5 Ways to Entertain Kids and Maintain your Sanity during a Staycation

Often the holidays include vacationing and holidaying at exciting places, but not every school break can be planned to perfection especially in 2020! Many factors are out of our control, budget constraints, pending office work, and other reasons which nature dictates (cough cough). This means you are forced to stay at home with your children or travel domestically (which can be super fun too of course). Keeping kids entertained for long periods of time however, is certainly not an easy task, especially while practicing social distancing. It is enough to drive most parents crazy! 

However, there are exciting screen free activities that you can plan to make this time a fun and memorable staycation!

1.     Go Camping

What better way to enjoy some family time than spending time together in nature in the great outdoors, whether be in the woods, or by the beach, toasting some s’mores, looking at the stars, barbequing, and sharing stories around the camp fire! It is a great way for the children to bond, appreciate nature, and stay away from screens. However as we all know, there are periods of the day when even all that nature provides can not be enough to occupy their little minds, so while you cook dinner and crack open a cold one, how about keeping the kids busy with this clever Bug Explorer Kit . Don't forget the midges, mosquitos and little bugs you'll be exposed to - make sure to take some repellent with you to ensure the evenings are don't turn into a scratch-a-thon!

2.     Some Sensory Messy Fun!

A staycation is a perfect time to enjoy activities that are not just super fun but also create a learning experience for the kids. There are so many fun sensory ideas out there that spark the interest of children with different sensations, textures and more. YouTube is a treasure chest of ideas for this, from slime making, tactile activities, to UV and glow in dark role play.

Our sensory messy play kit is a MASSIVE hit among many families, we created this because all kids like to get stuck in and create a mess - but we had to ensure all the things we included aren't actually messy, can be reused, used separately or all together! All the items inside have been tried and tested by thousands of children. It includes an inflatable tray, modelling and foaming soap, animal figurines, magic snow, make your own slime, colour changing liquid, cracking and popping powder (remember popping candy as a kid, kind of like that but not a candy!) and so much more. All the 'mess' is contained within the tray and it all can be washed down the plughole when finished. All the products are allergen free, non staining and hypoallergenic. This kit is now one of our top selling items on KeepEmQuiet. Sensory toys for children are an ideal way of combining fun and learning! Your kids are sure to spend hours playing, feeling, squelching and having a blast!

3.     Road trip to nature - screen-free!

Long car journeys with kids are not easy, all parents know this, as the kids tend to get bored pretty quickly. Crys of 'are we there yet?!' are enough to test the patience of even the most zen like parent. To avoid screens (and screams) try our award-winning KeepEmQuiet entertainment packs, they will love every minute of the journey and will also enjoy these activities at the destination, whether it be the park, beach, restaurant or hotel etc. We aren't saying no to screens (we all use them, and they have their place for sure) but balance that screen time with a pack of surprises and we are willing to bet they will enjoy those tactile activities far greater than getting moody in front of the screen!

Our award-winning entertainment packs come loaded with fun items and healthy  Vegan-friendly snacks. A variety of packs are available for Girls and Boys (with unisex options on every product page too), that are categorized according to age groups and the three different sizes depending on how much help you need!

Hire an RV and set off into the sunset, loaded with loads of activities for the kids to keep the moaning at bay, remember to bring snacks, snacks, snacks and more snacks. You can never have enough!

4.     Take a Baking Class Together!

Another well known popular activity for toddlers and kids is baking! Why not create a basic baking class together as a family? Children love to mix up different ingredients, shape cookies, cakes, and decorate them after the goods are baked. There are loads of kiddie baking classes available on YouTube that you can follow along with as a family. Perfect for Christmas, Halloween and Easter!

Practice what you learn in the class at home to make their favourite baked goodies using a kid’s baking set!

5.     Movie Marathon with a Full Day or Week Theme

Movie marathons are an integral part of a staycation (whether you are at home or at a hotel/holiday home), but why not change things up a bit by making a theme for the movie day. With the holiday season coming up, you and your kids can set up Christmas decorations, watch Christmas movies (Home Alone is a staple in our household), do Christmas shopping, visit Santa, and bake Christmas goodies.

There are also many games for the family to play at home at Christmas, we actually have a section for family games  here on the site, with all the old retro favourites that you'll remember playing as a kid. 

The festive period means a lot of lounging around at home, especially when you can't travel. Screens from tablets and video games consoles are proven to cause behavioural issues, our own children can have their entire mood altered by too much screen-time. At KeepEmQuiet we not only create our entertainment packs for travel, they are perfect for off-school days, sick days, hospital stays, down time and even as special weekly treats - but we are now famous for our Xmas themed entertainment packs. These pre-filled Xmas stockings, are loaded with nine fun surprise items - some Christmas themed some not! NO need to rush around the shops or pay over the odds for little toys as stocking fillers, grab a pre-filled KeepEmQuiet Christmas Stocking and that's one job to tick off the list this year!

Staycationing can be challenging as kids tend to get bored easily so you have to be armed with ALL THE THINGS! Kids can prefer to watch TV or play video games on their tablets, but we are huge advocates of turning off the screen (for periods of time) and getting back to the old school methods: arts & crafts, making things, colouring and generally being more hands on. Fortunately, you can plan ahead and make a staycation an exciting and memorable time with these screen free activities (just remember to charge the tablet as they are going to want to use it eventually!).