What's On • at Your Place
With Triple M’s Elliott
With the changes to events and activities in public spaces we came up with a list of things you can do at home to connect and have fun! WAYS TO GET ACTIVE INDOORS/YOUR OWN BACKYARD Try GoNoodle www.gonoodle.com it’s a great online resource with movement and mindfulness videos created by child development experts. Enjoy Free at-home kids yoga lesson plans with www.littletwistersyoga.com Harness the power of YouTube by learning new skills through tutorials. For example: You could try learning specific stances and basic positions for karate, Taekwondo or another martial art (supervision required.) Create an obstacle course. You can gather up old toys and things you find in storage or your garage and get creative. There’s lots of ideas online too if you’d like some suggestions. Create a fun age-appropriate ‘circuit workout’ for the family Try online workout videos or maybe you’ve got some DVD’s you can try together. You could even design your own exercise class and take turns teaching them. Don’t forget to create a music playlist of your favourite tunes. Set up a tent in your backyard and go camping. Sneaky Cleaning; have a competition to see who can pick up the most dishes/clothes/ socks/Legos/etc laying around the house (and putting them
back where they belong). The winner gets to pick the next board game or activity you play. Dance. Pick a favourite song. Choreograph a dance routine to it. You could also try having a disco in the dark. Cover all the windows, turn off the lights, turn up the music and literally dance like no one is watchingcause they can’t see you! Have a Nerf battle. FUN THINGS TO DO AS A FAMILY Board games to bust the boredom! If the kids don’t know the joy of ‘Passing Go’ and collecting $200, now’s the time to introduce them. Bust out the paint, glue sticks and the pipe cleaners - it’s craft time! There is limitless online resources to give you ideas; but one of our favourites is: www.allkidsnetwork.com for crafts, activities, mazes, dot to dots and more. Learn the Japanese art of paper folding: Origami. Have a toddler? Keep them busy with these indoor activities www.busytoddler.com Storytime done differently – check out Storytime from Space- hear real Astronauts read books in orbit at www.storytimefromspace.com or head to www.storylineonline. net to hear kids’ books read by famous people.
Use that pile of unmatched socks next to the drier to create Puppets! You can also use paper bags or stuffed animals with their stuffing pulled out. Great ideas and resources on how to create your own puppet show can be found at www.micheleepuppets.org Do your kids love comics? Why not help them create their own comic book. Check out www.comiclife.com Hit the Kitchen; bake a cake, cupcakes and cookies. Try your hand at making pickles and jam (yum). Get competitive: have an untimed Iron Chef/ Masterchef style contest with the whole family. Choose an ingredient, and everyone makes a different dish (and dinner). Card Games; play games you know and learn new games. If you haven’t heard of ‘spoons’ it’s awesome. Once you’ve mastered the standard version of ‘Spoons’ try ‘Ultimate Spoons’ you place the spoon across the room, or at the end of an obstacle course. You can also try building a house of cards. Get old school with salt dough. Recipes to make your own are easily found online. LEGO !!! Search ’30-day LEGO® Challenge’ online there are tonnes to choose from. You can also play a modified version of Pictionary with LEGO®. Make a list of animals and objects, write them ®
on individual pieces of paper, place them in an empty box and draw out one when it’s |your teams turn. Set a 5-minute time limit per creation, see if your partner can guess it before time runs out. 1 point scored per correct guess. Upcycled Art; find broken toys or things that need to be thrown away around the house. Get out the sticky tape and glue and challenge the kids to create a sculpture. (This is a fun way to spring clean). Word Scrambles; pick a sentence from a book. See how many words the kids can make from the letters in the sentence. Create a secret code. Once you’ve got the symbol key, write a letter to someone in code and get them to decipher the message. Have a backyard pool? Why not have a paper boat race? Try making your own musical instruments (there are hundreds of ideas online), then make your own band and create some songs. Read books. Have a prize for the family member who reads the most books during a set amount of time. Did you know your local library has online resources like e-books, audiobooks and online magazines too?
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