How to keep your children entertained during the Teacher Strikes

Lots of parents I know are currently feeling a bit nervous about the upcoming Teacher strikes. Mostly because many of us won’t actually know if our children will be going into school until the morning of the actual day, due to teachers not being obliged to tell their school if they plan to strike beforehand.

Many parents will be faced with having to work from home, rely on grandparents or juggling multiple children at late notice, so I wanted to help give some easy ideas on how to keep them entertained at home.

1. YouTube brain break activities

I’m a huge fan of these videos, especially as a quick activity of the children have lets of excess energy. The big bonus is that kids think it’s a real treat to be on YouTube. These videos are generally created by teachers and are designed to get students up and moving in between lessons to help them get up and move, engaging different parts of their brain, inbetween lessons. You can find lots of different themed ones to meet your children’s interests. We have really loved these Minecraft and Encanto themed ones.

2. Magic painting

If the weather is ok this is a great one! All you need is a pot of water and a paintbrush and children can go outside and paint pretty much anything! We call it magic painting as as the paint dries it disappears. My children live pretending to paint our fence!

3. Drawing tutorials

There are some lovely books that teach children to draw. If you don’t have any of these then YouTube is fantastic for this. We really like Art for kids hub Who has some really great videos, on really varied subjects. We have particularly enjoyed doing to Minecraft and sonic the headgehog ones.

4. Making Valentine’s Day cards

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, why not get some arts and crafts out and get your children to make some cards for their friends and family. We recently had a big crafting session and loved this heart dabbing activity.

5. Make your own chocolate bars

If you have any chocolate or silicone moulds at home then this is a great activity your children will live. All you need to do is melt down some chocolate, pour it into the moulds then you can decorate them with any sprinkles or decorations you may have in your baking cupboard. We recently made these Valentine’s Day chocolate bars, which were so yummy!