like us, I'm sure you too are at the end of your tether with lockdown. This past couple of weeks just seem to have been the hardest so far. Our eldest won't engage with home learning, our youngest is entering terrible twos and it's SO DAMN COLD that even going to the park has become a brief activity that feels like survival and endurance rather than something to enjoy.
Holidays - especially sunny ones - seem like a proper distant memory. So, what can you do to bring some sunshine to your lives, entertain the kids, and keep you all busy for a couple of days?
Charlotte came to Seatkickers with the perfect answer:
Her family spent a couple of days bringing the seaside to their house.
The girls said afterwards it was their favourite day of lockdown, so what did they do? And how can you copy it?
Starting off with creating their own ice cream stall, the girls went for a sail in a dinghy, visited a 'stony beach' ended with fish and chips by the sea and slept under the stars...
What can you do to prepare?
* Tell the kids and get them excited. It'll give them something to look forward to (and something to bribe them with)
* If you own a dinghy get it out of the loft / garage. If you don't, you could make a boat out of boxes or just from pillows and blankets
* Make Ice cream. Honestly it's simple, Charlotte and her girls used this recipe:
* Get hold of some stones to paint or think of another 'beach' craft
* You could prep ahead by making signs, writing the menu etc or leave that til the day
What did we do?
* We set up an ice cream and snack stand. We used a decorating table, you could use a dining table or a kids' toy kitchen, anything you have at home, some signs - which they make from cardboard and paint (and surely classes as an English lesson right?) A price sign which again could easily substitute your home maths lesson
* We made ice cream the day before, the kids enjoyed it and it added to the excitement and the enjoyment on the day and filled a bit of time.
* The girls set sail in their dinghy, they spent quite a lot of time on make believe and imaginative play (and actually didn't argue) which was great
* We painted stones in a beach theme. This is a really simple activity, easy to set up and keeps them busy!
* We all ate fish and chips on a blanket in the lounge, and pretended we were at the seaside. It's a cheap and easy tea, that felt like we were doing something fun we'd normally be doing on holiday
* Finally, we used our youngest's projector to put stars on the ceiling and told the girls they were 'camping out under the stars'. It's amazing how reframing something suddenly makes it so much more exciting for them
How fun was it?
We all thoroughly enjoyed it. They looked forward to it all week. The crafting and ice cream making took up most of a day before, and then the day itself was full of fun, got us all talking about our favourite holidays, and sandwiches from the stall and fish and chips for tea actually made our lives easier and was exciting for the girls. They all loved it and said it was their favourite day of lockdown so far - not bad ey?
CONTRIBUTOR: CHARLOTTE JONES
Charlotte lives in Manchester with her three girls aged 3-7
