Activities & Days Out / 13 January, 2021 / My Baba
Struggling to entertain your kids as we enter another lockdown? Have no fear, SeriousFun Children’s Network is here to share some of their top activities to get you and your children through lockdown 2.0.
SeriousFun Children’s Network charity was set up by the late actor and philanthropist Paul Newman to provide life-changing experiences to children living with serious illnesses and their families. They’ve been on a mission to keep the families and children they support connected and engaged despite in-person camp closures across the world, by bringing a little bit of SeriousFun directly into their homes.
Following the success of their star-studded virtual event which included musical performances and surprise acts from a line-up of A-list celebrities including Sting, Dame Helen Mirren, Renée Zellweger, Jimmy Fallon and Kermit The Frog, SeriousFun Children’s Network is bringing its much-loved kids camp activities to families virtually all over the world via their new platform The SeriousFun Zone.
Get stuck into a selection of family-fun activities from fort building to scavenger hunts that will guarantee to keep your kids covered this lockdown. What’s more, these activities for kids will allow more time for busy mums and dads to put their feet up!
Try building a fort or den, get cosy inside and enjoy a good book or film while staying protected from the Big Freeze in your epic home-made fort.
Step 1: Get Supplies. What are you going to make your fort with? This could be a combination of chairs, blankets, cardboard, a tent, cushions, sleeping bags, duvets, fairy lights. You could even make your fort over a bed, a sofa or a table.
Step 2: Start putting all the parts together and keep in place with clothes pins or safety pins. Make sure it’s sturdy so it doesn’t collapse!
Step 3: Get Cosy! Put on your favourite and comfiest PJs. Fill your fort with comfortable cushions and blankets and get your favourite stuffed animals to snuggle up to.
Step 4: Snuggle up and enjoy a good book or film from inside your cosy home-made fort!
Get competitive with your family and create your very own Scavenger Hunt!
Step 1: Think of 20-30 household objects. They can be anything from cutlery, clothes and stationery to toothpaste, plasters or teddy bears. Whatever the objects are, write them down on a piece of paper so you can remember the objects you need to find as you set off on your scavenger hunt.
Step 2: Agree on a time limit with your family members and set an alarm so you know when to stop looking for the objects. Whoever finds the most objects as possible within the time limit, wins!
TOP TIP: You can always create an outdoor scavenger hunt as well if you’d like to get some fresh air. Similarly, think of 20 objects to spot, whether it’s a twig, a tree or wildlife, this can work just as well and helps to get your kids outdoors as well as boost their learning and development!
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This activity incorporates two camp activities for the kids in one: arts, crafts and fishing! Make one fish or a whole school! Decorate your fish with patterns, colours, eyeballs and silly faces if you’d like.
Step 1: Fold a square piece of paper in half diagonally, then unfold.
Step 2: Place your paper so your fold line is vertical. Fold the left and right triangles in half toward the centre line.
Step 3: Open your paper. Fold the square in half diagonally so it resembles step 1 again.
Step 4: Using scissors and starting on the folded edge, cut lines up to the fold line. Start about an inch from the corner to leave room for the fish’s head.
Step 5: Refold your now cut paper so it resembles step 2. Glue or tape one side to the other.
Step 6: Cut the pointed tip off to shape the head of the fish.
Step 7: Using another piece of paper, create fins and eyes for the fish if you’d like. Attach with glue or tape.
Step 8: Using the same colour paper as your fish body, cut a half circle for the bottom of the fish’s mouth, attach with glue or tape.
Step 9: Add a paper clip for catching and start fishing!
Materials Needed:
Step 1: Cut 2-inch pieces of duct tape.
Step 2: Now take one of the 2-inch duct tape pieces and fold the two top corners down. It creates a “house shape”. Make sure to leave the bottom part sticky, this is what will adhere to the stem of the flower (your pen).
Step 3: Now, wrap the sticky part around the top of the pen, making sure the pointy part goes above the top of the pen.
Step 4: Now keep making 2-inch duct tape strips and the house shapes!
Step 5: Keep wrapping them around the top of the pen on top of one another. This will now start to look like a flower.
Tip: Make a bunch of house shapes at one time so they are ready to wrap around the pen one after the other. This is more efficient!
Step 6: Keep going and stick as many as you want around the top of the pen – you can either have a small flower of a big flower. When you are done, you can fold the outer petals down or leave them up.
You might be asking yourself, “What does self-care mean?” Self-care is when we take an active role in caring for our well-being and happiness. There are a ton of different ways we can take an active role in looking after ourselves. This week, we invite you to reflect on your favourite ways to practice self-care. This list can include anything from gratitude, yoga, exercise, reading, colouring, journaling to spending time in nature or with loved ones.
Create and colour in your own self-care ‘shield’ to help you remember to take an active role in your own wellbeing. Stick it on your wall and look back at your shield when you need a reminder of the self-care strategies that work the best for you, then do one!
To create a self-care shield, pick your favourite shield template and then draw or write your favourite self-care strategies.
You can find and print off a variation of shield templates from The SeriousFun Zone.
What kind of things can you do for people near and far? Here’s a list of ten simple things to show you care for those you love:
This article was brought to you by SeriousFun Children’s Network, the charity set up by the late actor and philanthropist Paul Newman to provide life-changing experiences to children living with serious illnesses and their families. During Covid-19 they have been on a mission to keep the families and children they support normally at camps across the world connected and engaged by bringing a little bit of SeriousFun directly into their homes
Find more fun here: www.seriousfun.org/seriousfun-zone.
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