Got young kids? Desperate to keep them busy during Lockdown but don’t have the time to plan a full day of kids’ activities? Here’s my top 5 activities for keeping kids entertained with minimal planning time required!
- #DrawWithRob, http://www.robbiddulph.com
Now I am no artist. In fact I would consider myself quite the opposite with distinct memories of my Art teacher at school almost pitying the amount of effort I would put in for such dreadful results. So I guess it stands to reason that anything arty is a kids’ activity I normally avoid! But, those days are long gone. We have become genuinely obsessed with these short, easily accessible drawing tutorials from the wonderful author and illustrator, Rob Biddulph. My 4 (almost 5) year old can follow along by herself but actually it has become the thing we look forward to doing together. We’ve built up a little folder of 9 drawings now which I can’t wait for her to be able to look back on too!
All you need is some paper, a pencil, some colours and ability to log on to the internet.
2. Treasure Hunts
Inspired by the Easter Bunny, we have had several treasure/scavenger hunts the last few days. What started as lovely colourful printouts from websites like Twinkl or in Facebook parent groups, has now been scaled back to minimal preparation! Just this morning I wrote the numbers 1-20 on a piece of paper, cut them out and hid them round the house whilst the girls were eating just one of their many snacks before midday! Once they had eaten, they had to find the numbers scattered around the house and then put them in the right order. Once they had checked it was right I even let them use the glue (!!!) to stick them onto paper which made it even mor exciting in the eyes of a 4 and 2 year old! My eldest even made a comment about how I never let them use glue so what a treat! Either way it gave me enough time to enjoy a hot drink and get their lunch ready in relative peace.
Tomorrow we’re going to do the same but with the alphabet and next week I might write some key words or tricky words and then split them up so that they have to spell them out. All you need is a piece of paper and a pen.
3. Sticker/Activity Books
These used to be the bane of my life. Along with soft-play, I just really resented doing them. However sticker activity books have become one of the kids’ activities that we do most often!
Whether it’s dot-to-dots, mazes, spot the differences or good-old-fashioned sticker albums they keep the girls busy for ages! My youngest loves anything where the stickers have a specific place to go whereas my eldest has just started getting more into puzzle books with wordsearches and spot the difference. We’ve also got a National Geographic sticker album and a Frozen 2 sticker album that double up as reward books for when they have done something good. Occasionally we might get a magazine (CBeebies is our favourite and will take hours to complete!) We used them loads when potty training and have always been viewed as extra special in my eldest’s mind!
Search for sticker books or activity books on Amazon, or see what they have next time you’re in the supermarket! The Range normally have good options too if you’re near to one and need something essential, or you can order them online.
4. Puzzles
With puzzles on the mind, we actually spend a lot of time doing jigsaws. I love a jigsaw and have so many memories of doing them with my own parents and grandparents growing up. The girls share that love and for the most part are able to do them fairly independently. I love the Ravensburger sets where you get 4 puzzles in one as they take a bit longer to do and also range in ability. We also have some great wooden ones from Melissa & Doug with the picture underneath which makes them easier for the youngest to tackle by herself.
We were very kindly gifted some Trolls World Tour puzzles from Ravensburger as part of their #positivelypuzzling initiative and they have been so well used already! They also sent me a puzzle to do which has given me some much needed me-time of an evening!
5. Tweedy’s Lost And Found, The Barn Theatre on YouTube
For anyone local to Gloucestershire, I would be amazed if you haven’t heard of the phenomenon that is Gifford’s Circus and in turn, Tweedy the Clown. Always guaranteed to make the kids (and the big kids) laughing, Tweedy has found himself ‘working’ in the Lost & Found office at The Barn Theatre, Cirencester to pass the time during Lockdown. Think true slapstick comedy combined with some pretty impressive guest stars calling in (Helena Bonham-Carter and Kerry Mucklowe to name just two!) and you really won’t go far wrong. More than any of the other kids activities or things that the kids have watched, this has given me a guaranteed 30 minutes to do what I need or to sit and enjoy watching it with them. My eldest became a huge Tweedy fan after seeing him in the Everyman Theatre’s brilliant pantomime, Cinderella last year and she’s only grown to love him (and Keef) even more.
A new episode of Lost & Found is streamed each week on YouTube and you can catch up any that you may have missed on The Barn Theatre’s YouTube channel.
These are just a few of the things we’ve been doing regularly to pass the time but we have done a lot of other things too.
We’ve made amazing use of our Disney+ membership, and Netflix for that matter! We’ve also been practising our foreign languages and enjoying stories and songs from Babel Babies. And as I’m sure you all have been, I have been doing more craft than you can shake a stick at! Another post to follow on some easy crafty kids’ activities you can do!
Take care, stay home where you can and see you all on the other side of this Lockdown!
