Top activities for self-isolation and lockdown

We’ve done our research and have asked the parents in our teams for their ideas of what they’ll be doing to keep their kids entertained. From educational tips to fun activities, read on for our ideas for enjoying staying at home. 

1. Create a schedule and embrace school resources

For school days, our team parents are all creating schedules for their little home schoolers including slots for free-time to keep a similar regime to school. We also saw this fantastic (and very neat!) example from Kim Kenlay on Twitter whilst using the #homeschooling hashtag. She’s included HWB which is a Welsh homeworking website for school pupils but you could use your children's school homework website or even BBC Bitesize for screen-based revision. 

Add in help for household chores and schedule in their favourite movies and TV shows in the evenings so that days feel as ‘normal’ as possible and they have lots of chill out time.

2. Boost rewards

During this period at home you may have to increase good behaviour rewards as everyone, kids and parents alike, will start to tire of all the staying at home. 

Ask the kids for the rewards that they would really like to have from a selection - such as getting a takeaway, playing their favourite family game, baking a cake, upgrading a game on their tablet, renting a new movie or ordering a new treat from an online shop. Use whatever rewards they will react to from stars to points out of ten – be creative or work with what you already have!

3. Keep fit 

Everyone’s favourite online personal trainer, Joe Wicks has created daily #PEWithJoe sessions on his YouTube channel live at 9am all ready to get your day started with some exercise. The videos also save to his channel so you can complete them later on in the day or go back and re-do some of your favourite workouts.  

4. Maths time

5. Reading and writing 

• One of our community partners that we worked a lot with in 2019, the National Literacy Trust, have created a family zone web portal on their website to support parents with content such as simple activities, writing resources, audiobooks, videos, competitions and reading challenges split up into age groups from 0 to 4, 5 to 8 and 9 to 16 years old
• Why not print out blank comic book strips and encourage children to create their own story series over the course of the weeks that they’re at home?
• The Global Digital Library is another free website with stories from around the world for children to access and read at home. The website also contains games linked to some of the stories
• To incorporate an element of history into your reading, literacy and storytelling time try creating a family tree. Plan it out together and then draw their favourite tree with the branches as family members.
  

6. Creative makes

• Colouring can be really therapeutic and enjoyable for all ages (even adults!) and you can find a colouring book based on any interest at all online. From wizards to pretty patterns and everything in between, grab your pens or pencils and have half an hour of colouring. 
• Create a name monster with a piece of paper. Fold a piece of paper in half and ask your child to write their name in large letters against one edge and then cut around it. When it’s unfolded they’ll now have a monstrous shape to colour in and write a story about!
• Get crafty with DIY salt dough and paint it once it’s set. You could even create some awards or trophies together so that children are even more engaged with their reward charts. 
• Check out our DIY Robin Hood Hat tutorial on YouTube for a Nottingham themed creative activity. 
  
  
 

8. Play time

• Building a den or a cushion fort is always so much fun all you need are sheets and soft furnishings and some pegs to hold things together
• Board games and card games are always winners
• Use smart speakers to play games such as music quizzes and general knowledge games, check out the app stores for the full list of games on your device. 

• Bake and decorate cookies
• Try creating no-bake healthy protein balls 
• Whip up smoothies for breakfast
• Ask kids to plan the meals for the day with what’s in the cupboards, fridge and freezer. As a bonus activity for older kids, give them the prices of the ingredients and ask them to work out the price per portion for added maths skills! 

• Create a video message to send to grandparents or other family members. For older children, you could introduce some IT and media skills and find tutorials online for them to edit the videos and create mini films like vlogs for their friends to watch
• Make cards and letters to send to local care homes for the residents who are self-isolating or even just write notes to elderly neighbours and pop them through their doors
• Create pockets of time in schedules for children to chat to their friends over gaming devices or set up play dates for younger ones over video calls with their parents. 

• Kayleigh from our Partnerships team recommends ‘water painting’ during sunny spring days! “All you need are clean paint brushes and water. The kids can paint pictures on the patio or the house bricks for hours of fun. My boys love this!”
• Get green-fingered and try mowing the lawn, doing some weeding, planting some new flowers or even growing vegetables such as carrots if you have the space.
• For your daily exercise, try going for a bike ride from your home to a rural area and remember to stay over more than 2 metres from other people.
• If you’re friendly with your neighbours, why not play charades or have a dance off over the fence? Keep score over the weeks to create your own mini tournament. This definitely counts as getting active too! 

Do you need even more ideas and activities? Check out Pobble’s list of simple and fun non-screen activities including starting a nature diary and creating your own secret code. If you’d like us to keep updating this page with more and more helpful ideas, send us your tips, activities and fun games on social media. We’re on both Twitter and Facebook!