Around the World, parents are choosing to keep their children indoors in fear of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) spread. Children, however, can get restless and bored. If you find yourself stuck at home with your children, here are some activities to chase any cabin fever away!

• Messy Play

Messy and play are two words that don’t parents don’t like to combine at home but there are ways to make the most of both these worlds! Make gloop, jelly or slime and let your child explore and play to their hearts desire in the bath tub. The only clean up involved is washing down the bath tub.

• Fort building

Fort building is an ageless activity that will always captivate the imaginations of every child. Use blankets, sheets and pillows in the lounge area to create a castle or ‘couch/house’. Your child can then makeup stories, play with toys or experiment with light and darkness in their little cocoon.

• Junk modelling

Have you noticed that children sometimes like to play with the box and not the toy? Use home stationery (markers, scissors, glue and tape) and recycled items to build new toys or create small worlds like a farm or a garage station.

• Making our own dress up clothes

Children have wild imaginations; if you have old clothes or bedsheets, why not encourage them to design their costumes! They can create a dragon’s wings or a mermaid’s tail with the fabric! With a little more time and parents’ assistance, you could also create your puppets using cotton, paint and glue or sewing skills!

• Green thumb

Trusting children with responsibilities is a great way to teach them care for their items and themselves. Plant some seeds (beans work well) and encourage your child to look after the plant by watering it, monitoring its growth and transplanting it using tools and soil once it’s sprouted.

• Cooking up a storm

Children will always enjoy baking a yummy treat. Encourage your child to help you mix all the ingredients to make biscuit dough; once the biscuits are baked and cooled, encourage your child to decorate the cookies using royal icing.

• Home picnic or cinema

Instead of eating lunch or dinner at the table, encourage your child to set up a picnic area in the lounge with sheets, pillows and blankets. They can prepare the tools, sauces and set up the food for your family mealtime! They could also create a cinema lounge area and help make snacks for a favourite family movie!

• Window Art

A quick but slightly messy activity toddlers will love is drawing on a window! When you pop into your local grocery or stationery store be on the lookout for window crayons or markers. Your child will love to explore a larger area to draw and all you have to do, to clean up the fun, is wipe it away with a damp cleaning cloth!

From all of us at Hummingbird; happy exploring!