List of activities for small children if school closes for a month please

[dollface19]

My daughter is 5 they are talking about shutting for a month, 2 weeks school close 2 weeks Easter!
I have all the normal things colouring play do
Arts crafts
Anything else you can think of we can do ? Thanks 😊 xx

If it’s dry build a mini obstacle course in the garden. Things to climb over and under, hop between two sticks etc. Burn off the spare energy.

cooking
gardening/growing seeds (month is long enough to do something quick like cress indoors, as well as something quick like lettuce/radish etc although that would probably be need to be indoors at this time of year too)
bird watching - using a book/internet to identify different kinds
Writing letters/post cards to relatives and getting them to reply
Jigsaws
board games
making musical instruments and using them to play along to youtube videos etc (shakers etc)

Learning to knit?

• Kids yoga/stretching every morning (I’m going to YouTube videos and pray we get half an hour out of it daily )
• Get her a couple of little plant pots/trays and do simple gardening. Cress is great as it’s quick to grow and edible. You don’t need a garden, just a sunny windowsill.

Make up a show
Write a story together
Baking

Have a routine, the first day you could plan the routine together and make a wall chart for it.

Wake up
Breakfast
Exercise (different one each day)
Reading/writing/learning
Play in garden
Lunch
Helping with chores
Activity time (playdoh, craft, baking etc)
TV time
Make dinner
Eat dinner
Bath/bed

Repeat!

I love the routine part thanks !

Finding things! Challenge her to find i.e. a red toy; a blue sock etc.

I'm also thinking routine will be key. I'm accepting there will be far too much screen time, but trying to intersperse that with enough mental and physical activity for us all to stay sane.

I'm going to try and broadly base the routine on a school day, to try and keep some familiarity in a weird situation. Maybe try and get half an hour out of each activity, and make sure physical exercise features throughout the day.

I'll also get DC involved in doing housework with me as much as possible. Normally I just get on with cooking and laundry and so on because they're small, I'm busy and it's inefficient to get them involved.

For specifics, cosmic kids yoga is really good for little ones on youtube (moves a bit quickly for adult practice but you can always do your own thing if DC lets you), we've started looking at youtube kids mindfulness too. I've ordered some cheap garden toys from amazon prime but realised afterwards that decathlon might have been better.

We're going to decorate the house for Easter - not something we ever normally do, but it gives a bit of purpose to the arts and crafts activities.

Watching with interest for other ideas!

Do a timetable like as if she was at school, including playtime. My dcs always found that fun for some reason.

There has been talk of 'learning packs' being issued.

We've got a lot of crafty stuff anyway.

But as we'll have so much time I think I'll get my 6 year old really helping cook every meal.

I'm guilty of rushing it after school/clubs/work and it's easy to just let her play so she's not slowing me down.

If we're both home all day then it's the perfect time for this.

And like others I think I'll make a schedule for the day.

I'm such a bad mum - they'll be watching tv lol!

Craft idea - salt dough. Making models or whatever then painting it after. Will order lots of new toys!

Yes to scheduling.

Just had this list shared elsewhere. Might provide some inspiration.

We used to get suck inside due to heat where we lived. My boys would have long baths in the evening, I'd change out the bath toys every couple of day to keep it interesting, they'd be in way past the pruney skin time limit. Used a lot of kitchen stuff like Sieves and measuring spoons and slotted spoons.
They also loved shaving foam, would play with it for ages at the dining tale, I'd spray it on a baking tray.
That and glueing and painting all the cardboard recycling boxes and toilet roll holders.
Routine is definitly the way to go.

When my children were much younger, I used to give each week of the summer a theme. Romans, pirates, the Olympics are some I can remember. And we read books, did crafts, ate food, dressed up, had days out, based on the theme. It’s still the same amount of hours in the day, but planning it like that did seem to help.

Baking, learning how to prepare meals, helping with a spring clean, downloading worksheets/educational activities, stock up on library books, board games, you tube for some suitable exercise classes/yoga. Learning something new together e.g. use duolingo for a language, how to knit/crochet or how to play cards.

Dd has recently discovered the you tube channel called Art Hub for Kids which teaches you to draw along with them and it keeps her happy for ages. I wlike the idea of a timetable as suggested above, and will include a daily challenge I think too.

We are hoping that by the end of it we will have a lovely tidy garden and some seeds planted with all the dcs helping!
Also planning on some Cosmic Yoga and thought we'd try and keep some reading, tables etc going. Lots of maths games online - still screen time but at least it's productive.
Also some crafts, baking, hide and seek etc.
Apparently if my school closes we might have to do some online teaching. Not sure how that will work with 3 small children in the house!

Get holdof a Wii and balance board. Wii fit everyday

Mine are 6 and 4, and also have a 1 year old at home which makes it more tricky.
I’m planning...

• cosmic kids yoga to start the day
• craft activities (we’ve got loads of craft sets, paints etc)
• more ‘formal’ learning... maths, phonics etc.
• gardening
• obstacle courses in the garden
• setting the 6 year old some research projects
• reading

My biggest challenge is going to be doing all that while chasing a mobile, very active, wannabe stuntman of a 1 year old around, plus keeping quiet for DH working from home...

Well husband and I will both be WFH so my list is

Tablet
Netflix
Garden
Tablet
Netflix
Bake a cake
Tablet
Tablet
Tablet
Switch
Board games they can play alone
Playing libraries
Doing some cleaning
Tablet...

Following with interest as I'm now home with my 3-year old and he's driving me nuts. We do treasure hunts a lot, and he seems to enjoy hiding gold coins etc around the house and making me find them. I tend to suggest that when we don't know what to do, but I fear it's going to get old soon...

Definitely have a rough daily schedule. Lots of craft activities, reading, writing stories together, learn old fashioned games, learn to hula hoop (can do indoors), dressing up, practicing fancy hair dos, never too young to try something like duolingo to learn a language, even at the most basic level it is fun and useful, baking, definitely gardening (herbs etc are quick to grow so you would get to see the results before boredom sets in), art work, photography (young children love the instant result with this)