From tots to teens – your survival guide with the kids at home

At home with the family? Action for Children’s parenting coach Joanna Miskin can help see you through with 71 things you can do with the children at home, no matter how old they are.

Toddlers: 0 – 5 years

1. Share favourite stories and books. It’s a great way to spend time together and help your little ones with their reading skills, speech and language.
2. Dig out some old socks and make puppets together. Glue on old buttons for the eyes or draw them on for a fun activity that will encourage their creativity. Once you’ve finished your puppets make yourself a theatre out of an old cardboard box and host your own puppet show.
3. Get the paints out and get painting but don’t limit yourself to boring old brushes and use your hands and fingers to make pictures.
4. Playing with playdough is not only a fun thing to do but is also great for developing motor skills. You can make your own with flour, water, vegetable oil and salt – add food colouring to make different coloured doughs.
5. If the weather is bad make an indoor picnic for you and your little ones and enjoy some role play – take it in turns to serve or be the chef.
6. Board game sessions are good for everyone and a good way to show your pre-schooler how to take turns and share.
7. If you’re stuck indoors and can’t get out, singing and dancing are brilliant ways to exercise so put some music on and have a disco.
8. Make your own musical instruments from items you have at home. A box and some string can become a guitar or put some rice in a plastic bottle for a homemade maraca. You can even form a band and put on a show with your new instruments.
9. Baking together is a creative and clever way to introduce maths skills – and everyone can enjoy the end product!
10. Dig out the dressing up box. You don’t need to have expensive shop bought costumes for this. What about Dad’s hat or a scarf from Mum’s wardrobe?
11. Head out into the garden and collect some leaves. Count them together for a quick maths lesson before using paints to make a print with them.
12. Tip pasta, rice or lentils into a tray and encourage your child to make a pattern in it or fill up different sized containers. You can play similar games with cornflour and flour although it’s a bit messier so you’ll need your aprons.
13. Allow your child to choose a theme every day or week and base your planned activities around that. Focus on something you know your child will enjoy from ‘dinosaurs’ to ‘under the sea’ or ‘people who help us.’
14. Run a bath and fill with toys that your child wouldn’t normally play with at bath time. If you doing, ‘theme of the week’, a funnel and jug from the kitchen or toys that fit it would all be good options.
15. If you can’t get to an indoor soft play why not create one in your front room from pillows and cushions? It will burn off some energy and help their physical development.
16. Help children to have something to look forward to by creating spring or Easter cards for other members of the family.
17. It might be spring but you can still have a snowball fight! Create ‘snowballs’ from rolled up bits of newspaper and split into two teams. Use a line of cushions to create a dividing line, set a timer and the team with the least amount of ‘snowballs’ on their side at the end is declared the winner.
18. Collect together old newspapers and magazines to make a collage – using scissors under supervision helps with their motor skills.
19. Help your children learn about different emotions by drawing emotion faces on paper plates. Copy those faces in the mirror together and talk about what they might be feeling.
20. Simple puzzles for toddlers can be a good way to spend time together and help with problem solving.
21. Use this time to plant some seeds or small plants for the garden and you have an activity that can be carried on throughout the spring and into the summer. It’s also a good excuse to be outside.
22. If the weather is good enough take a football for a kick around in the garden to get them moving – count the goals and it becomes a maths lesson too!
23. Warmer weather is also an excuse to wrap up and head outside with a blanket to do some cloud watching. What shapes can you see in the sky?
24. Pretend you’re all heading off on a camping adventure and make a den in the front room with duvets, pillows and cushions.
25. Grab a packet of plain biscuits and some icing sugar and get decorating. Not only does this develop creativity and motor skills, but everyone gets a treat at the end!
26. Collect up all your toy motor vehicles and create a mini car wash in the sink or a bowl.
27. Take it in turns to blow bubbles. When it’s your turn to blow ask your little one to run around and pop them to get them moving as well.
28. Make a ‘touchy-feely’ box by picking up different textured items from around the house and then asking your child to reach their hand in and describe what they can feel.
29. Depending on your child’s age play a round of musical chairs or musical cushions for the much younger ones.
30. Blow up some balloons and set a challenge that they’re not allowed to touch the floor during a game of catch.
31. Have a tea party for teddies and dolls. Ask your child to share out food such as breadsticks with all of them, counting as they do so.
32. Practice cutting skills by making snowflakes and other shapes out of folded up paper.
33. Become a fashion designer for the day and get them drawing on an old plain t-shirt.
34. Dig out some face paints, or maybe old make up if you like, and get them face painting. Perhaps something that fits with your theme of the week?
35. Come up with a treasure hunt and leave clues around a room for your child to follow. The treasure at the end could be anything from some fruit from the fruit bowl, costume jewellery or a teddy bear.
36. Play a game of Simon Says to get them moving – ask them to do ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ or the ‘Hokey Cokey’
37. For slightly older children in this age group put up a game of ‘Pin the Tail on the Donkey’. If they don’t like being blindfolded then just ask them to close their eyes instead

Young children: 5 – 12 years

38. Karaoke is a good way to keep yourself up to date with what your child is listening to as well as being a fun activity for all the family. Download a karaoke app on your phone to get you started.
39. Outdoor foot painting is a good excuse to get everyone outside – lay out a long sheet of paper and put some paper plates with paint on at one end, a towel and a bowl of water at the other and get stomping!
40. Ask to play a computer game with them – this will show them that you’re taking an interest in the stuff that interests them, as well as giving you an insight into how and what they play.
41. Make a book together. Depending on their age this could be a picture book cut out from magazines and newspapers or ask them to make up their own story and illustrate it themselves before sharing it with the rest of the family.
42. Ready, steady LEGO! Set a Lego challenge where you can see who can build a rocket/car/castle the fastest. With older children spend some time sketching out various designs on a piece of paper before folding it up and taking it in turns to pick out an idea that you then have to build together.
43. Collect some rocks and stones either from the garden or your local park that you can then bring home for some creative activities. Maybe use paint to create a new ornament for the garden?
44. Turn your home into a cinema. Instead of just putting a film on, make the room dark and give your child a blanket to cuddle up underneath. Let them choose the film too (age appropriate of course!) to make sure they’re really engaged with it
45. Sports Day. This can be indoors or outdoors depending on the weather but set up your own mini racetrack, have an egg and spoon race or use cushions for hurdles.
46. Get them to help out with dinner – from choosing the menu to prepping ingredients or just setting the table, even quite young children can get involved with meal times.
47. Food tasting sessions. This is particularly good if you have children that are fussy eaters as it will encourage them to try new things.
48. Have a go at hide and seek either indoors or out, another activity that the whole family can join in with.
49. For older children organise a Nerf gun battle – this will get them running around outside to burn off some energy.
50. Take care of yourself and each other and have a spa day. Use washing up bowls for a foot soak before you give each other pedicures and make scrubs and facemasks from ingredients you can find in the kitchen such as olive oil, sugar and honey.
51. Learn a language! BBC Bitesize is a useful place to start as it has short lessons in all sort of skills.
52. Make a wordsearch – you can theme it to a hobby or interest that you know your child has.
53. Get your child to choose a book and then help them bring it to life by putting on a play. You can write a script, decide on who is playing which character and then act it out.
54. Create your own science day. Head to Science Fun for some great tips on experiments you can do at home.
55. Come up with a concept for your own board game that you can then design and make.
56. Card games can be a good way to sneak in some learning whilst your children think they’re having fun. Uno, Snap and Top Trumps can all help sharpen maths and language skills as well as promote good emotional wellbeing by spending time together.
57. Use this time to research your family tree. Dig out photos of relatives that your child can use to stick in a family tree album.
58. If the sky is clear wrap up warm at night and get older children out of the house for some stargazing. The Sky at Night website has some tips on what you can look out for!
59. Make your own time capsule that you can then bury in the garden – WikiHow is a good place to start for ideas.
60. Keep connected by FaceTiming friends and relatives together so that they can see how everyone is doing.

Teens: 13 upwards

61. Start a book club. Choose a book that everyone will want to read and then download to a Kindle or reading app. There are often book club questions at the end to get you thinking, or you can come up with your own.
62. Have a drawing competition by creating a still life and then challenging family members to recreate it but in different mediums – paint or collage for example.
63. Dig out any jigsaws or board games that you haven’t all played together in a while. They’ll probably think it’s boring to start off with, but they’ll soon get involved.
64. Create an individual, or family, vision board. This can be anything from a series of positive affirmations, to things that make you happy or places you all want to travel to. Cut things out from magazine or print items off from the internet to stick on to the board.
65. Help your teen to rearrange their bedroom – this is also a great excuse to tidy up and clear out some drawers. Give them separate bags or boxes for items to recycle, donate or keep.
66. Organise a careers day. Get your teen to take a look at potential careers that may interest them online and what steps they may need to do take in order to be able to pursue them.
67. Plan a three course meal with items that you already have in the house. Get them to design the menu, set the table and then get cooking in the kitchen.
68. Choose one evening for a stand up comedy night. Every family member gets a 10 minute slot and has to come up with as many jokes as possible to fit into that time.
69. Set some time aside for revision but not necessarily in their school subjects. Get them to research a new topic that interests them and pull together a project on it.
70. Grab some old clothes (maybe from that bedroom sort out!) and get upcycling. Cut off old jeans to make shorts, lose sleeves or change a neckline to create something new. If your sewing skills would struggle with this, there are plenty of ideas online at sites such as www.loveyourclothes.org.uk.
71. Put on an exercise DVD or find a yoga/pilates programme online and set up a little gym session in the front room. Physical activity has emotional wellbeing benefits too – particularly if you can’t get outside.