Mumsnet users share how they're keeping children entertained during lockdown with Equazen

[JustineBMumsnet]

Keeping children entertained and keeping their minds active can be difficult, particularly when you’re limited to your home. Spring often signals it's time to get out and about to explore, and Equazen would like to hear your tips for keeping your children entertained with home activities while we're in lockdown.

Here’s what Equazen has to say: “Keeping the mind active helps us to maintain a healthy brain.
Did you know our brains are made up of 60% Fat? These fatty acids are ‘essential’ because they cannot be made by the body and must be obtained through the diet.
Equazen offer clinically researched high-quality fish oil supplements. Unique and specific formulations of essential fatty acids Omega-3 EPA and DHA with Omega-6 GLA to help support brain function*. Perfect for those active days with the family!
Buy now on the Equazen website and receive a free puzzle cube with every purchase.
^Also look out for Equazen brain games, coming soon!
*DHA contributes to the maintenance of normal brain function. The beneficial effect is obtained with a daily intake of 250mg of DHA.”

How are you planning on keeping your children entertained from home? Will you be digging out the board games to help keep their minds active? Perhaps you’re lucky enough to have a garden you’re able to get out and play in? Or do you have a child who is more than happy to activate their imagination with a good book?

However you’re keeping your children entertained, share on the thread below to be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £200 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

Garden time as much as possible. Disney plus. A craft/baking activity every day.

This lock down is certainly using up my creativity side. It's not easy trying to entertain a 13 and a 11 year old without allowing them to use technology all day long! We have a garden so my son enjoys playing football, my daughter likes to play basketball, tennis and volleyball (we dont have all the correct equipment for these games so they improvise). My daughter is very creative and like's to ' make' things. For example she has recently made a sweets 'pic n mix' system out of plastic containers and gaffa tape and yesterday she decided that she will use the glue gun for a school project only to ruin the kitchen floor! My son also thoroughly enjoys playing fifa. We have a shelf full of board games but for some unknown reason they havent been used! and of course baking! My daughter would be baking every single day if there was no shortage of flour and eggs! Nonetheless, there have been one or two days where they have watched TV nearly all day long!

Our daily activity of walking the dog, scooters, bikes and then craft and baking - I had a basket of craft things they are slowly working their way through, all those gifts they never had time to do, they are now doing! We are also getting the kids more involved with gardening and jobs in the house.

We are trying to have some “events” to plan and look forward to, so every day is not the same. There have been two lockdown birthdays, with games and special food, and a BBQ, and we are planning a May Day fayre for tomorrow. We will also celebrate VE Day, and anything else I can think of.

School work has taken up alot of time for my primary school age.
My sn child has been doing alot of craft work.
My baby has been fine just enjoying our family time.
We have been out in the garden when we can.
Movie time with the kids
Baking
Cooking new meals with them
Board games
Craft time
Colouring
Helping clean their room
Basket ball
Football
Riding their bikes
Joe wicks in the morning
Also they do get on ipads & ps4 if they have done their school work.
So our children are managing fine with the lockdown just that they miss their friends.

My 4 DC all have a lot of school work set, but we still manage to fit in activities around it, as it is more important than ever to keep things fun! Here are a few of the things we have done:

• 5k challenge jogging
• Online exercise & fitness apps plus we bought a yoga ball which is in constant use.
• Bike rides to a nearby country park
• Engineering building & model making challenges with any materials we can find
• Online courses & training
• Baking competitions
• Netball/ basketball shoot outs and trick shot challenges, such as from the trampoline etc
• Classic film & book recommendations from my DH and my childhood.
• Playing music, virtual orchestra and using the Acapella app
• Disney TV & Netflix!
• Older ones have created shared Minecraft servers with friends at school.
• Group chats with friends.
• Eating!!!!

We will be playing board games, baking, trying new meals, arts and crafts, Beavers and Scouts are still running over whatsapp and facebook so also building dens, obstacle courses and virtual camp, they are also working towards badges. We have been planting seeds, moon light cinema. The scalextric has come out as well as day to day Maths, English and lessons etc. I find keeping ourselves busy with a variety of activities learning all the time makes it more fun.

My suggestion is parent-child play. Just to role up your sleeves and join in with their rich and imaginative and wonderfully silly world. You'd be surprised how focussing on them 100% for a while will free up stress-free time later on in the day to crack on with other things.

I homeschool with my two lovely girls, and when the lockdown began we started hearing about families struggling with trying to balance working from home with entertaining/occupying their children. The girls and I wanted to do something to help, so we came up with a list of all the games we play to tackle different daily situations.

Pretty soon, we realised that we had enough to fill a book,so I got to work and started writing. I'm extremely passionate about the importance of parent-child play and how it can help with emotional well-being, parent-child bond, imagination, creativity etc.

But play can also help with reconnecting after an argument, or to inspire a session of independent play, or to burn off energy or to simply connect. I use play for almost any situation, and honestly 80% of what my children have learned has involved play or has used it as a springboard.

I don't want to use this thread as self-promotion, but writing a book has been a life-long dream, and it's taken a lock-down for me to knuckle down and actually do it. I doubt this project will break even in terms of money (I set the price as low as Amazon would allow), it's really about trying to get the message out that during this time...

...that our children's world has been turned upside down; they've lost their circle of friends and they are probably harbouring worries that they cannot articulate. Play is the way in which children naturally interact with the world and process things.I think we parents have to fill that void.

If I had one piece of advice, it would be to put down the textbooks (schoolwork can be caught up anytime) and just play. Play tickle games, small-world play, rough-and-tumble, physical contact/cuddling games, imaginary games...

If I can get my girls to come through this period still feeling happy, secure and with their confidence intact, then I think I will have succeeded. Grades can wait.

It just so happens that doing all that also keeps them entertained--so I'll be playing "Detectives" and "Hit me with Chickens" and "Soft-toy Head Pyramid" and all sorts of other silly games. So far it's working, and this lockdown has brought us all closer together.

My book is called "Trapped Indoors With Kids -- 100 Ways to Play, Have Fun and Stay Sane"

Or you can read the games for free as I post them onto my blog ( mattbrown.im )

I hope this helps people :)

Our estate backs onto fields and copses. We've done a lot of exploring of public footpaths and have found a beautiful bluebell copse, a rope swing, some off roads areas suitable for cycling and lots of balancing logs for the little one.

Reading, drawing, colouring, school work, playing outside on his bike, baking and keeping a food diary to help with spelling and healthy eating.

I've got two bookworms (and the big one will read to the preschooler which is great) and they're both obsessed with their tablets. We've been doing a lot of Cosmic Kids yoga and dancing with Oti Mabusi, Fischy music assemblies, and now liking bitesize. They're both happier in the garden than going out and about, although the big one is getting into bike riding and the little one likes hunting Pokemon. I'm not good at creative stuff, but they've done a few kits they've had for ages.

I’m not going to lie TV has been our made entertainment as we both are working.

Our never ending craft supplies made an appearance in early day’s but tech had taken over our kitchen table. We need to find a solution for that.

We are lucky we leave right on some trails so a quick walk and scoot after logging off with daddy whilst I cook tea has helped.

Lego and board games have been rediscovered.

The charity shop will be receiving a lot of unloved toy donations when open.

I try to let my 4year old take the lead with activities, if I steer her too much she loses interest. I am hoping her concentration improves once she's at school. I do set up little play ideas for her and allow her to chose how we play.

We did outdoor cooking, lots of indoor hide and seek on rainy days. Time capsules and Netflix for the interactive serials they have! Sponge bob etc.

Sunny days are all about being outside, learning to ride bikes without stabilisers, gardening and playing.
For not so nice weather we've dug out all the activities from birthdays and Christmas that we just haven't got round too and found lots of resources online with science experiments, crafts or games. The boys choose one and we try to do it as a family.

My hot tub. I was ummming and ahhhing about whether is use it much but then lockdown happened and I’m in it all the time, so much we might grow gills.

We've been trying to keep things as varied as possible to stave off boredom. We have a big project to clear up the garden, so DS is enjoying using secateurs, digging and using a wheelbarrow to take all the rubbish out. We've found a few slow worms and frogs, and even saw a grass snake so that was a bonus.
His Beavers group has a facebook page to share ideas for projects so we have a look on there. So far, we've built a campfire in the garden and cooked bacon and toast (I wasn't sure we'd cook sausages properly on it!); made a picture using different coloured leaves and flowers and designed a machine to make you breakfast in bed!
Oak Academy has been brilliant for incorporating into the school day, to break up the sometimes static-feeling work from school.
DH is furlowed so salary is lower but due to saving on petrol we let DS choose some new books up to £50.
We let him takeover the lounge every weekend with whatever toys/train tracks he wants.

Thanks all for your comments! The winner of the prize draw is @AntonioJose

Gardening
Cycling
Running (sometimes...)
Cooking things from scratch - so if you want a burger in a bun - actually making the bread bun as well as the burger...

lots of board games and play doh for the rainy days. We are lucky to have a garden so picnics and splash pool fun will keep them busy.

Home schooling has helped a bit. We haven't been doing a lot but keeping our day structured has meant we haven't had too much screen time ( although still a lot!). We break the day up into sections. I usually get my eldest to do a bit of writing first thing. Then we have break time in the garden. Then it's film time, then lunchtime ( we usually go gif a walk after). In the afternoon we do maths and art then at 3.30 when school would be finished he can do what he likes. Usually this means watching YouTube videos!!

We've been making family pub quizes. Once a week we hone our PowerPoint skills and make a round each of 10 questions....it takes several days to get great rounds thought up.