The second national lockdown is here. Thankfully early years settings remain open, but there's no doubt pandemic parenting after nearly a year has us all pretty worn out!
It's easy for parents to be guilt-tripped into thinking they should be coming up with amazing activities every day or on weekends. But the truth is, you're doing your best, and no reasonable teacher out there expects you to fill their shoes whatever your child's age.
We've gathered up fresh new resources to support you and your family second time round with a focus on fun and play. Enjoy!
Lockdown resources for parents
Kick off lockdown by downloading the EasyPeasy parenting app. There are lots of fun activities designed to spark your little one’s imagination while supporting effective learning for ages zero to five.
Extra ideas and games from LEGO, NCT, Scouts and others give parents lots of fresh content to choose from, alongside quick tips on how to deal with those parenting challenges we all struggle with.
Tate Kids is an amazing art website and offshoot of the famous Tate Gallery. They offer free games, art activities and homework help in creative and compelling formats.
Bud's Number Garden is another wonderful product of BBC CBeebies and part of a collection of educational games to play with your five-year-old.
Joe Wicks naturally needs no introduction. He saved us in Lockdown 1.0 and is back again! Online PE with Joe is on at 9am from Monday, January 11th. He is planning classes for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. For those of you who want something different, we also love Fit 'n Fun Kids - check out Roly and the Rocket to kick off!
And to take things down a notch, try GoNoodle. It's a great tool if you want to introduce movement and mindfulness into your daily routine with your children. This is a great one for the whole family to get involved with.
The Green Parent offers wonderful, easy ideas to fill rainy Saturdays - we love their 'build a box' idea collection.
Another parent to inspire you is resident occupational therapist with a twist, Rachie_OT_mom. She shares "real, messy, dirty, chaotic, fun" play ideas on her wonderful Instagram account.
Puffin Storytime is a lovely collection of stories told in 20-minute slots on "story time magic" with different authors and illustrators.
And in other wonderful news, Draw with Rob is back! As well as the usual (brand new) Saturday #DrawWithRob videos, he'll also be posting one from the archive every Tuesday and Thursday at 10am.
For more creativity, check out The Artful Parent. This wonderful resource is designed to inspire parents to raise creative children and is suitable for the whole family. There are endless ideas to encourage you to enjoy and share art with your little ones.
Instagram offers so many creative parents you can follow to get new ideas, tips and spark creativity. We recommend checking out fiveminutemum, acraftyliving, busytoddler and handsonaswegrow.
You can also find great tips by searching relevant hashtags. Some of the ones we love are #learnthroughplay, #parenttips and #playbasedlearning.
If you can't look at the same walls anymore (nor can we) go on a global holiday with TripSavvy, who offer virtual trips around the world.
And for mums with newborns or in their first year of parenting, there are lots of free resources for you, too.
Free online baby classes: https://www.youtube.com/c/sophiepickles/
Nursery rhymes (and parent rap!) https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people/nursery-rhymes-and-songs-collection
Free antenatal classes and support: https://www.instagram.com/happyparents.happybaby/
Antenatal and postnatal support: https://www.nct.org.uk/
The best app on the block is here!
Looking for free tips, expert advice and playful games to help you through lockdown? We've got you covered with the EasyPeasy parenting app!
EasyPeasy has been created to support parents of 0-5 year olds. It's full of tips and support to help you through tantrums, bedtimes and rainy days!
