early age will help children gain confidence and prepare them for
when they are older and having to fend for themselves as young adults. There are
plenty of simple recipes online. I find this BBC Good Food
recipe simple and easy to follow.
7. Make a cotton bud picture
7. Make a cotton bud picture
Try using
cotton buds to create pictures with paint. You could draw an outline or cut out
a shape for children to fill in, or you could trace letters for them to fill.
Think about seasonal objects, or a favourite animal or character from a book. Remember
to keep a close eye on children using cotton buds. If you don’t have any cotton
buds, you could always have a go at thumb printing.
8. Meditation
Being able
to relax is important during stressful times and it is a good technique for
children to learn as it will help them in later life. It is good for adults
too. Search for an online meditation exercise to try out together.
Alternatively, there are many helpful free apps out there that can help guide
children through meditation, for example Calm, which offers a one-week free
trial, or Breathe Kids.
9. Create
a cosy corner
Create a
cosy corner together where your children can have quiet time. We all need parts
in the day where we can enjoy five minutes peace. Try placing a sheet over a
table to make a calming den, add a blanket, duvet, some cushions, and books and
toys that can be played with quietly. Ask your children to select these items,
explaining that this is a cosy corner for them to enjoy when they want to have
some quiet time. Children love a place to hide and make their own; creating
this space themselves will also help to spark their imagination and creativity.
10. Express
your artistic skills
Art is a
great way to express yourself and relieve stress. Of course, you can get the
colouring books out or paint and let your children express themselves. Or if
you would like to turn it into an art lesson, you could look at different
artists and choose one to try and recreate the pictures. Abstract art featuring
bold, bright shapes of colour is fun to copy, or you could have a go at trying
to create your own picture in the style of the artist.
11. Today’s
the day the teddy bears have their picnic
There is nothing
better than a picnic lunch, especially if you can bring along your favourite
cuddly friend or favourite toy. It doesn’t have to be sunny outside, it doesn’t
even have to be outside, just get out the picnic rug and enjoy a picnic!
Children can help to make sandwiches and set out the picnic spread ahead of
time as part of the fun.
Fun
activities for the afternoon
1. Mud
pies
If you are
lucky enough to have a garden or a patio with some pots and soil, this is a
great space to use where you can. I would advise appropriate clothing as this
is traditional messy play! Take out some pots and spoons, collect some soil and
hold a competition to see who can make the best natural mud pie. You can add
bits of grass, leaves, twigs and stones. Depending on age, you will need to be
careful that the mud pie or anything that goes in the mud pie doesn’t get
eaten! This activity will get their creative juices flowing, and it is also a
great sensory activity. You can talk about different textures and how it feels,
which will help younger children with their language development. You could
follow up this activity by making an edible mud pie or brownies!
2. Band
practice!
For this
activity you don’t need to have any instruments! It’s all about using your
imagination and finding things around the house you can make noise with. So,
get out the pots and pans, wooden spoons, tins, boxes, lunchboxes, plastic cups
and so on. You could also have a go at making your own instruments from your
recycling. Fill clean empty bottles with a little bit of rice or put some
elastic bands across a tissue box or jar lid. Carefully glue some bottle caps
on a folded piece of cardboard, and you have a castanet. See what you can make
before getting the band together for a good old sing song! Play to the beat of
the song, sing songs that you know and make up new songs!
3. Make
pizza
Pizza is
really simple to make, and you’ll find a lot of the ingredients in your kitchen
cupboards. There are plenty of recipes online. You can get really creative with
your toppings, depending on what you have in the house, and you could use bread
as your pizza base if you’ve run out of flour. If you’re feeling really
creative or would like to extend this activity, you could make a pizza menu and
pretend you’re going to a restaurant and use some money or make some pretend
money and price the pizzas. You could use weighing the ingredients and counting
money as a fun way to do maths.
4. Can
you floss it? Yes, you can!
Learning a
new dance move, or even learning a whole dance to a song, is great fun. There
are lots of videos of dance crazes online that you can use for this, from the
floss to the moon walk. If you want to try and limit the time spent looking at a
screen, you could teach some old school simple dance moves of your own, such as
the Macarena, YMCA, Cha-Cha Slide, 5-6-7-8, Las Ketchup, Eye of the Tiger, Gangnam
Style, Cotton Eye Joe, Oops Upside Your Head, the Fast Food song, the Twist or
the Mash Potato, and many more! My seven
year-old nephew particularly enjoyed learning all the dance moves to Eye of the
Tiger, and then he taught the moves to the rest of the family. We all had great
fun doing it and he loved being the teacher! Dance is a fun way to exercise and
release those all-important endorphins.
5. Story time
Story time is lovely time where you can cuddle up with your children’s favourite stories and spend quality time together. Stories can help expand your child’s vocabulary, interests, imagination, develop literacy skills and many more developmental areas depending on what you are reading.
5. Story time
Story time is lovely time where you can cuddle up with your children’s favourite stories and spend quality time together. Stories can help expand your child’s vocabulary, interests, imagination, develop literacy skills and many more developmental areas depending on what you are reading.
6. Spa
time
Self-care
is important and is a great way to relax and unwind from the stresses of everyday
life. This is a useful calming and bonding activity ahead of bedtime, or you
could add it to your bath time routine. All you need is some hand or body cream.
Then you can rub it into their hands or feet if they want you to. You can talk
about the different smells and describe the texture of different lotions, and
then ask them to choose the one they’d like to use. You could take turns
brushing each other’s hair or use different items in the house to gently brush
their skin, such as a clean makeup brush or a soft toy. Ask them to describe
how it feels, soft, tickly etc. Let them gently brush your skin as well.
7. Make
a papier
mâché bowl
All you
need for this activity is newspaper or paper along with a mug of plain flour
and a mug of water… and that’s it! Simply tear your paper into strips, soak in
the flour and water mix, then create your masterpiece. Once it has fully dried
you can paint it. Then you can fill it with bits and bobs. If you are feeling
really creative, you could make some masks using a bowl or balloon as a mould.
8. Bake
some scones
Scones are
easy to make and will use up some staples you might have, such as soured milk.
You may not have clotted cream, but a warm scone from the oven with a bit of
jam is a lovely afternoon teatime treat. If you want to avoid sugar, try out a
savoury scone recipe with cheese or herbs instead. These are delicious warm
with a little bit of butter. Weighing the ingredients helps with numeracy, and
everyone can get involved rubbing the butter in, stirring to make the dough and
then cutting out the scones with different dough cutter shapes.
9. Create a home cinema
Putting on a film is a nice way to spend some quiet time together. A film normally lasts an hour and a half which means that you can sit down with your children and rest too. To further this activity, the children could make cinema tickets, you could pop some popcorn or prepare a different snack together for your cinema experience, for example, fruit kebabs, homemade lollies, cupcakes, vegetable sticks and dip. Don’t forget to talk about what happened in the film afterwards together to help with language development or ask the children to draw pictures of the characters afterwards, to extend the activity.
10. Kim’s
game
For this
game you need to find lots of random objects from around the house and put them
on a table or tray. Give your child one minute to memorise all the objects
before covering them up. Then spend another minute trying to remember as many
objects as you can. For younger children, use fewer objects. For older
children, add more objects to make it trickier.
A similar game that doesn’t
require objects is ‘I went to the shops and I bought a…’. For this game, each
player has to come up with an object or food that they bought from the shops
using each letter of the alphabet. The first person will say ‘I went to the
shops and bought an apple.’ Then the person has to repeat everything the
last person says and add their own, for example ‘I went to the shops and I
bought an apple and a banana.’ Take it in turns working your way
through the alphabet until you get to z. The longer this game goes on the
harder it is to remember all the items that came before!
11. Make
up a story bag
For this
activity you will need to choose some random objects and put them in a bag or
box. Then make up a story by pulling each object out of the bag. For example,
you could have small world characters and other toys. The story could be ‘Once
upon a time there was a little girl who found a magical key that
led her to a secret kingdom where she found a talking unicorn…’ Or you could
collect some objects that link to a story and make a story sack. You could also
try making story stones by finding and cleaning some large, smooth stones or
pebbles and drawing simple pictures on them. Then draw these out of a bag one
by one as you create your story (be careful if using with younger children as
these could be choking hazards).
I hope
that you find these activities and ideas helpful for keeping you and your
little ones busy. If there is nothing here that you think will interest your child,
please check out Pinterest. It is a great resource with thousands of activities
that you can tailor for your child’s age and stage of development. Remember
keep safe during these uncertain times and make the most of this time together
to have as much fun as possible!”
There are
more activity ideas on our ideas
for entertaining children at home and 125 seasonal activities posts.
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