When the UK first went into lockdown, we were just entering spring. Luckily, many parts of the country enjoyed a warm and sunny summer, making it easier to keep kids entertained during social distancing restrictions. However, with the cold weather approaching and various areas of the UK re-entering stricter lockdowns, you may be wondering how to keep
your children active, entertained, happy and healthy over the winter. Outdoor play is crucial for your child’s physical and mental health, so this article looks at some fun activities to do in the garden or park. However, spending time indoors is going to be unavoidable over the next few months. If you’re stuck for fun ideas for a rainy day, look no further! This article is bursting with creative and educational activities to do with your little ones.
With your kids stuck at home a lot at the moment, they may be tempted to turn to their devices. Games, TV shows and social media are all incredibly absorbing media that kids can
be glued to for hours on end. Now, this can be particularly convenient if you’re one of the millions of parents juggling childcare and working from home during coronavirus. However, it’s not good for your child’s mental health to spend all their time on the iPad, so we’ve put together plenty of ideas for alternatives to screen time. We also consider how to look after your child’s mental health during quarantine by making sure they get fresh air and exercise.
We can’t pretend things are normal right now, but one of the silver linings of lockdown is that it has forced many of us to try new things. With a bit of imagination and creativity, you can think up exciting new ways to entertain your kids this winter. You may just discover that DIY activities and homemade crafts turn out to be more fun, exciting and educational than your normal pre-lockdown entertainment. Hopefully, you’ll find new ways to have fun as a family that you keep coming back to – even after coronavirus restrictions have ended!
Lockdown Tips for Families with Kids
If you’ve landed on this article, the chances are that you’re wondering what fun activities you can do – indoors and out – to keep your child active and healthy during lockdown. If you’re stuck for ideas, we’ve got a list of 7 Super Ways to Entertain Kids of Different Ages.
With the disruption and uncertainty kids have faced over the past few months, it’s important to provide them with lots of fun activities to do. Making sure their time is structured and that they get as much exercise and social interaction as possible is crucial. You don’t want them sitting on the sofa in front of a screen all day! If your kids are glued to their devices, check out our blog on alternative activities to replace screen time.
That being said, technology can be a lifesaver! With many kids unable to see their grandparents and other cherished family members at the moment, Zoom and other video
calling platforms allow your children to keep in touch with everyone. The NSPCC suggests using Zoom to schedule a daily reading hour where a relative or friend reads to or with your child. They also recommend asking your child to draw a picture about their day and share this picture diary with a friend or relative by video call.
As well as keeping the little ones occupied with fun lockdown games and activities, you’re probably thinking about how you can best support them during this difficult time. For
example, you may be wondering how to talk to your child about their mental health during quarantine. Giving your kids the emotional support they need can be as simple as signalling
that you’re there if they want to talk, as well as making sure they get enough exercise and fresh air.
Outdoor Activities: Perfect for Social Distancing
Outdoor play is a great way to entertain your kids and stop the whole family from going stir-crazy! With restrictions on meeting indoors imposed on many parts of the UK, outdoorspaces such as gardens and parks are handy ways to let your kids socialise, exercise and explore nature. Playing outside is also great for your kids’ mental health and education!
Twinkl has a great list of fresh-air activities for your little ones, from nature trails and history walks to scavenger hunts and cycling. They have some great resources to help youtransform your time outdoors into fun educational projects. We highly recommend the‘garden maths’ activity pack and ‘minibeast hunt’ checklist of insects to look out for.
If you’re concerned about how to get fresh air with your children without a garden, remember that you’re still allowed to visit open spaces such as parks, beaches, countryside and forests even under Tier 3 restrictions. Why not wrap up warm and go for a walk? Outdoor sports facilities such as football pitches and tennis courts are also still allowed to operate, so you can take the kids for a kickabout – or even to a fun outside activity like mini-golf!
If you have an allotment, you’re still allowed to visit it under all three tiers of restrictions. This is a perfect opportunity to bring the kids along so they can learn about growing their own food (not to mention get their hands nice and muddy).
Fun Exercise Ideas for Kids
In addition to getting plenty of fresh air, you’ll also want to make sure your kids have lots of exercise during lockdown. We’ve all become more sedentary as a result of the restrictions, so making sure your little ones keep active at home is highly important.
If you’re wondering how to introduce an exercise routine for kids during quarantine, you could always try the trusty Joe Wicks ‘PE With Joe’ videos – many parents found them a lifesaver during the initial stages of lockdown. The great thing about PE videos is that you can do them indoors if the weather’s nasty.
You can also find plenty of exercises for children that don’t require equipment. Today’s parents have a great list of indoor activities to keep kids active, and many of them just use household objects.
We recommend setting up an obstacle course in the hallway or living room and seeing who can do it the best! Alternatively, dancing to your child’s favourite tunes is an ideal way to get kids of all ages up and moving – and Mum or Dad should join in too! Upbeat choreography and singing along will ensure that you’re all laughing and worn out by the end of the song.
Creative Things To Do Indoors
In addition to keeping your children fit and healthy during lockdown, it’s also important to keep their minds active. Being at home all the time is boring for kids, so try to do something different every day. Unfortunately, thanks to the British weather, outdoor play isn’t always possible, so it’s a good idea to have lots of ideas for rainy days.
While it’s tempting to let your kids while away the hours on their phone or gaming console (especially if you’ve got loads of work to get on with), there are oodles of indoor games and activities you can try together. Creative and educational things to do indoors include crafts, science experiments, cooking and baking. You can check out our rundown of indoor
activities for a rainy day for ideas.
One of the top lockdown children’s activities has been making salt dough jewellery. This low-cost, traditional craft was perfect when the shops were shut and everyone had to make do with what they had in the cupboard! It also took many parents back to their own childhoods spent making jewellery and models out of salt dough.
To make it, all you need is 250g of plain flour, 125g of salt and some water. Mix the ingredients together, get your kids to make their salt dough beads or pendants, and then bake the dough in the oven on a low temperature for three hours until hard. Afterwards, your kids can paint their creations. Acrylic paints work much better on salt dough than other kinds.
Another popular indoor kids’ activity during lockdown is making your own lollies. Ice lollies were all the rage over the summer, but now the winter’s drawing in you could always be naughty and make chocolate lollies! BBC Good Food has a rundown of the best lolly moulds for keeping kids entertained in the kitchen during lockdown.
You could also set up an indoor treasure hunt. Just grab a couple of household items (ones that won’t easily break!) and hide them around the home. Then make up clues or riddles about where these items are hidden and present them to your children. They’ll soon be running around the house in search of the lost treasure.
If all this sounds a bit messy for you and you’re in search of something calmer to do, board games and puzzles are a more tranquil alternative. At bedtime, you could instigate a game of sleeping lions – your cubs will be ready to doze off in no time!
Learning Activities
When schools closed their doors in March, many parents were left trying to pick up their kids’ education at home. Thankfully, schools have reopened and the vast majority of pupils in the UK are back at their desks. However, you may be wondering how to design fun, informative and educational activities to do with your child at home.
As it happens, this is often just a case of seeing how activities and games you do anyway might have an educational element already. For example, baking and cooking can help children think about maths. They have to weigh the ingredients and think about the ratios between them. For a little extra homework, you could try asking your child to scale the recipe up or down and work out the quantities needed for each ingredient.
Similarly, you can turn a walk in the park or at the beach into a science and geography lesson. We all know that lots of kids already find bugs fascinating, so why not ask them to look out for all the different insects on their walk? You can also keep their geography skills ticking over by drawing their attention to geographical features such as hills, coastlines, lakes and so on. For older children, learning to read an OS map is an excellent way to make a trip to the countryside educational.
If your child enjoys their DT class at school, then perhaps you could interest them in a little project at home. One classic activity is to try and make the strongest little bridge or table possible out of newspaper and Sellotape. Making paper boats and aeroplanes is also great fun – though beware, if your child’s creation sinks in the local pond, there may be tears!
BBC Bitesize has a fun A-Z list of education activities to try at home with your child during lockdown. They recommend bundling up in warm clothes and going outside to look at the stars at night. Who knows – you may have a budding astronomer on your hands! The BBC’s list also includes learning an instrument, doing science experiments with recycling, and keeping a lockdown diary.
It’s easy to put an educational spin on lockdown activities for kids, making learning so fun they don’t even realise it’s happening!
So, there you have it: our comprehensive guide to keeping your kids entertained during lockdown. While the weather puts a limit on what you can do outside, there are still plenty of options for your kids to enjoy outdoor play and get some fresh air. Lockdown has also brought us a wealth of new ideas for indoor exercise. Moreover, there are plenty of low-cost, homemade arts and crafts activities for you to test out with your little ones. Perhaps the most important thing of all, however, is spending time together as a family.