"What am I going to do with the kids?"

During these challenging times, one of the most topical conversations I have had with a number of (re)insurance executives who are working from home is: "What am I going to do with the kids?" Well, after many humorous (and occasionally angst ridden) conversations, here is a collection of suggestions for keeping those ' little angels' occupied.

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1. How about one of the many virtual tours online? Do your children like dinosaurs? The Natural History Museum have a great tour? Are they a sports fan? What about a virtual tour of their favourite team's ground? Arts fan? The Louvre. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History tours are highly informative and fun too.
2. Household chores - weirdly kids love to join in with things us adults find mundane and mandatory (this is obviously for pre-teens), like: washing the car, mowing the lawn (prepare for zigzags) and mopping the kitchen floor (again, prepare for zigzags).
3. P.E. with Joe Wicks - well, it'll be a laugh if nothing else!
4. Reading - it may sound a little boring to some, but how about getting the kids to act out their leading character from the book - you may even fancy joining them.
5. Nature watch - see how many bugs and creepy crawlies you can spot on your one walk a day and take photos of them with your phone to keep a record.
6. Make a safe assault course in the garden.
7. The obligatory drawing / painting, there's only one rule...they can't use their hands! 
8. Get them to plant a seed (remember planting that chickpea or lentil in wet cotton wool at school?) and ask them to look after it and watch it grow.
9. Homemade puppet show using socks - how's that for old school!
10. Balloon volley ball - this one never ends in tears!
11. Buy an 'easy to build' robot online and build it together.
12. Make a homemade tent in the garden using old sheets, towels etc. All children love a little secret den of their own to play with their toys in.
13. A good old fashioned garden treasure hunt, packed with enough clues to keep them busy for a while. A packet of sweets can always be used as 'that there gold' - (pirate voice optional)
14. Bin / bucket basketball. Bounce 3 times and shoot...easy! But push the bin a little further away each time they score!
15. If all else fails, give them your phone (as dangerous as that sounds) and let them FaceTime / Zoom their best friends. They can play together virtually. After all, isn't having contact with our friends what we're all missing? 

And finally remember to regularly breathe deeply counting backwards from 100.