With self-isolation and social distancing in full effect, it can be hard to think of fun tasks to keep your kids happy, healthy and most of all, inside over the coming days, weeks and months.
To help, we have compiled a list of our favourite healthy activities that can be done from the comfort of your home. These are sure to dispel your kids boredom and keep them, moving and learning for the foreseeable future:
Healthy eating
- Phenomenom! – was created by Alice Zaslavsky and offers a range of videos, podcast and printed resources which are designed to get kids excited about healthy food, especially vegetables.
- Kid Friendly Recipes – Healthy Kids has provided parents with some quick, easy and healthy recipes that children can help cook. They have even give you the nutrients value of each serve.
- Gardening – now could be the perfect time to start a home garden and get your kids involved in growing their own fruits and vegetables. You can even start growing things by planting old food scraps and seeds. The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation also offers some pleasurable food education resources that are extremely useful.
- Jamie Oliver – as a parent he has a great range of video and posts featuring his family and family friendly recipe ideas.
- HEAS – offer a list of healthy eating resources and games, including: food labelling activities and instructions on how to create a vegetable person.
- Virtual Excursions – amongst other places, your kids can now visit a virtual farm, which will help them to understand where their food comes from.
Physical Activity
- The Body Coach TV – is a YouTube channel that offers fitness videos for all ages. The P.E. with Joe and the Kids Workouts To Do At Home series’ focus on exercises that younger kids can do at home, with most of the exercises running for less than 10 minutes.
- Transform-us – are now offering a free family activity pack that provides children with more opportunities to be active at home.
- Cosmic Kids Yoga – is a YouTube channel that teaches yoga, mindfulness and relaxation techniques for kids aged 3 and up. It’s the perfect way to start any day.
- Kids Coach – is extremely easy to use workout app for kids and teens and it is streamable to any device. The app offers a 2 week free trial period and then charges $4.99 a month for parents that are interested in continuing their subscription.
- Kidzbopkids – is a vibrant YouTube channel where your kids can follow along to dance tutorials taught by other kids. It’s the best way to incorporate music and movement into your kids daily routine.
- Just Dance – now have a YouTube channel where your kids can dance along for free. Once you start dancing you can’t stop.
- GoNoodle – is a physical activity and mindfulness website/app with a wide range of offerings that appeal to kids’ of different ages, interests, skills, and abilities.
Wellness and mindfulness
- Smiling Mind – helps to combat stress, improve focus and increase resilience.
- Mindful Powers – uses mindfulness games to help kids focus, calm their thoughts, and be more mindful in their actions. It is normally $4.99 to unlock the entire mindfulness 101 story pack, but at the moment it is being offered for free.
- Stop, Breath & Think Kids – helps kids discover their superpowers of quiet, focus and peaceful sleep with their easy-to-use app.
- Family podcasts – there a lot of amazing podcasts that you and your family can listen to at home to help relieve stress, some of our favourites include; Short & Curly, Wow in the World, Brains On!, The Squiz Kids and This Kid Life.
- Bedtime podcasts – Keeping kids on a regular sleep schedule is great for their mental and physical wellbeing. Podcasts can be a great way to put kids to bed without a fuss. One that we really like is Bedtime Explorers which also uses mindfulness exercises.
- Healthy Harold, Healthy Me app – offers 3 fun mini games designed to start conversations about keeping healthy, staying safe and understanding feelings.
- Parents’ Voice blogs – we have a range of fun and educational blogs just waiting to be discovered. E.g. Our February blog by Cat Walker, ‘Staying sane inside with kids during the school holidays’, offers 8 fun activities that you can do with your kids while quarantined.
Bonus Tip
This one’s for the parents’, because parents deserve fun and healthy activities too.
- In Good Health Podcast – Our good friend Dr Sandro Demaio has created a new podcast series, called In Good Health, which focuses on our bodies, the food we eat and the way we live. Season one is all about food and season two explores life during the COVID-19 outbreak. Every week there is something new and interesting for parents to discover.
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Feature Image Credit: Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
