From an egg hunt to learning circus skills, don’t let coronavirus lockdown spoil the fun as there is plenty you can do to keep the kids entertained at home over the Easter holidays.
1. Easter Egg Hunt
You can still have a cracking egg hunt at home, it just means you may have to get a little more creative with hiding places if you’re a bit limited in garden space - how about inside a cereal box or behind the sofa?
The whole family can get involved and the best bit about organising your own one is you can choose the chocolate and another family won’t get there first.
2. Get Crafty
Whether your child prefers pottery or paper mache, lockdown is the perfect time to let them explore their creativity.
There are also plenty of things they can make from everyday items, such as castles with the turrets made of old kitchen and toilet roll tubes, and there have been photos circulating online recently where people have created Elmer the Elephant out of old milk bottles with the handle as the trunk.
3. Play board games
Crowd-pleasing classics such as Monopoly and Cluedo are bound to keep all the family entertained and can easily keep everyone occupied for a few hours.
But if you’re looking for something new how about Dobble, an observation game where players race to match the identical symbol between cards, or, for older children, Colour Brain where you are given questions such as the colour of the Olympic rings and you must answer them with colour cards.
4. Take a trip to the farm (without leaving your living room)
With newborn lambs and daffodils in full bloom, many families take a trip to the farm during the Easter holidays each year, which sadly isn’t possible this time around.
However, Wroxham Barns are bringing all the fun of the farm to your front room with Facebook Live tours they will be running twice a week as they feed the animals, including alpacas, goats, sheep, pigs, ponies and donkeys. See details of the next Facebook Live on the Wroxham Barns Facebook page in the events section.
5. Joe Wicks PE classes
Fitness instructor Joe Wicks has been helping the nation stay healthy while stuck indoors with his PE classes every weekday, which aren’t just for kids and provide a great workout for adults too.
The half-hour sessions are all uploaded to his YouTube channel The Body Coach TV, which has over two million subscribers, and he recently ran a fancy dress session where he wore a Spider-Man suit.
6. Host a quiz night
Give Netflix a break and get everyone together for a quiz night, which could be on topics ranging from music to sport, and if their grandparents are technologically savvy enough them get them involved on FaceTime or Zoom too.
The prize could be choosing a takeaway, an Easter egg or perhaps just the joy of the winner knowing they are the biggest brainbox in the family.
7. Have a disco
Move the sofas or dining table out the way and go on YouTube to find some videos of disco flashing lights you could play on your laptop.
Once you’ve got the lights off and the music playing it will feel like a real school disco and you could even create a mini tuck shop in the kitchen with bags of sweets and crisps.
8. Bake a cake
While they can’t take part in food tech at school at the moment, if they enjoy baking then you could get them to make a dessert for the family - how about a rocky road or some banana bread?
If not, they could just help out with cooking dinner and learn some new skills and in the future do it for themselves.
9. Create an obstacle course in the garden
This one is weather dependant of course, but it is a great way to keep the family active and can be made with things around the house such as plant pots, tennis balls and books which can be balanced on the head.
See who can complete the course in the quickest time, or do it as a relay, and if you’ve got a fair bit of space inside you could create an indoor one too.
10. Pencil and paper games
A great way to entertain the kids for free and you could play games such as Consequences, where each person writes a section of a story then folds the paper over and passes it to the next person and this continues until it has gone the whole way round and each player then reads out their random, and often very funny, story.
Another game sees you list a range of categories, such as school subject, boy’s name and girl’s name, then pick a letter of the alphabet and see how many categories you can complete starting with that letter in two minutes.
11. Learn circus skills
Lost in Translation Circus, who brought A Circus Carol to Norwich Playhouse at Christmas, has launched a jam-packed programme of classes, starting at £5, teaching skills including handstands, hula hoops and juggling.
The award-winning troupe are also running a circus pub quiz every Thursday from 7.30pm to 8.30pm, with 20 slots available and there is a suggested £1 donation to enter. Find out how to sign-up to the classes and quiz on the Lost in Translation Circus Facebook page.
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