So here we are , after two weeks of home/emergency education we find ourselves at the Easter holidays (of sorts) and housebound. I did have an article planned for you full of action packed days out locally but unfortunately all of these have now been cancelled.

We know many of you have been juggling working from home, trying to negotiated home learning with your children as well as getting used to a new way of life, whereby our four walls are our whole world.

However hopefully over Easter you will have at least some down time where the home learning has stopped being sent home for a few weeks and hopefully your work load may be a  little less so we've put together a few ideas which you may enjoy doing together as a family. Keep an eye on our Whats on page for events.

These are updated daily.

Yarn Bomb your windows:

Hertford is famed for its Yarn bombing during the school holidays. There was an amazing Easter trail planned again for this year which has sadly been postponed. Currently people are allowed out for one form of exercise a day, imagine how much we could brighten some little ones days by making our own Easter scenes in our windows . Dig out some teddys and get creative. Lets Yarn/ Teddy bomb our windows in Hertford for local families to enjoy as they enjoy their daily walks. 

Easter Egg Hunt

A very easy one, if you've been able to get hold of some small chocolate eggs host an Easter egg hunt in your own house or garden, make clues and enjoy. Mr Simms Sweet shop are offering a delivery service for sweets and Easter eggs and The Mill House are also doing Art Packs which include an Easter egg hunt pack. 

Make some Mini Egg Fudge-

Adapt our candy cane 2 ingredient recipe to an Easter version. You can find the recipe here.

Easter bonnet Parade-

Make an Easter Bonnet at home with whatever you have laying around the house and have a parade through the house, maybe you could video call relatives and get them involved in the fun too?

Make some Hot cross buns!

We've found a no yeast recipe so if you would like some tasty hot cross buns this year and have self raising flour and yogurt you can find the recipe here: 

Decorate some eggs 

If you are lucky enough to have some eggs in the children could use them to decorate. In order not to waste food, you could make a small hole in the bottom of the egg and drain the egg out first which you can then use for cooking. Lots of fun.

Easter arts and craft activities-

 The Mill house recently published some great ideas for Easter arts and Crafts using toilet rolls including the below which we thought were fabulour.

There's also a range of Easter pintables here .

Egg and Spoon Race

Now we aren't suggesting you use real eggs (avoiding food waste and all that) but could you use some plastic eggs you may have at home or some playdough eggs? A great family fun activity.

Sow some seeds!

We recently had a delivery from Gardening for kids who are a small business and are offering contactless deliveries. We ordered sunflowers, poppies, egg cress heads and a wildlife mix.

Easter work out!

Who can do the best bunny hops or wobble like an egg? Get creative and stay active.

Or why not enjoy a virtual day out?

Now on to some not specifically Easter ideas....

Outside play ideas

•  Paint the fence with water . A very simple activity but the little ones seem to love it for some reason and it can help to improve co-ordination. Perhaps challenge the older ones to a game of who can paint it faster . Challenge them to draw shapes etc what ever you like but on a warm day this can be lost of fun and all you need is a paint brush and some water.

•  A bug hunt! Get those little people out in the garden and hunt for some minibeasts, use magnifying glasses if you have them, look under rocks. You could just spot the bugs or draw them, research about them, maybe even build a bug hotel for the garden. You can extend this learning for what ever age group you have thinking about classification and adaptations and more. You can find multiple Bug hunt sheets on Twinkl .

•  Shadow drawing- so much fun and a great way to get creative 

•  Bird watching- similar to the Bug hunt idea, bird watching can be a great fun educational activity. Do you have a bird feeder in the garden? Could you challenge the children to sit quietly and monitor how many birds in a set time period? Older children could perhaps then research which birds they had seen. Lots of fun education activities on the RSPB webpage .
•  Water play - for younger little ones this is a great activity particularly if the weather is nice. Fill what ever you have with water and then give the child cups, pots and pans and utensils to experiement with. How fast does the water fall from different containers? Lots of opportunities to enhance home learning.

•  Home sports day- get the family out in the garden. Use whatever you already have, skipping ropes, hula hoops, footballs, chalk to draw hopscotches etc etc. Lots of fun and a great way to keep them active.

• Bubbles... never ever undeestimate the value of bubbles!
• Star gazing- let the little ones stay up late and explore the skies, wrap up warm maybe even take a flask of hot chocolate out can you see a shooting star? Can you make up funny poems about aliens or enjoy the story of the dinosaur who pooed a planet lots of resources here.
• . Garden photography, encourage the children to a photography competition. Who can take the best picture. Give them a different theme, animals, flowers whatever you like.
• Enjoy A Picnic- take lunch or dinner outside

• Garden scavenger hunt- its amazing the interesting things you can find in the garden"

• Build a garden den, use garden chairs and sheets and use that as your base for the day.

•  Plant seeds- if you have packets of seeds lurking around somewhere- use them. Get the children to tend to the seeds and learn about growth. use as an opportunity to explore thems about photosynthesis and or the environment some resources here.

   

Inside activites

• Lego!! Lego can be used for fine motor activites, for general creativeness or even as maths counters. Here's some great Lego challenges. 

•  Make a rain shaker- all you need is a toilet roll rube some paper to tape over the end and either rice of lentils or even stones from the garden to go inside. Decorate the outside as you wish.
•  Arts and crafts- more ideas to follow but we all have arts and crafts draws. Now is the time to dig through them and get creative. Make birthday cards , make collages, paint, draw, stick and make.
• Movie night
•  Book review- all read a favourite book and sit down to discuss it and explore various comprehension themes.
•  Make playdoh- or use what you have.

Makes 1 ball
Prep 10 minutes
Cook 3 hours
250g Plain flour
125g Table Salt
125ml Water
Preheat the oven to its lowest setting and line a baking tray
Mix the flour & salt. Add the water and stir until it becomes a ball.
Roll out the dough onto a floured surface and cut into shapes (get creative!) If you’re making hanging decorations remember to punch the hole before cooking.
Put onto the baking tray and bake for around 3 hours until firm. Leave to cool.

•  The Great British cake off! Do you have the ingredients indoors to bake a cake or cookies? So many simple ideas online. Why not have a challenge and see who will win. Weigh and measure ingredients to get children using their maths skills. Don't have the ingredients to bake? Use Playdough instead!! (Just don't eat it!).
• Use toilet roll tubes to create stamps for painting 

Some ideas from our friends Mum's Guide to Harpenden- you can read their ideas here

•  Get the children to prepare a restaurant meal including a menu, tablecloth and waiter service! It can be as simple as fish & chips and ice-cream but parents aren’t allowed to help! You could always try the Mum's Guide to Hertford Pizza or pasta sauce recipes.

•  Get out and wash the car and hoover it too!
•  Let them help with washing up. Little ones love this. Make it nice and soapy so they can enjoy playing with the bubbles.  You’ve also now managed to get them to wash their hands without trying!
• Tidy out the toy cupboard and enjoy playing with old, long-forgotten toys then clean and bag up old ones to go to charity later.
• Tidy out drawers and wardrobes.  Have fun dressing up in old clothes to see what still fits. Have a fashion parade and then bag up anything that’s too small for charity 
• For older children, teach them some new housework skills e.g. ironing, washing their clothes, polishing and dusting, polishing shoes. They’ll be ready to leave home by the end of this!
• Write a postcard or paint a picture for someone in an old people’s home. If they can’t receive post, take a photo of the picture or letter and email it to their office. This way you could share your thoughtfulness with several care homes.

Keep active

•  Do some child friendly yoga- my son loves cosmic kids yoga- ive shared his favourite pokemon one here but plenty more online.
• Kids 7 minute hit workout 

•  See sports day post from earlier in article.
• Supermovers are a great age appropriate activity webpage to keep children active.

Keeping in touch with loves ones

Its important to try and preserve these friendships during periods of isolation. You could encourage your children to write letters or postcards to their friends. Even if you cant send them you could take photos and message those you have details of. Skype and facetime can also be great for keeping in touch with loved ones, particularly older relatives.

Wishing you a wonderful Easter

Lots of Love

Kayleigh & The Boys

XxxX