Spark Courage
Whether you are stuck at home due to a lockdown in your area, extremely rainy weather or you are recovering from injury or illness that prevents you from leaving the house, here are 10 tried and tested ideas that can keep the family entertained for hours:
1. The Paper Challenge
Beware, this oldie but goldie is guaranteed to cause laughter and potentially a few bruises. This is not just the perfect challenge for balance, strength, and joint mobility, but also the perfect lockdown challenge.
The rules are simple. Fold a DinA4 Paper (or smaller if you dare) in half as shown in the photo and pick it up with your mouth. The important part: You are only allowed to touch the ground with one foot.
2. Board Game Competitions
With games available for all ages, why not get the family together for an evening of non-digital old-school boardgame fun. Get out the classics such as Enchanted Forest, Game of Life, Catan, Pandemic, or children’s games such as Snail’s Pace or First Orchard to keep the family entertained.
If you haven’t heard about Shadows in the Forest, a boardgame you play in the dark, give it a go – you can even DIY the game cardboard trees and a candle (DIY instructions here: http://readysteadyroll.co.uk/make-board-game-shadow-forest/)
If your kids are teenagers, why not learn how to play Poker together and use household chores as the stakes?
3. Build an Obstacle Course at Home
Most kids are Ninja Warriors fans. Why not use furniture and anything else you can find to build an obstacle course – inside or in your garden? Crawl under Chairs, jump over laundry baskets and duck under strings between doorhandles, how creative can you get?
4. Make Home Spa remedies together
It’s super simple to make bath salts at homes. You can find some simple, straightforward recipes for on my Instagram @sparkcourage, but there are also plenty of recipes on the world wide web.
If you have extra time and want to make something fancy (or don’t have a bathtub), try your hand on shower melts or fizzy bath bombs!
5. Learn something new together
Ever wanted to try something new but didn’t have the time, energy or motivation? See if you can find something everyone in your family is interested in learning. Want to learn how to play an instrument? A new language? Sewing? How to handstand? Whatever it is, make it fun and start learning. There is plenty of inspiration on YouTube and many online offers around. You may even turn the learning into a friendly competition to keep motivated and engaged!
6. Arts and Crafts at home
When is the last time you were doing arts and crafts at home? Whether you make a salt dough zoo and paint it, try your hands on scented candles, build a fairy garden outside in the yard, paint or sketch… even build a terrarium or traditional lanterns – there is plenty of inspiration about.
7. Themed Cooking Challenge
Host a family cook off or themed evening. Everyone can pitch in, whether it’s decorating the table, helping cook, dressing up or selecting the music. How about a Mexican night? Are fairy tale degustation menu or a 1001 Nights dress up event? A dinner around the world?
Alternatively, you can choose one ingredient, and everyone needs to cook one dish (starter, main, dessert) honouring that ingredient? Possibilities are eggs, bananas, bacon… you choose!
8. Treasure Hunt
You can host treasure hunts in the house, in the garden or even on a local bushwalk depending on your restrictions. Draw a fancy map to the first clue and hide the following clues.
You can use rhymes as clues, riddles, photos – the possibilities are endless. Hide a little treasure at the last clue.
9. Indoor Ping Pong
Table tennis is a great way to stay fit, and you do not need to join a club to play. To get some much-needed exercise, convert your dining table with a net. Kmart offers $12 Ping-Pong sets that include a net, bats, and balls.
Whether you play traditional one on one, doubles or run around the table – the possibilities are endless.
10. Lockdown Raffle
To make all the above tips more fun, grab a piece of paper, divide it into 20 squares and write those tips as well as any other ideas for activities you have down. Use scissors to cut the squares, roll them up and put them in a hat.
Have one child pick out a piece of paper each day, read out the activity and run with it!
I’d love to see your attempts at #1 as well as the others, so feel free to film yourself and upload the results to Instagram and tag @kiddipedia and @sparkcourage.
