Activities to keep your family entertained during home working JT Group Limited
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Many of us have recently found ourselves working from home, trying to juggle getting work done while keeping the family entertained. In this eBook, we have put together plenty of fun activities to help keep your family occupied and engaged, whether you are off work with more free time or trying to schedule home schooling with a busy work schedule.
Katie Corbett Director of Enterprise & Business Services
Remember to keep things ‘normal’ during home working Before we get into our list of fun-filled activities, we’ve put together a few quick tips on keeping the day-to-day routine as normal as possible.
Retain a sense of structure
Consider mental health
This is essential, but it’ll be easier for some parents than others. Try to wake the kids up at the same time each morning — just like if they were going to school (and, as if you were going to work too). Then, if you can, do lessons and educational activities for a couple of hours throughout the morning, and let them play in the afternoon. Of course, if you’re working from home too, it might take a while to fall into a natural, realistic routine — whatever it looks like for your family, just try to find a new normal.
If you’re feeling anxious about the news and the state of the world, chances are that your your family, young and old, are as well. Be sure to check in with them each day, and encourage them to talk about their feelings if needed. There are plenty of resources and apps online that you can explore together, to ensure their mental health doesn’t suffer while cooped up inside. However, of course, we hope lots of these activities, and structured education in their day will help too.
Schedule everything Plans help us feel in control. Each night, craft a schedule for the following day. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel each day, keep the structure similar day-to-day, but make sure you schedule in as much as you can. Meals, class time, structured play, free play, quiet hour, reading time, screen time, and physical activity. And last but not least, remember to schedule time for yourself . Need some help? See our Wellbeing guide below:
Read our Wellbeing While Working from Home guide here.
Find out more >
Avoid “summer brain” All parents will be familiar with the dreaded “summer brain”. When kids have a couple of months off school, it’s easy to slip into a brain state where they’re not engaged, sleep late, don’t want to read or think, and just want to spend time with friends. So, for now, spend at least a few hours a day doing activities that’ll keep their brains active.
Popular Wellbeing & Meditation Apps Headspace >
Calm >
Finally, have fun! While everything outside of your four walls may feel out of control, you do have the ability to create a fun and happy space for your children in the comfort of their own home. Involve them in everything you can, encourage them to be resourceful, and help design their own lesson plans and daily activities!
Toolkit for keeping your family entertained during home working... Screen-free activities (+ Digital adaptions) Keep a journal We’re living through a time that future generations will study in history class. In the years to come to come, your kids might not even remember just how bizarre this time in their lives was, so encourage them to keep a record of their thoughts and feelings in a journal. This is something they can do on their own while you work and you can extend the activity by asking them to add drawings to accompany each journal entry.
Listen to a podcast There are endless amounts of child-friendly podcasts out there. Try out Stories Podcast, which tells a new story each week — some original, some based on fairy tales, all 100% enjoyable. Or Brains On is an educational science show that covers a whole range of topics.
Why not try downloading or streaming episodes from your phone and playing it over a speaker whilst you take an important work call. This will ensure they can enjoy some chill time away from screens.
Download an audiobook Same idea as the podcast, but just longer and more involved. Choose a book your kids already love — like Harry Potter — and get on with your own work, safe in the knowledge that their time is being spent well. To keep them engaged, set them small breaks with tasks to draw parts of the story they have remembered.
Have an Amazon account? Start a free 30-day trial of Audible. Download the app or listen from your smart speaker or computer.
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Cook! Granted, this is more likely an activity for you to do together as a family, but getting your kids into the kitchen is a great way to pass the time. So, take your break, enlist them to help you make lunch and grab your aprons. Get them to do the safe and easy tasks, like measuring ingredients or reading out instructions. Cooking is not just about occupying small children, this is something to keep older kids away from screens too. Set them a “Come Dine with me” challenge. They can each cook dinner one night a week from a simple recipe and the family score their efforts at the end of the meal.
Science experiments Stuck for recipe idea’s? Grab a mini apron and dive into these family recipes from BBC Good Food.
Download and print these recipes here >
Worksheets Head online, and you’ll find no shortage of home schooling parents who blog about their favourite worksheet resources and share them with the public. For example, here are some maths games for preschoolers, interactive social study lessons for primary school, and creative writing prompts for secondary school students. Using Google, it’s easy to find sheets and lesson plans for any subject or topic area you like, and you’ll be able to print these out to keep ‘Screen-free’ for a while.
Kids love a good science experiment. It’s a great way to get them doing an educational activity without even realising they’re learning. You can do some simple stuff with household items — like a DIY lava lamp, homemade slime, making snow with baking soda, or writing coded messages with lemon juice. (Though these are more activities for when you’re taking a break, to do together). Or, set them up with more simple, safe experiments they can do on their own, in the same room as you while you work.
If you want to add another degree of learning to this activity, get your child to write up a short report about the experiment. They can set out an aim and a hypothesis before they start, like experiments at school, and review it afterwards. This is an excellent way to add a level of critical thinking to a fun activity.
Of course, there are also plenty of YouTube tutorials with great ideas for at-home science experiments.
Browse some clips here >
Physical activities for the family while you’re social distancing Your family needs to get physical activity into their routine every day — whether it’s in your garden, or at a local park (depending on your local government advice at this time), or just a even just a suitable space within your home. The following activities are perfect for the coming weeks, just remember to practice safe social distancing techniques when doing them.
Family workouts When you’re cooped up inside all day, it’s hard to make sure you’re being active enough. Break up your day by doing a quick workout together as a family. YouTube’s new Kids app has content created just for kids,
including a whole section of child-friendly workouts. Set up a laptop in the garden (or clear a space in the living room) and get those hearts pumping! It’s a great way to start the day, before diving into lessons (or home working for you adults!).
Garden games Instead of just throwing a frisbee or playing tag, encourage your family to play something new and creative — not only will this help break up the monotony, but it’ll give their brains a workout, too. You could make your own game of ring toss using paper plates, or use water bottles to set up a DIY bowling alley.
Garden science Some of the best science experiments are messy. So, turn your garden into a science lab and find some activities that are educational without feeling like a school lesson. Encourage your kids to go online with you to find experiments that they’re interested in doing. You can make your own erupting volcano, turn some tin foil into a DIY oven to melt chocolate (if it’s sunny enough), or there’s always the classic Mentos in Diet Coke trick.
Online / Screen-based activities Watch a documentary When you need some time to really focus on your work, giving your children some TV-time can be a real saviour. That’s not to say that is needs to be cartoon-time. For example, you can stream lots of educational content on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Youtube etc. Choose a topic they’re already interested in (like a documentary about the LEGO factory), or something related to what they’re learning in their schoolwork. Make a shortlist of 5-10 documentaries, and then let your kids decide what they’d like to watch.
Or get your family to create their own documentary Easy-to-use video editing apps can turn your kids into mini directors in a few short hours. So download iMovie on a phone or iPad and let their creativity call the shots.
JT Group Limited
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You can allocate a whole day as a “filmmaking day”, and get them to write a script, make a storyboard, film around the house, then edit it all together. You could have a family viewing party once they’re done.
Of course, they can make films about anything they want — a scripted short movie, a documentary about what they’re learning, a historical re-enactment. It’s a great way to keep them busy for the whole day, and will give you the chance to get some work done during certain tasks, without interruption.
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Socialise while you’re social distancing One of the hardest things about having to stay home is the social aspect — especially for kids. Most thrive off interaction with other people, and will certainly be feeling the difference after several weeks without school. Why not see if you can set up a video chat with some of their friends, and try to organise some face-to-face screen time. You can use Facetime or Facebook Messenger, or a video calling app like Skype or Zoom.
Travel the world without leaving the house
They can use the time just to chat or catch up, or you could look up some fun verbal games that they can play, like ‘Alphabet’ or ‘Who Am I?’.
Break up the sameness of your own four walls by making the most of the amazing live streams and virtual tours available on the web. If you’ve got a hyperfast download speed, you may as well use it! You can take a tour of the Louvre, check out artefact timelines from the British Museum, listen to live streams from the Met Opera, or virtually hike the Great Wall Of China. Some local libraries and community centres are also setting up live streams for book reading and activities like dance classes or art lessons, so check out the websites and social channels of your neighbourhood community services — it’s important to support grassroots initiatives in times like this.
If your family love animals, go on an immersive 360° zoo adventure in search of Stumpy the ring-tailed lemur and learn about the animals.
Check out Durrell’s virtual 360° tour >
Set up your own movie theatre One of the easiest ways to occupy kids when they’re not in school is by taking them to the cinema. Unfortunately, most theatres are currently out of the question — so why not set one up at home? Rather than just putting something on TV, turn it into an event that feels extra special. Set up blankets and comfy chairs, turn off the lights, pop some popcorn. You could even stream some trailers for upcoming family movies before pressing play on your film of choice.
Working from home can take some getting used to, but we hope we’ve helped you make the transition a little easier. For more of our ‘Top Tips for Working From Home’ visit:
www.jtglobal.com/jt-hub
JT Group Limited
@JT_Business