Kids stuck inside? Here are some suggestions to keep them occupied.
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1. Create a home canteen
This one might help parents who need to get things done around the house or are working from home. Set out a little stall in the kitchen with all the snacks the kids can pick from, and have a price list. Give them an "allowance" to spend at the canteen every day and they can treat it like they would their normal school canteen, and (fingers crossed) keep them from asking if there is anything to eat.
2. Build a blanket fort
Who doesn't like a blanket fort? Grab every blanket, pillow and the like, and let the kids make their perfect hideaway in the form of an indoor cubby house. You could even let them have an indoor camping experience, bringing out some sleeping bags and possibly even some marshmallows.
3. Learn how to draw
Grab some paper and pens, and Google "how to draw ..." whatever your child wants to draw that day. There are plenty of online video tutorials for kids to learn to draw pretty much anything. Other places to find tutorials - or at least get ideas of what to draw - include hellokids.com and easydrawingtutorials.com. Hello Kids also has printable colouring-in sheets for kids. Google is also a great resource for this and artists such as Liz Climo have released printable colouring-in pages on their websites and others such as Etsy.
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4. Four corners
No, not the show. This is basically like a schoolyard style game for the living room. Assign a number to each of the four corners of the room and have one person sit in the centre of the room, blindfolded. Everyone else stands in one of the corners (as quietly as they can) and the person in the middle chooses one of the corners (by yelling out the number). Everyone in that corner is out and the game continues until there is one person left and they are the winner.
5. Get creative with LEGO
This is another one where you can turn to Google for help. As well as letting the kids and their imaginations go wild with the brightly coloured blocks, you can also search for fun LEGO creations for the kids to try their hand at. Or, for some suggestions of some online tutorials, Brick 101 on YouTube has a whole set of videos dedicated to LEGO tutorials, as does Bricksir.
6. Let them decide
Together with your kids fill a jar with different suggestions of what you can do either together as a family, or the kids can do by themselves. The idea is to choose things together with the kids that you/they don't usually do so that when they're looking for something to do they can go to the jar, pick something out that will hopefully, keep their attention for a little while. Some ideas to include can have a paper aeroplane competition, play dress-ups and make and blow bubbles.
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