Active play ideas 

• Physical Activity Websites: 

Kids Workouts to do at Home

NSW Office of Sport - staying active

Indoors

• Build pillow forts or indoor cubbyhouses 
• Build safe obstacle courses around the house
• Make treasure hunts around the house (or in the backyard if you have one)
• Make an area for an inside picnic  

Outdoors

• Play backyard cricket or basketball
• Try tennis, volleyball or badminton over the fence with the neighbours
• Play with pets (wash hands before and after handling pets)
• Make obstacle courses (inside and out)

Educational Play

Spelling bees

• Spelling bees, suitable for the age, can be fun for children 
• Word games such as Word Search or Word Unscramble
• Crossword Puzzle
• See how many words children can come up with when you give them 7 random letters (including vowels) 

Maths

• Fill a jar with coloured discs, beads, marbles etc and ask children to guess how many are in the jar
• Children can then sort them by colour, count up the number in each colour and then add them all together to find out how many objects there are.

Memory game

• Put 10 to 15 items on a tray and cover with a tea towel.
• Give each child a pen and paper, then lift the tea towel and let them look at all the items for about 10 seconds.
• Cover with a tea towel and then ask children to write down as many items as they remember.
• The child who remembers the most gets a small ‘prize’ – stickers are often good for this. 

Sensory play

Slime

Kids love slime

• Make sure that you buy or make slime that doesn’t contain dangerous ingredients like Borax and boron.
• We found a few slime without Borax recipes but a Google search will show you others. Or you can use this slime recipe from our Child Life Therapists.
• Playing with slime (and play-dough) has many benefits. While it is often used for hand dexterity and fine motor skills, playing with slime and play-dough engages all five senses and can give children something to refocus on instead of their own thoughts and worries.
• Remember to supervise if cooking in a microwave or stovetop is needed. 

Play-dough

Making your own playdough can be fun. There are lots of recipes online but a Google search will show you others

• Remember to supervise if cooking in a microwave or stovetop is needed.
• Plastic or blunted knives can be used for cutting playdough.
• Cookie cutters are great for making shapes.
• A spare cutting board from the kitchen might be useful for children to cut on.