Things to do with kids during lockdown
It’s strange and scary times we are living in right now, if you’ve got young kids, you’ll know how hard it is to keep them entertained all day while we’re all in lockdown during the Coronavirus outbreak.
There are without a doubt good and bad days and of course every day in isolation isn’t going to be fun but I’ve found that having a bit of structure helps.
Finding things to do with kids during lockdown can be exhausting, you might be running out of ideas for daily activities so hopefully there’s a few things I’ve listed here that you’ve not tried yet..
Things to watch:
Although we all try our best not to let kids watch TV or their tablets for too long, it’s inevitable that there’s always going to be some screen time; especially during lockdown! For your own sanity and five minutes downtime with a cuppa it is necessary! There are lots of people out there doing some fun and creative things online, here are our favourites:
- If you’ve not heard about him already, every day at 9am Joe Wicks, The Body Coach is doing live workout sessions aimed at families. We’ve done P.E with Joe a few times now and I’ve got to say my muscles have been aching for a few days afterwards. Emily loves joining in too although we never quite finish the full 30-minute session.
- If your little ones attend Baby Ballet classes our local franchise have moved their classes online, so you can do ballet every day of the week if you like and join in with all the different classes. It’s so nice for Emily to still be able to see her teacher Miss Claire and maintain a little bit of normal in all this madness!
- For five minutes of entertainment head to Google, search for an animal and click on ‘view in 3D’. It brings your camera up and thirty seconds later you have an animal in your room!
- Over on their YouTube channel Jiggy Wrigglers have moved their fun classes online so your kids can dance and get active at home.
Fun things to do outside during lockdown:
If lockdown rules allow it there are so many fun things to do outside as a family, most of the time these are really simple too and don’t need many resources.
Scavenger hunt
This one is really simple and can be done in the garden or out on your daily walk from home. I found a gift bag and then came up with a list of things to find, a feather, a stick, a petal and a leaf. It kept Emily entertained for at least 15 minutes or so anyway!
Garden potions
My clever friend Sam, who is a teacher, came up with this lovely idea for the garden. All you need is some bottles or something to put your potion in, food colouring and things from the garden to chop up and add to your mix, grass, petals sticks etc. If you don’t have food colouring to add, then plain old water works fine and is just as fun.
Volcano experiment
This has to be purchased but is a lot of fun: Violent Volcano. Since writing this Galt aren’t currently taking on any online orders but I’m sure you can find something similar on Amazon.
It is recommended for ages 8 and above. Emily is three so I added most of the ingredients to the volcano while she watched and wore the safety goggles that were included, which she loved! Following the instructions once everything has been added in stand back and watch as it explodes into the air!
Online resources:
There are some great free downloadable resources out there, these are some of Emily’s favourite lockdown activities:
- Orchard Toys have some nice activity sheets aimed at younger children.
- If like me you are missing the sea The Wave Project have some great ocean themed activity books to download with a new one every week.
- Twinkl is a huge educational resource, create an account for free during school closures and download worksheets. Everyone is catered for from pre-school to secondary.
- The Sussex Wildlife Trust have a some lovely indoor activity sheets which I’ve just discovered.
Five Minute Mum book: Everybody going through lockdown with kids needs this book in their lives! It has an amazing collection of activities to do indoors and out. Our favourites are the restaurant game and the toy tombola game. Follow her Instagram handle too for more genius activities to do at home. There are tons of fun things to do with kids during lockdown in this book, I don’t know where I’d be without it!
Indoor fun:
There are so many fun things to do as a family inside while on lockdown. It can be hard to keep the momentum going, especially if it’s a rainy day and you can’t get outside. Hopefully this list will give you some inspiration to get through those potentially dull days!
Make a rainbow
Make a rainbow for your window: Orchard Toys who I mentioned above have a downloadable rainbow colouring sheet. You can of course just go free hand with your own design. We jazzed ours up by adding cotton wool clouds and stuck it in our lounge window.
Use household recycling to make something crafty
Save up toilet rolls, cardboard and egg boxes to make something fun, for example a crocodile. Paper plates are also an easy thing to get creative with, even if you just stick a load of glitter, beads and sequins on. We’ve also got a new addition to our cardboard family in the form of a rocket! It has captured Emily’s imagination about space and she now wants to be an astronaut…
Mask making
Emily’s favourite superhero character is Owlette from PJ Masks, so we designed and made her own mask. She loved running around the house in her superhero costume with it on!
Zip line
This is very entertaining and a bit educational too. All you need is some string, hangers with clips on and soft toys. Find a spot to fasten the string and turn it into a zip line. Attach the toys to the hangers and send them down the zip wire. I asked Emily which of the cuddly toys travelled faster and explained it was because that some of them were lighter than others.
Ice painting
Add food colouring to water in ice cube trays, pop some lolly sticks in and put in the freezer. When frozen you’ve got a new fun way to paint.
Scavenger hunt
This is the indoor version and an opportunity to get creative with hunting for things around the house. It might even give you five minutes to grab a cuppa. I focused on things all over the house to give Emily a bit of variety and get her up and active. This one didn’t last for as long as I had hoped, Emily did it twice and then I was left with a huge pile of crap to tidy away! She had fun though!
Hope you found this list useful and I’ll update it with more activities as we do them. I would love some more suggestions if you have any? Let me know in the comments below….
December 31, 2020
[…] kids we had to find daily activities to keep Emily entertained. I put together a post all about things to do with kids during lockdown. Being the summer was a bonus as we could spend time out in the garden. We also tried to get out […]