Activities to do with kids while sitting on the couch

[brbg2g]

I’m absolutely knackered all the time and going through cancer treatment at the moment. It’s the holidays here and although I’m trying to do the park/walks/take the kids out on bikes I’m struggling and running out of energy quickly so looking for ideas to do while sat on the couch which isn’t just watching the telly. we read a lot of books and do some art for kids hub videos together to draw.

my youngest is only 3 so will happily play on the floor with toys but older child is 8 and would happily stare at the tv for hours if allowed which I feel really guilty about.

any ideas for sitting down activities would be awesome as although I’m usually good at ideas I’m drawing a blank. Thanks

Board games? The 3 yo could be in 8yo ‘team’?

Snap?
Happy Families?
Face painting? You can get kits quite cheaply now.

There is a website called Baker Ross that has loads of cheap and easy craft kits. You could choose some together and then make them together. I love it. You could make those sat on the settee. Building Lego? Reading together sounds really nice. Look after yourself.

I know exactly how you feel!

When my children were young (and I had no money) we used to cut out pictures from magazines into their various elements and then put them together again on plain paper with glue. I realise that won't make any sense... so here's an explanation.

Choose a topic/subject - our favourites were faces and furniture. We would cut out eyes, and noses, and lips etc., lots of them, and then make up new faces with the different elements. They ended up being quite Picasso-esque with eyes looking in different directions, noses pointing the other way, men's eyebrows on ladies faces, all sorts. The furniture pictures were used to decorate 'rooms'. You could do it with animals, flowers, anything. You could get the children to make up a little story and use the pictures to illustrate it.

Dobble
Uno
5 alive
Go fish
All quick and easy to play without a table.

There's an educational website called Blookit where you turn a topic -say a times table into a game. Most of the free games are rubbish but the cafe game is great. You can make your own game or use someone else's. You can play together using one or two screens.

Some fab ideas here thank you. Why didn’t I think of dobble and uno. Brain fog moment! We also have go fish and top trumps.
I really like the magazine and glue idea as well both of them would love this.

thanks all

Learn chess together
magic tricks
rubiks cube
have a living room disco, basically you all get to pick three songs type thing.

Memory games like Kim's Game, I went to the shop and I bought a ....,

20 questions

A game where you have to think of adjectives for a cat 'I have a cat and my cat is an angry cat / my cat is a blue cat' etc through the alphabet.

Gin Tummy is another good card game. Easy to play.

Rummy!

Gin tummy is me!

Scavenger hunts work both indoors and out
Indoors bring me;
a towel
a toy you can hide in your hand
a teaspoon
something alive.
a pair of shoes on the wrong feet.
a coat on back to front

Outdoors bring me
three different leaves
a flower
something smooth
something the same colour as your hair/ lips/ teeth
something man made
a twig the longest blade of grass you can find

Outdoors may be better if they work as a team rather than in competition.

My grandmother was confined to the sofa or bed (had to be either totally upright but only for a very short amount of time or totally flat) for a few years as a young mother, and my mum had very happy memories of her learning yo yo tricks with them, and they all got really good at it.
Also, something like french knitting is easy to pick up, or simple cross stitch on that gridded fabric (we called it binka when I was a kid).
Fuzzy felt? I'd forgotten about it until a friend told me she'd bought a set for her 5 yo dniece and said how much fun they'd had