Ideas for school holiday fun – at home

Being stuck indoors with no school or limited social contact with friends may trigger some rebellion and frustrated behaviour from kids.

In order to get through these trying times, it might help to have a daily schedule so that everyone knows what to expect, including allocated times for some household duties, daily exercise and a designated time set aside for reading.

A fun family task is to compile a list of activities that can be done around the house, write all of these ideas down on individual pieces of paper, and then each child can select one (or pull one out of a hat) to do each day.

Here is a list of ideas:

Virtual field trips 

Children can visit places around the world without leaving their homes. Through virtual tours, they can visit other states, countries and even other planets. Some examples include: Buckingham Palace; Great Wall of China; The Statue of Liberty; The Whitehouse; Anne Frank House; and Mars. Visit Freedom Homeschooling below.  

 

Zoo live streams 

Live stream cameras from Melbourne Zoo and Werribee Zoo allow you to watch your favourite animals 

 

Free audiobooks

Free stories for all ages can be streamed on desktops, laptops and tablets and available in six different languages from Audible. 

P.E. with Joe

This is an online daily fitness class that leads children through 30 minutes of jumping jacks, mountain climbers and other sweat-inducing moves.

Gardening

Start a vegetable garden or get children to grow seedlings in an egg carton with a how to from PBS.org.. 

 

Other ideas include cooking, a scavenger hunt, indoor fort, board games and brain games, family tree searches and a paper aeroplane competition.

Planning activities for children at home is a fun way to break up their day. Keep in mind though it does not mean that you need to completely fill their day, or that it is your job to come up with all the ideas for children to keep busy. A little imagination can go a long way.

 

Brought to you by Brighton Grammar School

Olivia Tims  is a School Psychologist/Counsellor with over 20 years’ experience working with young people. This article is about Parenting