8 ideas on how to keep your children entertained at home

With schools now essentially closed across the country, many parents are having to care for their children whilst also working from home.

Posted: March 30, 2020

During these unusual circumstances, it is essential to keep your children’s minds active, as well as ensuring that they exert some physical energy. We have compiled a list of resources and activities which should help fill the days…

Carol Vorderman’s maths resources

Since the Government chose to close schools for the masses, Carol Vorderman’s online maths resources have been made free for all to use. You can visit the site at themathsfactor.com and there are plenty of resources to keep your children busy, all of which have different levels of difficulty attached.

Tes.com

You may never have heard of tes.com but if you are a teacher or work in education then it is a goldmine of resources. You can sign up free and then in the “Resources” section you will find literally thousands of lesson plans, activities and ideas that teachers upload to the site and often form the basis of their own lessons. With TES you can search for a specific topic and there will often be multiple resources – if you are looking to keep up your child’s scholastic habits during the school closures, this will be a real lifesaver.

Joe Wicks PE lessons

Joe Wicks, known as “The Body Coach” is streaming thirty minute PE lessons for kids every morning at 9am from Monday to Friday. You can either follow the workout live or catch it on his YouTube channel.

Audio books

David Walliams’ children’s books have proved to be extremely popular and for the next month a new audio story will be released each day totally free of charge. Just head to bit.ly/AudioElevenses each day for the latest story.

Twinkl

Twinkl provides professional educational resources from early years upwards and often puts together some of the most imaginative learning resources around. During the Coronavirus period, they have made many resources free of charge and are offering free guides to help you with your child’s education

View their website

Teach them to cook

If you are looking to teach something extra-curricular then why not start in the kitchen? Teaching your children a few basic recipes will eat up the time, as well as teaching them valuable life skills. You can start with baking basic recipes that require few ingredients, to them helping you with dinner for the evening.

Learn a new skill

With the internet, there is no excuse for avoiding new skills and has there ever been a better time to do so? With your child, you could learn how to knit – order the tools online – and could watch videos together, whilst helping one another with the intricacies of the craft. Other popular crafts to learn include crochet, needlepoint and card making.

Practise yoga

In the current climate, it is easy to feel overwhelmed with world events, and children are extremely sensitive to our own behaviours. One activity that you can do together and is mutually beneficial is yoga – there are plenty of apps or YouTube channels which you can use to guide you through the process, and it should help with your whole family’s wellbeing.