Lockdown challenges: Fun suggestions and activities to add variety to your day

Home learning suggestions from our 11+ Education Consultant, Rhiannon Drake

Ok. First week down.

We’re ‘in lockdown’. And already it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Time to bring some fun into the working day!

It’s easy to think that your children aren’t learning enough if they’re not constantly sat at a table, scribbling away in their books, but there are lots of ways to educationally engage your child away from a desk. We hope our suggestions so far have been of interest; more below!

Remember:

• Many children learn best through activity – it’s OK if they’re not sitting down at a table all the time
• Exercise will help them focus
• Children still need to work on their social skills, even from home. It’s important to allocate social time for them as this is, perhaps, the greatest thing they’re missing out on from not going to school every day

Today, why don’t you try one of these activities?

Have a Zoom party:

• • Over the new few months, many children will be missing out on key social interactions and activities. Birthday parties will be cancelled. They won’t be seeing each other every day at school. It’s important to maintain this part of life when they’re stuck at home
  • Use apps like Zoom to organise a social gathering. Treat it like an organised occasion:
    • Maybe you could have a theme that everyone dresses up in?
    • Perhaps they could meet-up whilst you’re having a meal so they can show each other what they’re eating?
    • Could everyone come to the party with a piece of art they’ve made over the past few days?
    • Use it as an opportunity for everyone to, one-by-one, show their friends something they’re proud of
    • Allow your children to express how they’re feeling to their friends

Take a stroll through a Virtual Online Gallery:

• • Many of London’s art galleries, such as The National Gallery, are now providing access to their most famous paintings online. Why not take a look at some of these with your children and ask them to draw their own versions?
  • If you want to go further, you could ask your child to write a short of review about what they like or don’t like about their chosen painting, also explaining to the reader the journey their eye goes on as they look at it. Perhaps they’d like to look up the artist and discover what inspired them to create this masterpiece?
  • The Tate have a great website for kids (Tate Kids), which has lots of fun art suggestions

Bird watching in the garden:

• • From a window, or out in your garden, spend 15 minutes looking out for any birds that appear
  • Get your children to draw any birds they see or write a description of the things they do
  • Use the RSPB’s useful ‘Identify A Bird’ tool-kit to work out what they saw
  • If no birds appear during the time you allocate for this, ask your children to design their own imaginary bird. Get them to paint a picture, name their bird, and write a short creative description of what the bird would do in the world outside their window

Do a Family P.E. Lesson:

• • There are lots of excellent websites and social media pages out there now offering free exercise classes
  • The famous “Body Coach”, Joe Wicks, is now offering P.E. classes every morning at 9.00am, Mon – Fri, for all of the family @thebodycoach