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Staycation Covid19 style
With the summer holidays upon us, what can we do to keep the kids amused during this strangest of summer holidays? Here’s my top 10 (and a half) ideas to get you started.
1. Camp
Camp out in your back garden with no expense spared! If you don’t have a tent, you might be able to borrow one from a friend or a local organisation.
Here’s a few organisations where you can borrow tents: Surrey, Yorkshire, across the UK. Or, now restrictions have lifted slightly, consider buying a tent second hand on gumtree. Remember your torches and midnight snacks!
2. Camp inside
No garden? No problem. Camp out in your living room! Set up a fort tent using a spare bedsheet and some pegs clipped to curtain rails, door handles or furniture. Use cushions off the sofa or extra pillows and blankets to sleep on. Sing along to some campfire songs, check out some Scout songs here.
3. Movies
Host a movie marathon. Everyone in your house gets to choose a film and you see how long you can keep watching for!
Lots of online providers do free trials for a week or longer, check out Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Apple iTunes, GooglePlay, Disney Plus or even Youtube movies for starters!
Don’t forget your plastic free snack – bulk buy popcorn and pop it yourself in a pan. We love ours with just salt or honey (from a glass jar). You could make a homemade pizza for halftime.
4. Play
Family games – there are so many I’m not going to name them here. Check out Playtivities for some new ideas to suit your family, many using objects you will already have in your home, such as a pair of tights and an orange! You may also have some family board games to dust off from the back of the cupboard. If not now, then when?
5. Exercise
Walks, scoots, cycles, skateboard, rollerskating…shake things up by a different form of exercise each time you head outside!
If you have kids then it can be handy to have some motivation for getting out. Try a scavenger hunt, plant some treasure hunt clues round your local area, or try geocaching if you have older kids, or no kids!
5.5 Plogging
No really- it’s a thing! This is my ‘half’ activity because really it’s just exercising with a twist!
Search for ‘plogging’ on the internet and you’ll quickly find lots of pages about it, including it’s very own wikipedia entry! The basic premise of the activity are a) jogging and b) picking up litter. Feel good factor on both accounts, got to be worth a shot!
Our 7 year old daughter derives great satisfaction in filling a bag with rubbish. Even better if you have a litter picker on hand – if not, just wear gloves or keep a look out where kids are searching.
Sadly, our litter problem is still a problem, it’s not gone away (even during a global pandemic when everyone has been staying indoors for so long..).
6. Cook
Eat a new cuisine each day of the week, isn’t that the joy of google? Try Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, Indian, French, German, Russian or many, many others!
The joy of the world we live in is so much of the world and it’s wonders are available at the click of a button on the internet. Try BBC goodfood for some world cuisine ideas to get you started.
Remember to take your produce bags and reusable carrier bags to the supermarket when you’re buying food – quite a lot of fancy foreign vegetables can be bought loose now in many major supermarkets.
7. Bake
Bake together! It is much cheaper, can be healthier, and there is less plastic than store bought counterparts. It’s a great thing to do with kids as a) what kid doesn’t love to play with flour b) kids get to watch the magic of science in action c) all that weighing is great for number skills and d) baking with kids is highly motivational activity as they know they’ll get to taste their work!
You could get that feel good factor by sharing some of your handiwork with self-isolating neighbours or older folk. Deliver in some decorated paper bags for extra cheer!
8. Tour
Go on a virtual tour – visit a museum, theme park or even national parks around the world through the wonder of modern technology.
9. Learn
Try a new skill online together. There are many different classes available on youtube to get you started! How about yoga, Hindi, ballet, Tae Kwondo or even body drumming if you are feeling rhythmical!
This could be bags of fun, just make sure you decide before hand you’re all going into it with an open mind to make the most of the experience.
10. Go
Parks are now open in Scotland (just!) Make the most of this by taking footballs, bats and balls, picnic rugs and books along on sunny days – pull in the family fun whilst maintaining social distancing.
Recently it was announced in Scotland that kids under 12 can interact without social distancing outside – even better! I don’t know many under 5s who could stay away from their friends if they saw them across the park.
Tip: leave the tech gadgets at home. If you have teenagers, set this as a challenge, for every hour they’re without their gadgets they earn X great reward (insert appropriate motivating thing here!).
