30 Fun ideas to keep your little ones entertained during lockdown

1. Make an obstacle course. Inside or outside activity – depending on how big or long you want it to be (and how tired you want them to be afterwards)

2. Do some Paper mâché. Some seriously awesome things can be made from doing paper mâché over a balloon. Just google ‘paper mâché balloon ideas’. I remember making a piggy bank when I was little, and we stuck an egg carton section to the front of the balloon and then did our paper mâché. A super fun activity!

3. Trace around your body outside in chalk (either on concrete or on a wooden fence) and then colour them in. You could do your whole family?

4. Learn how to fold the washing together….okay, this is more a tricky one to help you get the chores done. But have you tried it?

5. Make a train using old boxes as carriages. Decorate your train. Where will you go to?

6. Make a robot outfit out of boxes. Tip – use empty tissue boxes for feet. If you really want the robot effect wrap it up in tinfoil!

7. Make puppets by drawing your favourite animals, colour them in, decorate and stick them to paintbrushes (or sticks you find in your back yard). Then put a puppet show on for your family

8. Collect leaves from your garden, and make a picture out of them

9. Neighbourhood walk bingo – create a bingo card sheet to see what you can find on your walk such as a red car, a bus, stop sign, letterbox, bus stop, motorbike, rubbish bin… you get the idea! Take a pen and your bingo card and head off on your adventure

10. Use masking tape, and make a road/city on your floor where little ones can drive their toy cars around

11. A frozen block of ice with goodies in it! Find a heap of treasures (that can get wet) – like a toy car, duplo person, a spoon, plastic toy and pop them in an ice-cream container. Fill it with water and pop it in the freezer overnight. The next day get it out, pop out the huge ice cube and try to break out your toys as it melts!

12. Make playdough

13. Do some baking – always a winner

14. Make some cute animal facemasks using paper (or paper plates) and some elastic/string

15. If your little one loves playing with toy golf sticks create a mini Duplo Putt in your hallway

16. Practice a sport – throw, bat, catch a ball

17. Mosaic Art using chalk! Just make your own pattern with tape on a fence, concrete or garage floor and then colour it in with chalk. Peel the tape of and voila – a gorgeous creation!

18. Write a nice message or draw a lovely picture at the end of your driveway for the community to read when they are walking by to make them smile

19. Put a tent up (if you have one) in your backyard and play in it for the day

20. Put a tent up (if you have one) in your backyard and have an actual sleepover in it for the night!

21. Make a hopscotch

22. Make pasta necklaces using pene pasta

23. Make a bowl of Gloop!

24. Take a basket, head up your drive (or around your house or neighbourhood) and see what nature treasures you can find – leaves, sticks, flowers

25. Do some shadow drawing – where you pop some of your favourite animals on some paper, and draw around their shadow

26. Bubbles, bubbles and more bubbles. Get them running around the backyard chasing the bubbles!

27. Have a teddy bears picnic for your lunch one day with the whole family and your teddies (or other favourite soft toys). Lay out a picnic blanket and have your lunch all together – outside if it is nice, or inside works too!

28. Do some Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube. Got to keep the exercise up!

29. Create a “Covid lockdown capsule” and put bits and pieces you create of your memories from lockdown in it.

30. Go for an evening stroll in the neighbourhood, and take a torch