Kids stuff – Lockdown activities, ideas and support

We may be better used to the lockdown routine, but it makes it’s no less challenging to keep our kids entertained during long stretches at home, especially on rainy days. With schools closed, no visits to friends’ houses, sport or other activities in the daily schedule, parents and carers are having to come up with creative ideas to keep their children’s minds and bodies busy.

This post is for parents and carers who are looking for fresh tips and ideas to keep the younger members of the family entertained during the lockdown. Now that school is back (although not as we know it) you can schedule some of these ideas into the day, around schoolwork and your usual routines.

Fun and creative activities

Fortunately, resources and ideas have grown, here are a few sites that offer simple and practical ideas to keep the kids busy, with suggestions like making a cardboard fort, setting up a treasure hunt, visiting a virtual aquarium, a picnic activity, training the family dog, a playdough recipe and lots more!

150 Ideas for Family Fun

115 fun activities to do at home with kids

Nasa’s online Mars Exploration Programme allows you to move your way around the surface of Mars on the Curiosity Rover – click the pic for more

Online resources

This really great Radio New Zealand article Lockdown at home: A guide to online resources for kids is an extensive and carefully researched article, outlining a range of online activities for children to have fun, learn and explore at home.

The suggestions cover science, languages, maths, arts and crafts, movement and mindfulness, ‘in the kitchen’, nature, history, as well as stories and books for pre-schools and kids, through to young adults.

More ideas…

Get musical and join the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra 

If your child is a budding musician this fun exercise is definitely worth a go. Instrumentalists of all ages and skill levels who love orchestral music have a chance to join the APO with their virtual community play along. Instructions are on the APO Virtual Community page – the performance is Radetsky March by Johann Strauss Sr. and the music has been specially arranged so everyone can join in.

Kids cooking classes with Sid Sahrawat from Cassia

From feijoa crumble to mushroom and prosciutto pizza and more, chef and owner of the restaurant Cassia, Sid Sahrawat, will be reactivating his Hospobaby Facebook and Instagram accounts for the next few weeks to share a series of online cooking classes every Wednesday. Hospobaby features recipes and ideas to get kids cooking and the videos will feature Sid’s own children as sous chefs.

On the Hospobaby page now is the ‘how to’ video for Sticky port ribs with homemade kimchi and also  Balinese chicken with cucumber and mint salad (recipe’s and videos for each are posted separately on the page). And coming up on 22 April is Mushroom and prosciutto pizza.

Hospobaby also has regular feature spots on the daily children’s show Amped on TV3 at 11.30am.

Les Mills free-to-air workouts for kids – Born to move

Born to move is just for kids, Monday – Friday at 3.00pm on TV2 or dial it up on TVNZ’s OnDemand to join in anytime. We’ve also got some dance ideas that you and the kids can do together, go to the Nest What’s on calendar – Dances you can do alone or within your bubble or create your own dance party to post on Facebook like the Buchanan family did!

‘Now to love’ website – 49 things to do…

This page features a simple list of 49 ideas to keep the kids entertained, and is split into sections; backyard and neighbourhood, indoor fun, teach them stuff, and make use of technology.

Now to love also reminds us to make sure we’ve got our teddy bears in the window and to get out on regular bear spotting walks, bikes or scoots so the kids can spot and tally-up how many they see on each outing, with a focus on growing that number!

Meet Morris the Reinbeer: You don’t have to be street-front to put a teddy in the window. Morris is sitting on a neighbours fence, on show to all, safe under an umbrella from the sun and rain

The above ideas are a compilation of material found online. If you have any other ideas, ‘success stories’, insights, share them by posting in the ‘leave a reply’ post section below, or on Yammer. And if you’re finding that you’re not getting enough time out yourself, despite regular walks and supermarket trips… take a look at the Yammer virtual babysitter concept posted by Maja Zidov, our Sustainability and Wellbeing Manager (you may need to login to open the link).

We’ve also shared some of the ‘expert’ parenting advice available online (on the right), but if none of this is working for you, and you need more than phone time with a good friend, you can use the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to get some one-on-one time with a specialist counsellor (these confidential sessions are free for staff) – go to our Nest EAP page here for the details.

Parenting during lockdown

As you would have heard or read in the media, the key advice for parents and carers is to:

• Stick with routine, have a schedule, but don’t be too rigid – a ‘rough plan’ is OK. Kids need and like routine but allow some flexibility
• Balance learning and quiet time: Schedule in time for learning or quiet time, but then balance this with something they want to do later – give them the choice of what and something they can look forward to
• Connect with the kids by playing games, engage in what they are doing with their play time, engage through baking together, making music together, dancing – more ideas on the left
• Devices are great but stick with a time limit and ‘manage’ how they are using them. There are some cool things to do online and some great creative options – check out some of these on the left under ‘Top online resources’

What the experts’ say

“The kids are gonna remember this for the rest of their lives” says neuroscience educator Nathan Wallis.

“It’s going to be a memorable thing. So I think it’s good for parents to have that in the forefront of their mind and just create wonderful memories.

Read more from Nathan in this NZ Herald article (24 March 2020) – What to do to keep kids at home entertained and learning, that discusses having realistic expectations as parents, when juggling stressful times, alongside two jobs – parent and teacher.

PM Jacinda Ardern interviewed psychologist Nigel Latta, who had some great advice on keeping your expectations realistic during this challenging time.

Parenting mentor Mary Willow from Plum Parenting says that: “If we can look upon this period as an adventure rather than a jail term we can bridge the children through it and set them up for expanded minds and hearts on the other side, rather than residual anxiety and scars. Your family waka is in new waters. Let the adventure begin!”

The Parenting Place – We’re here to help you through lockdown

The Parenting Place website provides a range of support for parents from the time your child is born to when they raise tamariki of their own. They also have a section that provides daily lockdown support covering a range of topics, that include looking after your relationship with your partner, soothing struggles between siblings, working from home and much more.

Home Learning TV | Papa Kāinga TV

Here’s some info on the Home Learning TV initiative the Ministry of Education is providing on-air, in partnership with TVNZ. The content is designed to provide entertaining educational programming for our tamariki, including teacher-led lessons. It features Suzy Cato, Karen O’Leary, Jordan Vandermade and Nathan Wallis.

It’s available live weekdays 9am-3pm from Wednesday 15 April on Freeview 7, Sky 502, and simulcast on TVNZ.