10 Indoor activities to cure your kids boredom in lockdown.

[This is a paid for article with Get Blogged]

Who'd have thought from this time last year that we'd still be in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic? Who'd have thought we'd still be juggling working from home whilst homeschooling. Even more so, trying to think up ways to cure your kids boredom in lockdown.

I wrote an article at the beginning of last year which had 40 activities to keep your toddler occupied during lockdown; It went down really well & has had a huge success, only this time around I'm finding myself resenting past me for her previous luxuries. This time it's different; This time we're in the middle of Winter and we don't have the luxury of escapism out into the Summer sunshine. In fact it's quite the opposite. I don't think I'm alone when I say that this third lockdown has hit me the hardest, I feel sluggish, unmotivated, uninspired, and although the lockdown is of course to blame, I personally think half of the problem is that we're dealing with the harshest restrictions in the middle of Winter.

The reason for this post is that I've been feeling like a pretty lazy parent during our third lockdown. Essentially we're all hibernating, doing the same thing day in day out, not really feeling much fulfilment from life and it's making me feel really guilty. Mum guilt is so real for me right now like I'm sure it is for a lot of parents out there at this time, but we need to brush ourselves off, give mum guilt the middle finger & live our best lockdown lives with our families.

With that being said, I've put together a small list of activities you can do indoors to cure our kids boredom... And hopefully make us feel like fantastic parents!

10 Indoor activities to cure our kids boredom in Lockdown.

1. Build a fort.

All kids love building forts no matter what their ages are, heck we even enjoy building them as adults, so why not waste a couple of hours releasing your inner child and constructing an indoor fort for you and your little ones to enjoy. We like making them out of sofa cushions and then throwing a great big throw over the top to keep out the baddies. It's a great activity for curing kids boredom in lockdown, you could even have a 'fort-off' if you have more than one child... Only let's try and not get too competitive now!

2. Treasure hunt.

Creating a treasure hunt around the home could be a great one to get your kids brains ticking... As well as yours when you have to figure out the order to lay the clues down in! One clue leads to the next clue, leads to the next and so on and so forth until you reach the treasure. The treasure could be a sweet treat, it could be another activity or it could even be a message from family further afield. There are so many different possibilities with this one, it's really open to interpretation & I'm sure you'll have loads of fun with it.

3. Messy play.

I totally understand if messy play isn't your type of thing, it's not really the first thing on my to do list because of the cleanup operation, but there's absolutely no denying that kids love it!... And if it cures their boredom in lockdown for even just a couple of hours, you can bet your bottom dollar I'm going to do it. Tuff trays are a great way to start with messy play, we have one from Amazon and it's brilliant for keeping everything semi-contained whilst my little girl is living her best messy play life.

4. Making music.

When it comes to music there's literally so much you could do to cure your kids boredom. You could make musical instruments by turning an empty tissue box into a guitar or snipping holes in an empty toilet roll tube to make a flute. You could even form a band with your kids and put together a music video or dance routine. Let loose, make a fool out of yourselves and enjoy making music with your kids.

5. Get crafty.

All kids love getting crafty, however if I'm honest arts & crafts isn't really my strongest subject and it's an area I need a bit of help with as a parent. Design Bundles is a great website which provides digital graphics that can be downloaded, printed, and then be illustrated by our kids. They have over 150,000 products from a wreath svg to animal portraits, to the American flag svg. The possibilities really are endless and it really takes some of the pressure off us as parents to be that perfect Pinterest mum.

6. Help around at home.

Now this one could go one of two ways depending on your child. My little girl has only just turned two so she loves helping me at home with different household jobs. This week for example we've cleaned the whole of the downstairs and she hasn't really bat an eyelid that she's been doing a hard days graft, she's actually really enjoyed helping me around at home & it's been lovely to have a little pal with me getting all my jobs done.

7. Bake a cake.

Baking is an excellent indoor activity to do with kids. I remember baking with my mum when I was younger and they're just the loveliest memories to have. Kids love to feel involved (I think it's why my daughter enjoyed cleaning so much) so let them do most of the baking, get hands on with the mixing process and get creative with the toppings. I bet they'll enjoy eating the cakes even more so knowing that they've made them!

8.  Movie marathon.

There's nothing better on a cold and dreary day than getting yourselves set up on the sofa, wrapped up in a duvet with hot chocolates in hand and indulging in a good old movie marathon. As my little girl is still quite young our movie marathons usually consist of watching the Toy Story's, but depending on age you could get them started on Harry Potter, Star Wars or the How to train your dragon franchise.

9. Imaginative play.

Imaginative play comes naturally to kids and it's equally as cute as it is beneficial to them. Brain stimulation is amazing for our kids as it encourages self confidence, social skills and even practices language skills, so why not get involved yourselves to stimulate their minds even more so. It's great for us to witness how well they are developing but also to have some really great one on one bonding time with our kids. PS. I bet my version of a pretend horse talking is better than yours!

10. Indoor picnic.

Take your regular dinner and take it up a notch or two by turning it into an indoor picnic. Roll a blanket out into the middle of the living room, pop everything down in a usual picnic style and watch your kids eyes light up over something so simple. It's such a straightforward activity to do, but one I'm sure your kids will absolutely love.

So there's 10 indoor activities to cure our kids boredom during this Winter lockdown, if you have any more please feel free to leave them in the comments below. Let's hope we won't have to be using these pointers for much longer, hey?
Claire.X