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How To Entertain The Kids At Home

Looking for some ideas to entertain the kids whilst staying at home?

We’ve rounded up some of our favourite resources to help keep your kids happy whilst staying in!

ART AND CRAFT

Kids love getting messy with their art and craft time, and there’s no reason it has to stop because they are stuck inside. Use recycled materials such as cereal boxes, empty paper towel rolls, and yogurt containers to assemble creations from their imaginations. If the kids need some inspiration, Mister Maker teaches art and craft in a really fun and imaginative way.

Also stationery retailer S miggle is now offering free downloads of colouring in pages for the kids to complete at home.

HEALTH AND FITNESS

It’s important to keep our kids moving their bodies for their health and wellbeing. Take the kids for a bike ride outside to get some fresh air, or into the backyard for a game of backyard cricket, soccer, tip or practicing handstands and cartwheels.

If you don’t have a backyard (or the weather is bad) you can still keep the kids moving with a game of indoor hide-and-seek, or a session of kid’s yoga on Cosmic Yoga (the Pokemon and Frozen episodes are favourites in our household).

ANIMALS

Playing with the family pet dog or cat can provide children with endless entertainment. But if you don’t have a pet, there are other ways to connect with animals and wildlife.

National Geographic Kids is packed with lots of fun games and activities as well as learning resources about animals and nature.

Did you know that many zoos and aquariums are offering live streams with their animals? Tune into Auckland Zoo to spend time up close and personal with their animals. Merlin's Education Toolbox also has some great animal resources and activities to do at home.

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

Spending 20 minutes a day reading with your kids (either reading to them, or them reading to you) is a fantastic way to build literacy skills and spend quality time together too. Have a chat about the story afterwards to find out their favourite parts of the story or to explain any interesting words they heard.

There is a huge range of fantastic educational resources online to keep your kids learning even if stuck at home. Some excellent online resources include Learning from home; Ki te Ao Marama; Kiwifamilies and Sciencekids

PUZZLES AND BOARD GAMES

This is the time to pull all of those board games out of the cupboards! Family games are a fantastic way to entertain the kids and create some fun family memories.

Another idea is to get out a pack of cards and look online for loads of ideas on how to repurpose the cards for many different types of games, to build maths and problem-solving skills, plus a little healthy family competition. Getting down on the floor and doing puzzles with your kids is a great way to work on problem-solving skills as well as bond with your kids.