It’s week 3 of our Under 5s Isolation Challenges! We hope the Isolation Challenges have given you more structure to your day and some fun and different ideas for things to do with your kids while at home.
We’ve listed out 3 challenges a day. You could do one in the morning, one at lunch and then one in the afternoon. We try to mainly use things that you can find around the house but maybe just flick through the list of activities to check if you need to grab anything extra in your next essential shop.
If you haven’t already signed up to receive these Isolation Challenges directly via email click here to sign up.
Here’s a summary of the days and further below are the details. This Saturday is Anzac Day so we have incorporated this into this week’s activities.
MONDAY
- Make bubbles
- Build a fort
- Do some yoga with Cosmic Yoga
TUESDAY
- Create paper planes, decorate and fly them
- Indoor colour scavenger hunt
- Do a gym class with The Little Gym Dural
WEDNESDAY
- Art Hub for Kids
- Balloon keepy uppy
- Dance along to YouTube
THURSDAY
- ANZAC Art
- Outdoor obstacle course
- Do a dance class with Jigsaw Dance
FRIDAY
- Bake ANZAC biscuits
- Build a boat out of recycling that you can float on water
- Learn/practise how to catch a ball
MONDAY
Make bubbles
Little Mess Makers has been doing daily challenges on their Facebook page. One of their challenges was to make bubbles! Here are the instructions:
We made a simple bubble mixture using dishwashing liquid and cornflour (a 1/3 cup dishwashing liquid, 2 heaped tablespoons of cornflour, mix it well into 3 cups of water, and let sit for at least half an hour).
We then made a bubble blower with a pipe cleaner. But why not experiment to see what other objects work? You could try a wire coat hanger, a straw or a tennis racket.
Build a fort
Give your child a few pillows and a blanket or sheet and challenge them to make a couch into a fort. Once they’ve created their secret hide out let them play in it. Beware, once forts are created in our house they tend to stay erected for weeks!
Do some yoga with Cosmic Yoga
The Cosmic Kid Yoga YouTube channel is fantastic! Today we are g’ng to challenge you to do the Frozen inspired adventure. Click here to access it. It goes for 30 minutes. If you are really lucky they’ll stay engaged for the full time!
TUESDAY
Create paper planes, decorate and fly them
Paper planes are so much fun! Here’s a great resource to help you fold them. Which one goes the furthest? Add to the task by decorating the paper first.
Indoor colour scavenger hunt
Kids love hunting for things. Either get your child to collect the things they find or you could let them take photos on your phone once they find them. Or a combination of the two! You might want to put coloured items on the floor for your child to sort their items into. You can even extend this and make it a timed challenge. Get them to repeat finding another item that fits the description and see if they beat their time.
Do a gym class with The Little Gym Dural
The Little Gym Dural has created the Little Gym at Home! They will release weekly videos in their Facebook Group which can be found here. And they have kindly made some of their videos available to Hills District Mums.
If your child is aged under 3 years this is the video for you – it’s a parent and child class. Click here to access it.
If your child is aged 3 – 6 years this is the video for you. Click here to access it.
WEDNESDAY
Art Hub for Kids
We hadn’t even heard of this channel until a couple of weeks ago and we have been using it heaps since the kids went into isolation. Get your child to choose one lesson from this list. Our kids do it in pencil first then trace it and colour it in.
Balloon keepy uppy
Balloons can provide hours of entertainment and it’s a workout at the same time! Our favourite is “Keepy Uppy” and this will be a favourite of kids who love Bluey. How long can you keep a ballon up in the air for. You can use your hands to tap it up or your foot or a pool noodle or a wooden spoon. Anything really. Time how long you keep it up to challenge yourself.
Dance along to YouTube
The GoNoodle channel is another new channel for us! And since we now can’t get the Banana Banana Meatball song out of our head we think you should join us. It’s a short one but explore and see what your child likes to bop along to. Click here to access it.
If dorky dancers are your thing, then you may love the Dinosaur Stomp. Click here.
THURSDAY
ANZAC Art
We did this ANZAC art at home and it was really easy! The kids used paint brushes and green paint to create the grass and stems. Then they used the lid from a milk carton to create the red poppies. We didn’t have black paint for the middle so we used a black sharpie once the paint was dry.
We also love this one – paper plate poppies. You can details on creating it here.
Outdoor obstacle course
Create an outdoor obstacle course. Get the kids involved in developing it. Include areas that you crawl under, jump over, climb and balance.
Do a dance class with Jigsaw Dance
Local dance studio, Jigsaw Dance is now fully online! And they have kindly given us access to one of their Jigsaw Juniors lessons! It’s a full class so hopefully it keeps your child occupied for 45 minutes!
The preferred method of watching the video is via Vimeo – the link is here.
Or here is the YouTube video – the link is here.
If you are interested in finding out more about Jigsaw Dances online dance program click here.
FRIDAY
Bake ANZAC cookies
This is a totally delicious treat! Here’s our favourite recipe.
Build a boat out of recycling that you can float on water
Use items around your house (e.g. recycling and arts and crafts) and create a boat that can float on water.
Learn/practise how to catch a ball
Catching is actually quite hard and kids are often nervous about getting a ball in the nose! Once they get the hang of it you can challenge them. Can you catch and throw with your partner 10 times without dropping it? Can you catch and throw 10 times? What is your record? Another idea is to start in close then once you do 10 take one step back and repeat. How far apart can you get?
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