15 BRILLIANT WAYS TO ENTERTAIN THE KIDS!
How to create some life-long memories while never leaving your home
The prospect of an extended period at home with their children is understandably worrying for a lot of parents. Kids need stimulation and an outlet to burn off energy, which is tricky if you can’t readily get out and about. Planning some easy activities to do at home, and in the garden, can really help keep their brains and bodies active.
1 BUILD A DEN
Younger children will love this activity. The easiest way to make a den is by covering four chairs with a bedsheet and placing cushions on the floor, but let your kids experiment with different options: a pillow fort or pushing sofas or armchairs together to make a giant “bed” are both fun ideas!
2HUNT FOR TREASURE
Create a map of your home and garden, then hide small items around it. Mark each piece of hidden treasure on the map. Depending on your children’s ages, explain the map to them and offer to help with hunting if they need it. You could also do a written clue hunt for older kids.
3CONSTRUCT LIFESIZE DRAWINGS
Stick several sheets of paper together (or use a paper roll) and get your children to lie down on it while you outline their bodies with a pen. They can get creative and colour in their outline, or use stamps, stickers and pieces of material to decorate it.
4INVENT A STORY
Capture their imagination with a game of chain stories. Each person takes it in turn to write a paragraph of a story and then shows only the last line to the next writer, folding the rest of the paper over to hide it. Once the final person has written their section, read the whole story out loud. You should get some laughs!
5PLAY A BOARD GAME
Get the whole family involved with a board game. Our favourites include Connect 4, Articulate, The Game of Life, Cluedo and Guess Who? Encourage older kids to create their own from scratch or from parts of games they love.
6HOST A PARTY
Tell your children you’re having a birthday party for their favourite toy. You can go as big or small as you like with the celebrations – a pretend tea party can ignite their imagination, but you could also add in party games like Musical Statues and Simon Says, and decorate with
balloons and banners.
7ROCK PAINTING
Find some pebbles from the garden or a nearby open space, clean them with soap and warm water, then get decorating! Kids can use paint, marker pens or even stickers to decorate their rocks. Plus they’ll spend ages looking for the most impressive rock they can find.
8PERFORM A PLAY
Raid their dressing-up boxes and ask the kids to put on a play in the living room. You may need to help them with storyline ideas and allocate roles, and naturally, you’ll be the captivated audience!
9CREATE AN INDOOR CINEMA
Decide which film you’re going to “screen” on the TV and tell the kids what time the doors open! Draw the curtains, turn off all the lights and put the popcorn or snacks in a bowl for the full cinema experience.
10 GET ACTIVE!
Burn off some of their energy with Joe Wicks’ exercise bursts for children. The fun five-minute workouts, hosted by Joe on YouTube, will entertain the little ones. Or, help them to relax with a session of Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube, with specially designed yoga classes and child-friendly instructions for kids aged three-plus.
11 DRAW A FAMILY TREE
Kids will love mapping out and learning about their family. Use it as a way to tell them all about the lives of their grandparents and even great-grandparents!
12 HOST AN INDOOR PICNIC
Lay out a blanket in the living room (or the garden if it’s warm enough) and fill your picnic basket with their favourite finger food. As you eat, play the picnic memory game. Each person says, “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing …”. See how long you can keep it going for!
13 WRITE LETTERS
Your children may find no socialising hard, so encouraging them to write handwritten letters to their friends and family members is a good way to help them feel connected. Writing to their grandparents, who may be self-isolating, is also a great idea. They will love receiving a reply in the post too!
14 WATCH WILDLIFE – LIVE!
Explore.org has live webcams set up in various spots around the world to capture wildlife and animals. From tropical fish to safari animals, you can pick from an array of live cams.
15 START A BOOK CLUB
Ask your children to each read a book and then join up together to tell everyone else about the story, what it is about and why they enjoyed it. For little ones, you can read to them and ask them for feedback.