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An increasing number of Australian families are choosing self-isolation at home as a precaution to protect themselves from potential exposure to COVID-19.

Ordinarily, when children are home for long periods, such as the school holidays, there are programs and activities available outside the home to keep them busy. In the case of a pandemic, however, it is time for parents to start thinking of ways to keep the kids entertained while on lock-down.

Fortunately, Gumtree has rounded up some top tips and tricks to help parents keep their kids exploring and entertained.  Some activities to keep children busy during self-isolation which can be found through Gumtree include:

  1. Spring clean 

Keep the kids occupied and organise a day to declutter and re-decorate their bedrooms. Doing a spring clean as a family will keep everyone busy and provides parents with the opportunity to make some extra cash by selling unwanted items online. Gumtree’s ‘Second Hand Economy’ report revealed that Australian households have an average of 23 unwanted or unused items laying around the house, so it’s a great time to get rid of some of that clutter.

  1. Plant an indoor herb garden

Herb gardens are a great way to keep children occupied: They are easy and quick to grow, are hardy and their multi-sensory nature make them very appealing to children. Many herbs grow well indoors on a warm window sill and the gardening supplies can be sourced easily.

  1. Create an indoor camping experience

Create a personalised camping ground in your own living room. Unplug from all technology for a night, and spend the night in a tent to make a memory that will stick with you and your children for years to come in the comfort of your own home. Gumtree offers plenty of tents, blow up mattresses and camping chairs to kit out the camp site.

  1. ‘Go’ to the movies

Host a family movie night with a cinema that’s set up in your home. All you need are lots of pillows and snacks, and your children’s favourite movies! Or take it one step further and create a backyard movie theater for your kids to enjoy a cinema experience under the stars.

  1. Cubby House

Gift your children a cubby house or have them build one out of the materials they can find in your home. Cubbies provide hours of entertainment for kids – whether it be decorating the space or playing games under their own roof. Renovating a second hand cubby house could even become a great project that involves the entire family.

What are your top activities to keep the boredom away during self-isolation? Tell us in the comments below.

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  • Build indoor cubbys…..always loads of fun

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  • Apart from these suggestions, how about asking your child/children what they would like to do one day. Their suggestions just might surprise you.

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  • Painting and games have been popular choices

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  • Craft, any type and getting the kids in the kitchen to help cook

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  • It’s a real chance to be creative and get the kids helping in a fun way. My son is 18 and I’m going to prepare him a schedule of things he can do – things that are fun, things that can help, bringing out the board games, music-related activities that benefit us all.

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  • Gardening is such a good idea! I struggle being stuck home with two boys. Cooking also keeps me sane hahaha

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  • Maybe we should build a cubby house here :)

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  • We love to read and cook but some old faves like these will happen too.

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  • we do all of those already! My youngest have great imaginations and my big two are teenagers so only leave their rooms to eat and toilet hahah

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  • All timeless traditions! No sense reinventing the wheel when there’s tried and tested models that date back to our childhood

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  • Trying new recipes out of what’s available and then having a food testing experience at home.

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  • Reading together, doing some colouring in together (there are so many colouring books for adults out there), cooking together…

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  • We are only limited by our imagination.

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  • Such great ideas, I was already planning on ‘spring cleaning’ and decluttering with my kids this holidays.

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  • It’s a very interesting phenomenon, considering you need to spend 15mins face to face with an infected person or be in the same room with them for 2hrs… anyway maybe it’s a nice excuse to spend time together as a family, I can get on board with that

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  • I love hands-on learning and live near bushland so we will be exploring and collecting leaves, rocks, sticks (all that have fallen to the ground) and bringing them home to paint and create. I also find it’s always a good time to connect through read and play giving each member of the family a chance to read and act out what we are reading.
    So many possibilities.

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  • We love books and jigsaw puzzles. Baking is also a favourite activity

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  • We do all these things in the holidays anyway except the “plant an indoor herb garden” and I love the idea. I have seeds still (from the Coles seed thing they had last year. Also, I most definitely need to do some spring cleaning….

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  • love all these ideas, i want to get some games and puzzles out too

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  • Arts & craft are definitely on the list, building an obstacle course in the garden and building tents in the house is a loved activity here too. I might still go for a bush walk too :)

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