Brilliant ways to keep the kids occupied whilst staying at home

With the global Covid-19 pandemic resulting in a huge number of people now having to juggle working from home whilst also entertaining their children, we thought we would put together a list of brilliant, boredom-busting ideas that could make life a little easier.

Can't go wrong with a classic

Whether you’re 6 or 66, Lego captures all imaginations. Now is a perfect time to pull out all those Lego bricks once again and get building!

For seasoned Lego pros who like a surprise, this is where the 30 Days of Lego Play calendar comes in very handy. A brand new challenge is set for you to attempt each day, which means a fantastic starting block (all puns intended) to help spark your imagination.

Throughout the 30 days, you will need to build NASA a new rocket, design your dream bedroom, think up the perfect new Tardis so The Doctor can continue travelling through space and time, and create the perfect pizza, just to mention a few. So get those building blocks out, and get the whole family to unleash their inner designer.

Visit thatbricklife.com for a printable 30 Days of Lego Play calendar, and to find dozens more tips and ideas for getting the most out of your Lego collection.

Make the ordinary outstanding

It can seem very challenging to keep everyone occupied and entertained when you’re limited to your own living room, but sometimes just putting a slant on the everyday things can make the ordinary extra-special. The usual lunchtime sandwiches? Why not take those sandwiches and turn them into an indoor picnic instead? Dig out your best picnic blanket and plastic cutlery and turn the most boring of everyday meals into a picnic adventure fit for the Famous Five without even having to leave your own living room.

Found a film everyone can agree on? Why not make it into a true cinema experience by ‘selling’ portions of popcorn, pulling the curtains and switching out the lights for the big screening and even making individual tickets for entry to the show if you’re feeling extra creative!

Wanting to make the most of the weather whilst following government guidelines? Dig out that old tent from the back of the shed and set it up - hey presto, an instant camping ‘holiday’ in your own back garden.

If you’re all desperate for some real escapism from what is proving to be a very unusual March, how about having your very own Christmas in Spring? Put on your favourite Christmas songs, go and find that Santa hat, make some paper chains and decorations to hang up, or even go and get that tree down from the loft and decorate to your hearts content! Christmas biscuit baking in Spring, anyone?

Isolation aerobics 

Just because school’s out for time-being doesn’t mean that P.E. lessons have to stop.

Joe Wicks, social media’s very own personal trainer, is hosting ‘P.E. with Joe’, leading the nation in at-home live P.E. lessons every Monday-Friday at 9am from his YouTube channel.

Keep your arms active, your belly bending and your legs lunging all from the comfort of your own living room by tuning into Joe’s live stream, hosted own his YouTube channel every weekday at 9am.

Practical play

It’s probably fair to say that lots of parents are currently rather daunted suddenly find themselves needing to be their child’s school teacher alongside the usual challenges of being a parent, snack-provider, children’s entertainer and cruise director all rolled into one. You may also be doubly-loaded with also having to balance your own work to do from home alongside supervising your child’s schoolwork. It’s a good job parents are tough creatures! It isn’t easy at the best of times to try and strike a good work/play balance, but never has that been more the case than right now when we’re trying to do all of that without leaving the house.

However, much like the way you manage to sneak 6 of your child’s 5-a-day into your world-famous spaghetti bolognese without them ever knowing, your child can be learning all the time through play without them ever realising quite how much they’re learning. The bottom line is - try not to stress about it. Your kids are learning far more than you may realise. This is particularly easy with younger children who are exploring everything and finding out about the world through every type of play. Everything is a chance to learn. For example, baking some cakes? Get your little ones to measure out ingredients and count the numbers on the scales, while older ones can work out the measurements needed if you were to halve the recipe, or double it. How about working out the fat or sugar content in the finished recipe? There you have it - home economics and maths in one easy cake-baking session, and you even get cake to eat at the end of it!

Snack-time sums 

A great idea currently doing the rounds on social media combines both a fantastic level of parenting-cleverness and a sneaky bit of learning. Why not run your very own an at-home Snack Bar? Getting fed up of hearing the words “Can I have a snaaaack?” twenty times a day? You’re not alone. Set a price list for all of your parent-approved snacks, with the naughtier treats being more expensive (50p for crisps, 15p for biscuits, 5p for apples etc.) and give your child an allowance of £1 a day - once they’ve spent their allowance, that’s it for their snacks for the day. This is clever on so many levels - not only will your younger children absolutely love this game which will feel like a trip to the shops in their very own kitchen, but if you use real coins, it will teach them how to count their change, and to work out and budget their remaining allowance. It also stops them nagging you constantly for ‘one more, pleeeease!” Perfect.

Rainbow Road 

Spotted any rainbows in windows lately? Another social media trend that has proved popular is that of rainbow-spotting. It’s tough at the moment to entertain your children outside when the time we spend outside has to be limited to one walk/cycle/run a day. Turn your daily exercise time outside into a rainbow spotting-mission instead! People are placing drawings, pictures and paintings of rainbows in their windows for people to spot while they’re outside walking through the neighbourhood. Join them by painting your very own rainbows, and see how many you can count on your next walk.

Community Connectivity

Despite the wonderful advantage we have of being able to connect to the outside world online, which is obviously a huge bonus when you’re physically shut away as we are right now, sometimes it’s far better to just switch off digitally and connect to the community in a less digital way. There are several ways that you can connect to your community using both the internet and old-fashioned pen and paper without going far from home.

The Facebook community ‘Postcards of Kindness’ encourages members to send postcards or messages to people in care homes who may feel extremely isolated from the community, particularly at the moment when friends and family are unable to visit them in person. Even though you’re not on your travels and picking up postcards from your holidays, that doesn’t mean you can’t send messages from right here at home. Get your children to draw pictures on black postcards or cards and write short and simple messages to say a cheery hello to someone who will be delighted to hear from you. Tell them what you ate for breakfast, or what can see out of your window right now. How about telling them your favourite game, or what book you’re reading at the moment?

Then when you’re next outside for your daily exercise, pop them in the postbox and know that you’ll raise a big smile when they arrive at their destination. The Facebook group contains an A-Z list of care homes who are taking part and their locations, so you can take your pick. Now, where did we put those colouring pens?

Well that's our list! Have you seen any genius ideas floating around? Have you come up with one yourself? Please let us know via Facebook or Twitter, we're always looking for ideas!