What to do with preschoolers in Tier 4?

[Spainintherain]

I can't keep them at home every day and we are struggling to have daily wake when the weather is bad. Please can anyone tell me what their doing with their preschool age children in Tier4? I have a 4yo and 1.5yo. Thank you!

I have two children the same age and we wrap up warm and go for lots of walks. Even though playgrounds are open around me (I’m in Tier 4) we are avoiding them.

Do you have buckets to take on your walks to gather together sticks and leaves?

It’s cold, not much fun, and I’d rather we were indoors but we all benefit from getting out and having some exercise in the fresh air. Plenty of hot chocolate for me afterwards.

My dd and I both have health conditions that make going out during certain seasons problematic. When she was a toddler we couldn’t exactly load her up with allergy meds and asthma inhalers, So yes, we mostly stayed home for months on end with lots of activities. None of us ever felt deprived because it was just our reality.

What would you usually be doing that would break the week up? Maybe that's what you need to find a substitute for rather than general activities? To me, it doesn't feel massively different to last winter except then if it was horrible weather we'd go to the swimming pool and also went to a toddler group once a week

DS is at nursery 2 and a half days a week, but not sure what's going to happen in Jan and that still leaves 4 and a half days to fill.

Here's what we've been doing:

• Morning - set up tuff tray with new activity (some days). Christmas/winter-themed atm - train tracks, pom pom sorting, animals buried in snow, that sort of thing. This can be very simple... last week, I just dumped a load of jigsaws on it. The week before, DS was fascinated by rolling pom poms through toilet rolls.
• Late morning - get out of the house to park/playground. Lots of rolling in the mud, even in freezing temperatures. We have Didrikson lined dungarees and winter jackets here which are great if expensive (tend to get second hand). Lidl ones also great and much cheaper. They actually do keep the water out of wellies even when DS wades far too deep.
• Lunchtime followed by nap/TV. DS sometime naps, sometimes doesn't. I tend to turn the TV on for a bit if he doesn't.
• Early afternoon - DS plays with his toys/ the tuff tray and I try my best to ignore him and do some work or read a book. We put music on which he likes humming along to. Not sure how well this works with multiple DC though, and whether you could actually get them to leave you alone.
• Late afternoon - we'll do an activity together like painting/water play/baking/playdoh. Generally, I just ask DS what he'd like to do.

I've started trying to get DS more involved in making dinner... making pizza together, measuring out spices etc. But sometimes this is a faff or I can't be bothered so just shove fish fingers in.

Then bath, stories, bed. Repeat.

Nothing to add to the previous suggestions but with a 3 year old and almost 1 year old, this year has been brutal. We’re also in tier 4 and any enthusiasm I had in March has seriously been depleted! Good luck & solidarity 👍🏻.