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Resources for parents during Covid-19 Lockdown

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Activities

It can be hard to keep the kids entertained when we're all stuck in the house. It's even more challenging if the weather isn't great for the garden or if you've no outdoor space at home and can only go for one walk a day. Below are some ideas of things you can do with different age ranges. Click on the images to find out more about each activity.

0-5 years old


Sing nursery rhymes and songs with your child - this is a feel good activity and also has a lot of benefits for your child's development. With all the groups that we would normally take our children to now not running in the same way they normally would, you might want to also check out Cbeebies The Baby Club, it's the same kind of idea - joining in with singing and listening to stories together, only it's on telly!

2-10 year olds

Here's a creative activity you can do with things you have in the cupboard, although pasta seems to be a commodity at the minute! As well as being good fun for children it also helps development of their fine motor skills. 

5-10 years old

Baking together is something the whole family can enjoy, especially eating them together afterwards! Children can also get creative decorating the biscuits. They will also learn about cooking as well as weight, measurements and time.

3-80 years old!

The 5-minute Easter Egg hunt

If you don’t have loads of time or have really little ones to entertain, it makes sense to keep your hunt super simple. All you need to do is to choose your eggs and scatter them in easy to access places around the house or garden.

This activity is great for getting out into the fresh air and enjoying a bit of fresh air in the garden. It can also encourage sharing and taking turns.

  • If you’ve younger children taking part, it’s a good idea to allocate each child a colour and wrap up eggs in the different coloured foil or tissue paper - that way you can be sure all faces have equally chocolatey smiles at the end.
  • If you don’t allocate colours, get them to come back to a ‘base’ every three eggs - so there’s plenty of opportunity for everyone to scoop lots of treasure.
  • Although there’s bound to be some egg-scoffing going on at some point, it’s a good idea to have some game rules in place - one being that eggs have to be brought to ‘base’ before being eaten.
  • If you want to offer something other than chocolate you can buy hollow plastic egg containers which can hold, sweet treats, clues or even stickers and other bits and bobs.
  • Or you can simply scatter coloured, painted eggs which can be traded in at the end for a prize.

Your hunt, your rules!

3-8 years old

Making your own playdough is fun and saves you spending on buying the real stuff in the shops! Plus children love it as a bit of messy play.

All ages

Another fun Easter bake that you can make with left over Rice Krispies. They can be decorated in any way you like with whatever treats you have in the cupboard.

All ages: Quizzes

Some folks have been creating quizzes for people to do online whilst lockdown is happening. Why not get your children involved in making up questions for your own quiz that you could do with family and friends on FaceTime or other video calling apps? You could take it in turns to host quiz evenings. It's a good way for children to still have fun connecting with others and use their brain power to come up with questions! 

All ages: Easter cards

This is an easy activity children could do with bits of paper and craft materials you have around the house. They could decorate cards and then send them to relatives. 

All ages: Paper Mache

Again, children can get creative with paper mache, expressing their individuality through the creations and decorations they make. It can be a nice decoration or keepsake for their room as well!

All ages - Letter writing

Why not go old school when it comes to keeping in touch with relatives? Encourage your children to write letters to a parent that doesn't live with you, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins or godparents! This is a nice person way to connect with people and teaches children patience in posting the letter and waiting for a reply, it also builds anticipation which can make it more exciting for children.

All ages - Memory scrapbook

We are living through history, these unique circumstances we're experiencing will be something our children will want to reflect on in years to come so it might be nice to document some of your time at home. You can do this really simply with a notebook or scrap paper you have around the house. Encourage your children to draw, stick things pictures (if you can print some out) and newspaper clippings in and write stories about what's happening in your community. It will be nice to look back on in the future.

We are really glad that this section may provide you with some support and information in the short term, but should you feel you need a little bit of extra information or additional support we would encourage you to contact the free Support Line on 0808 8010 722.