coronavirus school closures: back to basics

There has been a surge of great children’s daily routine templates floating around the internet since the UKs school closure announcement. However, all this sudden change to our routines can feel overwhelming considering the other pressures us parents are now facing.

Our preschoolers are also affected by these closures and as they do not have school work to follow whilst at home we need to entertain them now more than ever. We would love in an ideal world to say just enjoy, slow down and have fun with your children however we must be realistic and say many parents may still working during this time therefore children led activities maybe our savior. With the popular go to soft play areas, swimming and local farms out of action for the foreseeable its back to basics for many of us.

So here at Sweet Dreamers we’d like to propose a balanced approach to this tricky time we find ourselves in mixing activities with free unstructured play time. We’re not going to give an hour by hour breakdown of a day because as we all know our children in their home space are very different to our children in a structured school setting, so here is a list of 30 fun free activities to do as and when you need to,

1. Play board games
2. Sit down and eat mealtimes together
3. Drawing
4. Sticker books
5. Read together
6. Read separately 
7. Offer help to neighbours where possible
8. Free time – children to make their own entertainment
9. Writing short stories
10. Call/facetime family members
11. Go for a woodland walk 
12. Pot some plants
13. Play hide and seek
14. Ride bikes/scooters
15. Watch a film
16. Make cakes
17. Play football in the garden
18. Let them help with appropriate chores
19. Arts and crafts
20. Play music and dance
21. Play with toys
22. Cook dinner together
23. Do a puzzle 
24. Have a nap (if you’re lucky)
25. Practice writing 
26. Follow a children’s fitness routine online
27. Colouring
28. Bubbles in the garden
29. Go to park (if possible) 
30. Remember to laugh together and keep positive, this will pass 

Repeat as necessary

We’d love to hear what you are doing so please comment below and we can all give each other some ideas.

Baa for now x