Can you find fun things to do at home during lockdown? Without warning, life has changed… and amidst working from home, home schooling and doing chores, parents still have to make time for some quality recreational fun.
21 blogs for 21 days: fun things to do at home
Clamber Club shares activities, arts and crafts blogs that you can do at home with your toddlers: keeping them busy and active and yourself a little sane.
1. Spray painting fun with food colouring
If you need a great activity to keep your children entertained, then this is the one! They will love spraying the food colouring and water mixture onto large pieces of paper (and all over the garden!) and watching it drip down the page into interesting patterns.
2. Cork and cotton bud painting
Cotton bud and cork painting is wonderful and a great way to help develop your child’s fine motor skills. The fine ‘pinch’ grip required to hold the bundle of ear buds in place and to move it around the paper to paint is ideal for building the smaller muscles of the hand.
3. Decorate your own party cups!
‘Insectify’ standard party cups into something the kids will love using! Use stickers and a permanent marker, and anything else you can find. This will only take about 15 minutes and you will be pleasantly pleased by the results of such a simple craft, as with other fun things to do at home.
4. Learning about shapes – make a star picture
Teach shapes at home. Take your child on a fun journey of learning and understanding the different shapes all around your home. In this blog you can learn how to make your own star picture.
5. Textured sock snakes
Do you have odd pairs of socks lying around in the house? Somehow there’s always odd socks in the ironing basket. Why not make a textured toy for your little one with all the socks? You don’t need to be a pro with sewing, it is really easy and quick to make this snake. Making your own sock snake with help from this blog is one of the coolest fun things to do at home.
6. Creative play: Tower building made simple!
Not only does it encourage a child’s imagination to take shape, it also meets developmental needs and norms which toddlers are busy learning about from the world surrounding them. It encourages the use of their perceptual skills as they figure out how to create a stack/tower construction boxes. Enjoy this article which tells you what you need.
7. Holiday messy play ideas
Break out the messy play ideas for the children! Sensory messy play, along with art and crafts messy play, is so engaging and fun!
8. Funky noodles
Do it yourself handy crafts, is an easy way to entertain your little one’s at home. Paint pasta tubes, thread and make necklaces, is the perfect fun activity.
9. Farm time fun for toddlers and pre-schoolers
Fun quick and easy activities to do at home with your toddler or preschooler that are all inspired by the farmyard.
10. Texture hoop for tummy time
There are two words that a new mom is introduced to, two little words that form the base for your baby’s strength and milestones to be reached, such as head control and crawling. These words are…tummy time. Disguise tummy time with a fun homemade activity, of a textured hula hoop.
11. 4 Homemade tactile toys for baby
You don’t need to go and buy a lot of expensive toys to stimulate your baby. These are a few homemade ideas which are easy to make from goodies you might have at home.
12. How to make water colour paint
Do you all absolutely love painting? You can paint just about every day. Water paints are great especially with smaller children, they are relatively easy to clean up and there is far less mess than acrylic paints. But you can combine the two activities – making and painting and WALA! homemade water colour paints.
13. Balloon Painting
Painting with balloons is a great activity for kids to explore their creativity and imagination and a perfect way to get creative outdoors. It also makes for a rewarding sensory activity as children use their hands to manipulate the paint and balloons to create patterns and prints onto paper.
14. Make your own Baby Shakers
So rather than buying yet another rattle from the shops, release your inner creative child and make some homemade shakers for your baby to play with. This is such a fun activity and you could go on making these for hours! Rattles and shakes are brilliant for stimulating your baby’s senses, visual tracking and auditory stimulation and can be made so simply using items from around the house.
15. Finger Puppet Fun
Puppets enhance storytelling (they help bring the story to life); they encourage social skills (children have to learn to take turns and listen to each other); they help with language development and, if you allow your children to make their own puppets, they encourage your child’s creativity too. An easy and fun thing to do at home would be to make finger puppets.
16. How to improve your child’s core strength
The good news is that we can develop the core muscles from the start (tummy time as an infant) and the best way for a toddler and pre-schooler is through play! Here are a few fun things to do at home – exercises the kids will love!
17. Obstacle course adventures
Obstacle courses are great fun for kids and can keep them occupied for hours, especially if you make them part of the planning and preparations. They absolutely love being involved! Obstacle courses encourage problem solving and lots of physical movement which is often lacking in today’s sedentary lifestyle. These are some ideas to use for things that are lying around the house.
18. Baby exercises for happy healthy babies!
At birth, your baby moves spontaneously. He does not actively control his movements. As your baby develops, he will gain the ability to control his movements and to interact with you and the environment. Your baby will be experimenting with movement as he grows. He will work on different skills at different ages. You as a parent can do many different activities while playing with your baby to encourage movement experiences. These are a few exercises that you can do at home.
19. Vegetable gardens: fun, messy and productive!!
Making a veggie garden is a wonderful sensory, messy play activity for children. They get to see how vegetables grow by looking after them and watering them, and they can enjoy picking the vegetables and eating them when they are ready. Children of all ages can get involved and you can make it a family affair…quality family time in the mud!!
20. 6 Fun tin games for the holidays
Tins are items we always have in our house and can be used in many different ways. These are a few games that you can try with your littles ones.
21. 35 Activities to do With Your Baby
Here’s to making Lockdown Fun Time. Keep Safe, and enjoy some meaningful time with your kids.
Click here to find places in Gauteng offering arts and craft classes.
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