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Didnt really feel this fitted in the general dicussion thread. Just wondering how people with young kids are managing to explain the restrictions and keep them occupied and happy?
Our three year old didnt quite get the concept of the government so I've been using the line 'The king and queen say we are not allowed to..' as kings and queens are sometihng that she has in story books and she seems to accept it.
We've been doing loads of different play and largely she's been Ok. However yesterday afternoon she seemed really low, not wanting to do anything (no symptoms and temperature fine so not ill), eventually she came out that she was very very sad she wasnt allowed to see her friends. Felt so bad, not that there is anything we can do. If a few months of lock down affects adults, relitively se****ng its a hell of a lot longer for a child and I worry about how its going to affect her.
Distract her with sweeties and be thankful that you don't have a sixteen year old daughter who has suddenly had the pressure of exams lifted from her but is now being denied the extensive social life to which she feels entirely entitled.
She's pacing the floor like a caged tiger.
Mine are 10 and 12 so know full well what's happening. So online school work, some fun games for all of us first thing, a social media catch up with friends 3-5ish on Skype or zoom, a ride,walk, or run at some point and something in the evening. Last night it was flint and steel to light the kelly kettle for hot chocolate and star gazing. Weds ev is usually scouts so we went for something similar.
Our 3 y/o loves doctors, so we says
"the doctors say there are lots of germs outside at the moment so we can't go to school (her nersery) and when we go out we have to be careful and wash hands."
We are lucky that we have a good garden so can still run around outside.
16, 11, 7 and 4 year old here. Older two know what's going on and understand luckily, 7 year old gets it to a point and 4 year old currently thinks it's a long holiday. It is a tough one, really wish I could help with an answer. Not looking forward to the long term and the effects it will have, another thing to deal with as and when it happens.
Slightly different for me, but they are all more worried I am going to die like Mummy and what will happen to them afterwards. I've had the same conversation with the older three a few times already, they have bought it up each time and looking for reassurance I think. I think this is enough of a worry for them to not bother too much about going out.
ours are between 7 and 13, just getting home from offshore today so although I've seen everything on the news I think I'm still in for a shock. All of ours will be fairly happy to be house bound apart from our 12 year old daughter as she normally does loads of activities. With the Mrs busy with work im not sure how im going to get the schooling stuff done and try and keep them from spending too much time in front of the screens but Yak has reminded me I've a telescope hidden away in the garage so can hope for some clear nights for them
Our three year old didnt quite get the concept of the government
be thankful that you don’t have a sixteen year old daughter
I have a 3 year old daughter and a 16 year old daughter in the house.
FEEL MY PAIN.
On the friends front my Mrs is trying to come up with a numbers games based on a group chat. 20 minutes of screaming no doubt but but fun.
The king and queen say we are not allowed to..
Unless your mummy is queen then you can bugger off to your holiday home and put unnecessary strain on the remote NHS resources.
Our 5 year old is loving it, others ones too small to care and also loving it. Playing about in the garden, loads of time with mum & dad. She knows there's a "nasty cough" going about and she can't go to school, but does not seem to GAF. We've not really tried to explain too much about it other than when she asks. Me and my wife around doing pretty well, ours tend to pick up on our moods so if we're relaxed they're OK. As you mention, a few months of this could be a different story.
We've just put together a weekly plan for her on the wall. A few activities on there every day (e.g. PE on Tuesday, Phonics on Wednesday etc). She gets tokens for doing stuff and a prize on FRiday, like she gets at school. So trying to give her a bit of structure.
be thankful that you don’t have a sixteen year old daughter who has suddenly had the pressure of exams lifted from her but is now being denied the extensive social life to which she feels entirely entitled.
+1. She's calmed down a bit now but last week was spent in numerous arguments and discussions with my hysterical 15 year old daughter who flatly refused to accept that she wouldn't be able to hang out with her mates and was conspiring with them to meet up secretly. And now, because it's 'so unfair' and she's having to 'make more of a sacrifice than anyone else' (naturally), she thinks she can stay in bed til 11am and not do any schoolwork because it's all 'pointless'. On the other hand my 12 year old gets up early and does all her schoolwork without any prompting necessary, and then quite amusingly takes the piss out of her older sister for being such a drama queen.
Could be worse, I'd much rather have this than trying to juggle work and childcare/home-schooling of young ones.
@gnusmas - really feel for you in your situation
Its a good idea about trying to sort out a bit of structure - will probably help all of us. I tried with teaching the alphabet but she's not quite got it: "what shall we draw that starts with the sound 'd'?" "I want to draw a cake"
My aunt was saying the same about her 15 year old daughter - apparently asked if she could have all her friends over for a sleep over as they weren't allowed to go out!
We have two 10 yr old girls and things are okay, although my wife is taking much of the strain of occupying them. Thankfully the weather is great so we are doing short 'school' lessons throughout the day with extended garden breaks. I have just moved the punchbag from the garage and into the garden as one of my girls likes boxing and is spending a bit of time on that, and the trampoline is taking a battering.
We are trying to get our daily exercise as a family with a dog walk with the girls on their bikes or scooters.
I am hoping we don't get another period of shocking weather like we have had so much of lately as the garden has finally nicely dried out.
Everyone should get involved with Taskmasters #hometasking (see YouTube/twitter etc)
I was my normal upfront self told them if we all do our bit then we can save lives just by staying in.
Six year old and two year old here. Two year old is oblivious and as long as she can carry the cast of Hey Duggee around with her and watch Waffle life is good.
The eldest knows there are bad germs around. He’s upset because he can’t see his grandparents, but happy he’s at home with me, his mum and baby sister. We’re doing a bit of school work, but mainly letting him play in the garden and have fun. Stressful time for the little guy.
I’m loving working from home. Just hearing them both playing is ace
Soon to be 3 and 5. Seems to be going better than anticipated. I think the weather has helped a lot so out in the garden a significant amount of time. We have been taking them out for an hour to the local park or sports centre to give them a good run and try and knacker them out as our garden isn’t the biggest. Starting to wonder whether we should be stopping that soon, despite boris saying outdoor exercise was ok
10, 9 and 5 year old boys here. I'm working at home, Mrs is at work (nhs physio) 3 days a week. We're trying to homeschool with work packs the school has sent us but it's bloody hard work. 10 yr old is in meltdown so absorbing all my time, other 2 are just plodding through and trying to ignore big brother. I think we'll need a rethink soon, just do half day work/half day play I reckon. Problem is (for me) that playing just means Xbox/YouTube/tablet and that drives me mad, such a waste of time (IMO).
Generally I think they're pretty accepting of it though, will see what they think in another week!
3 yo boy and 15 yo boy here.
So far so good, the beautiful weather was certainly helped and our 3yo is quite happy just pottering round the garden in the sun, with a bit of TV, mostly dinosaur related, to break things up.
He's not really asked why the sudden change of lifestyle but loves being in the home with his family so no questions yet. He just says the coronavirus is naughty and that's it
Our 15 yo is just getting some extended quality Xbox live time in, emerging to raid the fridge between sessions
Our dogs never been happier
Let's be honest were only 4 days in so it's like a holiday for now, particularly with the weather
Got a 3.5 year old daughter and a 1 week old daughter. This is the worst time in history to have a new baby.
The little one is in hospital with mum (nothing serious thankfully) which leaves me with the older one all day. Visitor restrictions mean she can't visit her mum or see her little sister, only I'm allowed in, which I have to coordinate with my sister who babysits.
It's so hard to explain that she can't see friends, can't go to nursery, can't do any of the things we're used to like go to a playground, cafe, museum, library etc.
I just told her that a lot of people are getting sick, so we have to stay home in case we catch it.
Filling each day with wholesome/educational activities is already proving hard, how we'll keep it up for 12 weeks I've no idea.
Yesterday I discovered Joe Wick's kids workout videos. I'm going to make these part of our daily routine. 5 minutes of jumping around in front of the TV seemed to do us both good. Definitely recommend:
Just 2 year old (no clue) but a nearly 4 year old asking lots of questions. We told him there was a bad bug about so no nursery and has to not see friends (horrific as 3 same age live in the same street)
We dropped a care package off at the wifes mums (a 2 min walk) and he couldnt understand why he wasnt going into her house as usual, got a little upset.
Pretty tough. Early in the week was easier but we had rain most of yesterday and expecting more so its making indoor time harder/refusing ipad games etc. will only last so long. Wife works for morrisons so she is out a lot working and its just me most of the day with 2 of them.
We have a big garden and were out planting veg which was great but all done now. Bottle rockets lasted an hour or so. (Prob more fun for me, cleared our 2 storey house easily!)
Weekend weather looks terrible so trying to find non electronic, indoor games the 2 of them can play with just me that wont wreck the house!
Our kids didn’t really get along with the jo wicks thing, a bit too full on. 5 year old really liked cosmic yoga though, will do a full set. 3 yr old more challenging. Eldest seems quite understanding about the virus, won’t touch things when we are out and that everything is shut etc... we have had one lot of proper tears when he wanted to go out but couldnt
My kids 3 and 8 are fine so far. Decent weather for playing the garden has helped and both see it as an adventure. If we come across other people on exercise we avoid them in an amusing 'zombie apocalypse' stylee. So far it's an adventure. In spite of all that I fear for the coming weeks and even this weekend when there's no sun to make the Garden out of bounds. 🙁 The novelty of isolation is going to wear off *very* fast.
The 8yo has quite a sophisticated understanding of what's going on. The 3yo understands there's a bug going around and we're staying away from people to protect them from getting from us and vice versa. (The three yo refers to the bug as "Corona Virus" which he can pronounce correctly which is heart breaking.)
We have been taking them out for an hour to the local park or sports centre to give them a good run and try and knacker them out as our garden isn’t the biggest. Starting to wonder whether we should be stopping that soon
Personally I avoid Local parks and sports centre with kids because the object here is to avoid people. Either there are people in the park/sports centre in which case I shouldn't be there are there aren't and the only reason a park would be deserted is because people are staying away and if other's are staying away I feel I should do my bit too.
For myself, my definition of acceptable exercise is either somewhere that is likely to be deserted or places where there may be few people but that involve "keeping moving".
So I run with the 3 on on his bike and we both keep going so if we do pass people we've out of each others way fast. Or much longer bike ride where we can stop to look at views in places were nobody will be about.
2 daughters here (9 + 12) both are usually fairly busy - youngest does 3.5 hours of gymnastics + Brownies and trampolining every week, the oldest does dance/drama/music lessons and guides.
I'm trying to occupy them whilst i work from home as my wife is having to go to work 4 days per week (teacher)
Both kids are pretty bored - the older one is doing a lot of Face-time chats with school mates and the youngest is spending a lot of time on the Trampoline.
They've both been set schoolwork which they've been doing, which is good.
This is going to be a long slog.
7 and 3 (in two days, which at least means she wont get upset about not having a party as she's never had one!) here. The 7 year old is fine for now. He's enjoying home school, which we might continue with over Easter, albeit in a more relaxed way just for a bit of structure to the day. He's an outdoors child though so i think with time he might get bored of destroying the back lawn playing football/cricket/mini trials challenges.
The 3 year old has been loving having her best mate around and not seeing him go off to school everyday.
The bit i'm struggling with though is the once a day exercise, we live next to a park, which everytime i look over at, has enough people getting their exercise to make me think we'll just stay in the garden. We live 15 mins drive from the woods...but officially thats off limits, and a whole can and a half of worms on here!!
We live 15 mins drive from the woods…but officially thats off limits,
Is that true? I know the police have said you can't but I'm not sure that's specifically the rules. I think the problem the police have is driving to beauty sports etc that are busy. Driving somewhere where there are no people strikes me as a very sensible idea compared to exercising in a busy park.
On the subject what does the FOAK think about kayaking as exercise? I can carry my kayak 200m to the river.
no issues with my 3 (5, 10, 15)
5 year old doesn't care
10 year old enjoying it
15 year old hasn't changed any habits.
we have a daily local bike ride that they look forward to amd there has been lots of treats for them to eat.
My three year old has been taking it in stride. He misses his friends from preschool some, but we've video called some a couple times and he's enjoyed that.
We've apparently told him he can't do things many times now so whenever we tell him he can't do anything he says "Right. Because of the coronavirus!" even when it's something like take his stuffed animals into the bathtub.
He's not stressed about it though. We just told him that it's something that can make people really sick so we have to stay far apart to keep everyone safe. He's big into keeping people safe.
5 year old had been loving reception at school although wasn't so keen on after school club. Seems to understand well enough our basic explanation (they both had chickenpox last year), keeping her busy with little school-ish projects which we can send to her teacher via the ILD app and get bits of feedback back.
Nearly-3 year old doesn't get it at all, enjoys nursery but loves hanging out at home anyway. He's got a bit clingy with me but otherwise happy, likely just change of routine.
Attempting to work on top of looking after these two (my wife needs to be in the office much of the time) is not going well at all.
Anyone got any ideas for games to play over video call (or fancy apps)
My 3.5yr old is really missing her friends, but then we do a video call and they both go all shy, hiding or staring at the screen in silence while the parents make small talk
There's obviously online games aimed at older kids. We'd be up for that so long as they are still sociable and not overly addictive!