Activity suggestions for things to do with kids that they’ve been missing out on since lockdown first began…
Background
Way back in March, when most of the countries of Europe began in turn to move towards various degrees of Covid-19 lockdown, we found ourselves as a family mid-way through a year of touring and living in our classic Hymer motorhome. Fortunately for us, we were staying at a family member’s house in Spain at the time, so were lucky enough to be able to stay there for the duration of lockdown, rather than have to battle back across Europe pregnant and with 3 small children on board. Consequently, we experienced the strict Spanish lockdown first hand, literally not leaving the house for 3 months (other than to shop for food once a week). In fact, in the end we stayed so long that we even ended up having our 4th baby at a hospital over in Spain!
It was during this strange time of being stuck inside, that we realised that for our small children this situation raised anxieties of whether life would ever return to normal (I still remain hopeful that it will eventually!). To give them something positive to focus on, we came up with the idea of creating their very own post-Covid bucket list of some of their favourite things that they wanted to do again, once the lockdown had ended. Something similar to a summer activity list. We would always rather give our children fun experiences over just more stuff, so this idea seemed perfect for us. We wrote all their ideas on little pieces of paper and placed them in a jar.
Fast forward 3 months to our first tastes of freedom outside of the house, and the jar was reopened. Ever since then, we have been trying to tick these items off the list one by one. Most we have now managed, while a few have still not been possible. We tried to make some good things that came from the pandemic. Other than being a fun idea for us, I thought I would share our experiences to provide inspiration for others – for some fun things to do with children once they’re possible again.
So, here it is (and composed entirely by our kids), their post-Covid bucket list for children…
The List
#1 See family – Most important of all, our children really missed being able to see their grandparents and extended family while away, who they’d often see most weeks when back at home. Some family we’ve now managed to see over in Spain since lockdown, and a few more on our brief return visit to the UK. We look forward to a time when we can have a proper larger reunion all together – something that sadly still seems a long way off.
#2 Go on fairground rides – Amazingly we managed this with some heavily sanitised rides while we were still over in Spain.
#3 Return to Nottingham – Our home city in the UK. After a 2 week quarantine elsewhere in the UK, we did finally manage to return home, although only for a brief visit. Sadly we weren’t able to catch up with as many people as we’d have liked due to the ongoing restrictions, but it was still nice to see the place again, before we had to turn around and return back to Spain.
#4 Visit a waterpark – We were able to go to the excellent Aquopolis in Torrevieja, near to where we were staying. Their reduced capacity on reopening came as a bonus – less crowded and smaller queues!
#5 Eat Chinese food at a restaurant
#6 Go to the beach – Eerily empty when we first ventured out after lockdown, they soon started to fill up again once restrictions started to be lifted.
#7 Attend a cricket match – Living close to Trent Bridge in Nottingham, this is something they’re used to regularly doing. They like it best when they’re allowed onto the grass at half time to run around. Sadly, there’s still no chance of being able to do this again yet.
#8 Go away in ‘Hazel’ – What the kids call our motorhome, marooned on the driveway in Spain for months. Although not really a holiday, we have now driven it all the way back to the UK.
#9 Go to the park – Who doesn’t love a trip out to explore a park? It’s free, and you can do it any time of the day. You can even turn it into a fun learning activity. Make a list of items that kids can collect while playing like leaves, tree barks, flower petals, stones, and even small insects. Later on, when you get home, you can let them examine these using a highly engaging and simple-to-use kids microscope. Not only will this activity build up their curiosity about things and boost their interest in science, but it will also help them in understanding our natural world better. This is a great suggestion for a lockdown homeschooling activity.
After being away for so long, we all missed our local park back home, so were pleased to be able to go and visit during our brief return to our home city of Nottingham.
#10 Soft Play – They’ve really missed this one – it seems they’ll be the last things to ever properly reopen.
#11 Visit a farm – We were lucky enough to stay on a small dairy farm in our van while travelling back through France, receiving a warm welcome and a chance to see the cows (and even their robotic automatic milking machine!). It’s these kind of friendly, small stopovers that we really love when family touring.
#12 Ride a double-decker bus – Sometimes the simple things are the best! We did this when we were back in Nottingham, even managing to grab the best seats at the front upstairs.
#13 Go to an indoor climbing wall – When back in Nottingham, we were lucky enough to be able to attend the excellent, Clip n Climb centre there. It is full of colourful, novelty climbing walls and structures for the children to climb, combined with a really simple self-fastening rope system to keep them safe while doing so. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who hasn’t ever been.
#14 Go on a bike ride – Our first activity that we did after the lockdown was lifted. Even just stepping foot onto the road outside our house brought about great excitement!
#15 Go to a zoo – We’re looking forward to being able to do this once we’re back in the UK, at one of the excellent zoos there, such as at Chester if you’re in the north. Check out this family guide to Chester Zoo to whet your appetite. Alternatively, for a friendly family zoo in the south, take a look at this summary of a day out at Hamerton Zoo Park, in Cambridgeshire.
#16 Watch a film at a cinema
#17 Go on a picnic – The house where we were staying was surrounded by lemon trees, so made a great spot for a picnic once we were allowed.
#18 Buy some new books – Our limited onboard selection in the van has been starting to get more than a bit repetitive!
#19 Hire a pedalo
#20 Ride a horse
#21 Go shopping – Who knew a trip to a supermarket could be so exciting!
#22 Go to a playground – Unsurprisingly, we’ve been doing plenty of this since it has been allowed again.
#23 Attend a football match – Hopefully some day soon – of course to watch AFC Wimbledon back home at their new stadium that they’ve just moved into.
#24 Eat at a pizza restaurant
#25 Ride scooters along the seafront
#26 Eat at Burger King
#27 Eat at McDonald’s – Proof if you needed it that this list really was written by them!
#28 Swim in the sea
#29 Go to an ice cream parlour – In celebration of lockdown ending, gone was the standard one scoop only policy and for one day only we had mega ice-creams all round!
#30 Visit a theme park – Alton Towers is our closest and favourite back home. We’d really love another stay at the CBeebies Land Hotel.
#31 Go to the pub – We’d been out for food and for drinks in Spain, hadn’t had a proper English pub visit until we returned home. This may seem a strange thing to be on a child’s list, but our kids love visiting our local pub as they often meet their other friends there (and get bought crisps!). Although distancing rules meant it obviously wasn’t the same as normal, it was still nice to go back and see some familiar, friendly faces.
#32 Go to a music festival – All cancelled this year, I really hope that they survive and are able to take place again next summer.
#33 Visit a trampoline park – While we’ve not done this properly yet, the children have at least managed to go on some trampolines at a fairground, so have come close at least.
#34 Watch a show at a theatre
#35 Go on a boat ride – Having got a taste for boat rides while we were staying in the Algarve earlier in the year, they were keen to have another go. We have now managed to hire a boat for a few hours from a harbour near to where we are staying in Spain. It was great fun – all the kids loved taking a turn at driving the boat (although Easton, our 2 year old, would mainly drive round and round in circles!).
#36 See their best friends back home – They were desperate throughout lockdown to be able to see their friends who they’d not seen for over a year. Much to their delight, we were able to see some of their best friends during our brief visit back home. It would have been nice to see more and have a big gathering of friends, bad sadly that is something that still has to wait a little longer for now.
In Summary
The lockdown and continued restrictions on everyday life have been a challenge for everyone. Never could we have foreseen how 2020 as a year would play out. This is especially true for small children, who have now almost inevitably come to accept this alternative reality as being their new normal. Because of this, I feel it is important to remain positive and to continue to focus on any glimpses of light at the end of the tunnel. Creating a post-Covid bucket list with our kids has definitely helped them to remember how life was before things got turned upside-down, and to remain positive about what the future can bring for them (while also getting to do some really fun things along the way). I’ve found that children can actually be surprisingly resilient little beings. If you find yours are struggling at all in this regard, why not try putting together a list of your own?
Personally, I like to remain optimistic in these strange times that things will eventually return to something approaching normality (whatever that looks like when we get there). Having a fun list of things to focus on helps all of us to continue to see past any perceived gloom that surrounds us at present. I hope that one day soon I can report back that we’ve ticked off everything on our list. That’ll mean we’ll have got our lives back.
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