To ask for some calm activities which don't involve screens?

[Alwaysyoudoyou]

We're a 'low screen time' household. Not because I want to be a martar or make anyone else feel bad about their own choices for their families (you do you!). It's because it seems to leave my kids more wired than relaxed, so we avoid it as much as possible.

This week both my kids have slight fevers and coughs. Trying to keep them calm /encourage them to do more sedentary activities feels like trying to hold water in a sieve. We've done all the puzzles, read books, coloured, been out for a quick walk to try and stave off the cabin fever etc. We've had a bit of TV but once it goes off they're bouncing around and climbing the walls even more than before it went on. Which then exasperates the coughs and temperatures again!!

Any suggestions for how to keep them calmer until they recover? Or should I just follow their lead and trust that if they were that ill then they'd not have the energy that they seem to have!?

Jig saws
read them stories
play eye-spy
sing with them
play doh

but if they were really ill they wouldn’t be playing so actively. So don’t worry, go with the flow.

Lego? Baking? Write a story together..you each come up with a character, then put loads of plot ideas in a bowl and pick them out and build a story round it. Charity shop for more puzzles and books, board games etc. Cards?

Depends a bit on age? 2 and 5 different to 10 and 12 . . .

Painting or paint by numbers
Playdoh or clay modelling
Lego or duplo
Knitting - either trad style or French knitting
Bake depending on virulence of germs
Junk modelling

Im following for more ideas as we are off to a rainy holiday cottage next week . . .

How old are they? Depends what might be suitable but "life skill" things like learning to sew on a button, tie their shoe laces or school tie might occupy some time.
For older ones the beginners cross-stitch type kits or learn to knit.
Sort out some cupboards and drawers to remove toys they've grown out of or clothes that don't fit.

Why do parents feel it's their job to keep their children occupied all the time? It isn't necessary for you to organise activities for them. Let them be bored for a while - they'll soon think of something to do, or daydream, or chat with each other. Dealing with boredom (or with activities that aren't immediately exciting) is an essential life skill. Leave them to it, and have a bit of time to yourself.

There’s quite a few if you think outside the box a bit. My kids love soap-carving (cheapo bars of soap and potato peelers), making ooblek, banging large-headed nails in to lumps of wood with small hammers (bizarrely adored!!), whittling, yo-yos, cleaning brass ornaments (can be picked up for pennies in charity shops). Scratch art is always good for peaceful play.
If you look up Cub Scout activity ideas etc they help.

If they're ill, they will want to be sedentary but otherwise I don't know why you're insisting on it? Just leave them to it, kids need to entertain themselves. Getting outside will help them recover, go out to the playground or whatever outdoor spaces you have nearby.

How old?

What ages?

Kinetic sand
Blocks
Play doh
Puzzles
Stickers
Colouring
Reading
Sorting (you can get toys online where you sort by colours), you can then turn this into a very cool game by putting the coloured buckets somewhere and then giving them a pile and telling them to put the various items in the coloured bucket. It's like a lazy hide and seek for mums 😅

Agreed

Like this

If they are bouncing around and climbing the walls even with fever and coughs, I'd just leave them to play whatever they want as normal.
We go for low screen time most of the time (1-2 hour max a day dunno if that is low lol) but when sick my kids don't even want to move off the sofa so we just allow screentime until recovered. If they were boucing around, I would class them as not sick even if they had a fever and revert to normal screen time and play things.

Reading
Lego
Cutting and sticking
Playing in a big cardboard box and decorating it
Make friendship bracelets
Make then play with slime (mine is transfixed for ages with this!)

I don't think it's that, it's nice to have things around that they can play with surely. Or do you just sit in a empty room with your kids? I'm not constantly entertaining mine, and luckily they are happy to do their own thing and play with themselves but there's also nothing wrong with having some activities out when they want to do something else

If they appear lively enough to be bouncing off the walls and running around unless encouraged to calm down, I'd say they're just not feeling that unwell. Obviously they've got a cough/cold but that doesn't mean they're necessarily feeling particularly rough and it won't hurt them to burn off a bit of energy, surely? I think if they were unwell enough to need to be sedentary, they'd probably have very little desire to be running around. If you can take them outside, some fresh air might be good.

If you definitely think they need to be taking it easy, then how about giving them a craft/play-doh/construction toy/drawing type thing to do and play an audiobook to them at the same time? When I was little, I used to really like that - I could listen to a story while also having something interesting to be physically doing the same time, and the story actually became more absorbing when I wasn't just staring at the wall while listening to it.

(Actually this also applies to me as an adult!)

As a last resort - I know you said no screens, but if you're at the point where you actually just need to get some shit done for an hour without entertaining them non-stop, something longer with a complex story (ie a kids' film with a relatively calm/gentle plot) should make them a lot less wired than short bursts of stuff. The 'wired' thing parents often complain about is often more a result of the kids watching several 10-minute episodes of something one after the other or hopping from one programme or YouTube video to another, rather than the fact that they're using a screen.

Stone painting

When mine were 5ish to 7ish they got great mileage from chalking on the paths and house walls; also painting garden furniture with basins of water with washing up in them.

Another not sure of ages as if they're pre-school it may be different to being 5 and 8 - but how about building dens? As once the dens are built, which can take a while and involve every blanket in the house and filling it all with pillows and cushions and duvets, and turning an entire room into a den, then hanging out in the den doing different stuff can be further chill time. Picnics in the den are good.

All of this.

Mine used to love a challenge with defined outcomes but with room for creativity and spontaneity built in.

I used to give them a list of things to find on a treasure hunt - you can even adapt it to work in a car: find the biggest/prettiest/roundest/yellowest pebble/word/teddy/leaf/biscuit

Pretty bold statement that parents (not even some parents, just parents in totality?!) see it as a 'job' to entertain children 'all the time'. I feel that's rather harsh.

I'm fully in agreement with you that boredom is great for kids. It's how some of the greatest discoveries or artworks came about, when someone was bored and fiddling about with something. However when left to their own devices my two more often than now choose to wrestle, race, create an assault course and generally tear about the place. So, I choose to offer guidance when I feel some calmer activities would be prudent, like when they're sick. If I didn't do that then no doubt someone somewhere would be up in arms about how parents today don't enforce boundaries and actually parent their kids! Can't win.

Thanks so much for all the replies! We ended up making oobleck and playdough which was good fun in the process and then kept them calmly entertained for a good while playing with it too. This thread is going to be a great resource when I need more ideas. Thanks so much again!

Just remembered a one they can do by themselves. I used to occasionally give each child half a pomegranate and a toothpick. Took them ages to poke out the bits and was (probably?) great for manual dexterity.

They don’t sound that sick to be fair. On the rare occasions mine have been ill, I stick them on the sofa with a blanket, a drink and stick the telly on. I don’t think either of them would be up for crafting. They’d just want to lie down.

Also if you’re a low screen household, would you not already have a load of alternatives lined up?