We have all been flung into a peculiar position at the moment. Even the seasoned teacher and stay at home parent has had moments of delirium trying to come up with activities for their children. Possibly one of the biggest challenges is having activities that will occupy children of various ages. We have put together four ideas with options from toddlers to teenagers.

Picnic

Pre-school: Grab a rug, your favourite teddies and snacks and arrange them all outside. Get your teddies to play games, tell them stories and make them tea.        

Primary: Decorate cupcakes and biscuits or make simple recipes for your outside morning or afternoon tea. Play picnic games like Duck Duck Goose, running races and frisbee.

Teenagers: Plan and bake all your favourite treats for a picnic. Write out your favourites to share with friends and family. Donate some of your goods to those in need or to brighten someone’s day.

Journal

Pre-school: Get your parents or older siblings to help you write the days in separate pages in a scrapbook. Draw a picture of what you do each day, paste in things you have collected or photos of what you did, if you have a printer.

Primary: Draw and write a journal about what you do each day. What was your favourite thing? What did you learn? How were you feeling?

Teenagers: Create a written or video journal about your time at home during self isolation or start your own blog online. Add in relevant photos, pictures, songs and gifs.

Gardening

Pre-school: Collect things from your garden and stick them onto a piece of paper or make them into a 3D creation. What kind of things did you find?

Primary: Make a fairy garden or create a mini garden in a container, old bucket or pot plant. What will you have in your garden?

Teenagers: Grow your own fruit and vegetables from cutoffs and monitor their progress. Assist your parents in the garden with harvesting, planting, weeding and cooking your produce.

 

Exercising

Indoor Obstacle Course from Pax Wiemers on Vimeo.

 

Pre-school: Go for a walk or bike ride and look for rainbows or teddy bears in the windows along the way. Have a dance party in your living room. Make an obstacle course and get your mum or dad to time you to see how fast you can go.

Primary: Devise some trick shot challenges and see how many you can do. (Get a frisbee into the basketball hoop, throw a basketball into a bucket from ten metres away, kick the soccer ball onto a mark on an outdoor wall). Video the trick shots for extra fun.

Teenagers: Make your own circuit course that includes cardio and weights with whatever you have in your home and backyard. Do your own workout and get your parents to give it a try too.

 The best thing about having children of different ages is that they can help each other out. You could merge some of these together for full on family fun. Enjoy! Are there any other activities you would add to this list? Let us know.