How To Enjoy CoronaVirus Lockdown With Your Kids in 6 Easy Steps

enjoy covid 19 with kids

If you’re wondering how on earth you’re going to cope with lockdown, here’s our top tips on how to enjoy coronavirus lockdown with the kids.

Work Out Frequently & Keep Busy

Keeping fit not only passes the time but keeps your mental health in check too. That’s because exercise releases endorphins into the brain and keeps you happy.  Working out doesn’t have to be boring, we do PE with Joe every morning, yoga with YogaLab in Fremantle, Australia, we’re also learning how to dance with TikTok & Oti Mabuse. Working out and keeping fit increases your immune system’s ability to fight illness. If you do it outside you have the added benefit of your body converting sunlight to Vitamin D and plus, being around nature (even just a tree) is great for mental health and stress.

Keeping busy is a good distraction technique; it helps keep your mind entertained and passes the time quicker. A huge percentage of the world are in the exact position we’re in, so we’re fortunate to be able to support each other; from virtual festivals to ninja classes there’s something for everyone.

Below is the daily workout we do with Joe Wicks.

Teach Yourselves A New Skill

Whether it is learning how to play the saxophone, learning how to knit or getting out into the garden to plant some flowers, set yourself the task of learning something new. You’re never too old to learn something new, it keeps the brain active and boosts your confidence too.

There are YouTube tutorials for just about everything and don’t forget to look on Pinterest too. We bought a £20 Ukulele as it was the least offensive instrument we could learn within the confines of the house.

Cook From Scratch

If you can’t already cook from scratch, now is a perfect time to learn how to. If you can already rustle up something decent, try learning some new cooking skills. The Vegan Chef School is offering free classes during the lockdown.

We already make our own soya milk but have started making oat milk too.  We also bought a £20 Crock-Pot and are busy experimenting making everything from curry to sticky date pudding and are currently brewing our own sourdough starter.

Three Awesome cook books we use and recommend are:

Support Local Businesses

We are probably in the same position as you in that we cannot order online or ‘click & collect’ from any supermarket chain for the next four weeks. So, find out which local businesses are still open and support them, not the big supermarkets. This makes us happy knowing we’ve supported our local community and I hope it does you too.

We are supporting a green grocer, our local Asian supermarket and also a semi local Turkish market. We can get everything we need from these wholesalers and they employ local people and pay farmers directly. We got 2kg of cashew nuts for £17 & 10kg of rice for £16 from our local Asian supermarket and fresh turmeric and delicious bread from the Turkish market.

Our green grocer provides ‘veg boxes’ and the kids love to unpack the boxes which are left on our doorstep each week. Even though I know exactly what is going to be in them, I don’t tell the kids and leave it as a surprise!

One way to find out who is open and delivering is by joining local facebook groups. We’ve found this is where the majority of small businesses prefer to market their services.

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markt fruit & veg
Fruit & Veg in market

Practice Mindfulness

There’s never been a more perfect time to practice meditation, mindfulness and be grateful for what we have. Not only does mindfulness teach us how to be grounded in a time of crisis but it helps us remain calm and focused on the positive things in our lives.

Three Apps to try are:

Smiling Mind – Free App

Mindful Powers – Free to try, then one off $4.99

HeadSpace – Free to try, then $12.99 per month

Make Life Fun

Does it really matter if they don’t do their school work for a bit? Let them sleep in and stay in their pj’s all day. Let them bounce on the trampoline, get messy in the kitchen, design something with paper, mix a bowl of gloop and definitely make silly tiktok videos with them.  This is an unprecedented time and kids’ childhoods go so quickly so why not embrace lockdown and make it fun. They’ll remember this period of time for the rest of their lives so just relax and have a laugh.

The only subject we enforce is maths and every day our kids must complete 40 minutes. We currently use study.com for maths but we’ve also used IXL, Khan Academy and Carol Vordaman is offering free maths classes to all kids throughout the lockdown.

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How to enjoy coronavirus lockdown with your kids