Ok so we are forced to stay indoors with the bad British weather for at least another 2 weeks. Instead of pulling your hair out at the thought of entertaining your family – we have come up with 10 alternatives your loved ones (and hairdresser) will prefer.
LOCKDOWN BIRTHDAY
So whatever day you were born on is your lockdown birthday. If it’s the 20th December – its now the 20th of every month. Because let’s face it, lockdown is boring as so each month on your chosen day you get to receive presents, have a party if you want, decide what to eat, drink and ultimately you have control of the TV Remote that evening.
FAMILY QUIZ
Keep in touch with family members by doing a Zoom or Teams Quiz. Best held in teams of 2 per household, you as the Quizmaster asks the question and wait for the quickest respondent to answer. Can be fun to introduce different ‘buzzer’ sounds so whoever beeps in first gets the first chance to answer the question correctly. Email info@rocksmag.com to get a great quiz sent to you for any age.
COME DINE WITH ME
Split the family into two or more teams and ask them to come up with a winning menu formula consisting of starter, main and dessert. (Adults will need to help supervise kids cooking involving anything hot or complicated.)
Keep this hidden from each other and you create these “CDWM” evenings over a series of nights while getting the other team to vote out of 10 on each course. The overall winners on points get to choose a restaurant to eat out at (paid for by the losing teams) when lockdown ends.
PRANKS
Pranking friends or relatives can be a great source of amusement and a great way to pass the time. Take your pick out of these blinders…
- Coal a loved ones face mask – take a lump of charcoal and colour the inside of a black facemask. When your family member goes to do the weekly shop video them going into the shop putting the mask on. When they come out their whole face will be covered in black soot. Keep the video rolling for this hilarious second part.
- Nutella/poo challenge – works best on kids. When you are already sitting on the toilet ask your kids to bring a toilet roll to you by saying you have just run out. As they pass it to you put a blob of Nutella on their hand or arm as they pass it to you. Then sit back and watch their reaction as they falsely realise they have a blob of poo on your arm.
- Drone Flying – this is a little far fetched but worked brilliantly for our family in lockdown 1. We flew a drone with a fake letter attached from the Police saying “Government Drones are operating in your area,” implying a family member had broken lockdown rules as we knew they had a friend/gardener visiting them to do work. Their faces were priceless and were bewildered for days as to whether to pay the £500 fine we had just falsely flown into them.
LEARN SOMETHING NEW
This can be anything from sewing to pottery to a dance routine. Anything goes but make it a challenge with a winner in your household (or extend to multiple households if you want). Set the challenge to learn the new task at say 10am on a Sunday morning with all video entries of “who does it best” to be submitted by 5pm that day. We did this with the learning of Michael Jackson’s Thriller Dance with hilarious results. Give a prize to the best video submission winner.
THROW A KIDS PARTY
I know it sounds crass and you will have to sit in a circle to pass the PASS THE PARCEL but it alleviates time. The name of the game in lockdown. When we threw a kid’s party for my children aged 10, 11 and 13 they initially all rolled their eyes but actually they relished it. Without a doubt the best game (which does come with some pushing and shoving) is MUSICAL CHAIRS. So, place 5 or 6 chairs, preferably not near any breakables, and then line them up one facing in and out. Play the music and watch the tussle for the winner.
Then do THE TASTE TEST – put six edible objects into ramekins or similar and blindfold a player. Whoever guesses the most wins. Best to do a mixture of tasty and funny food items. Mustard or hot sauce works particularly well. Another blinder not to be overlooked is HIDE AND SEEK. Do in 2 teams give them only 30 seconds to hide so you are hot on the trot.
No party game is complete without WHAT’S THE TIME MR WOLF. Best bet is to do 6 games and each winner has a point, so they get a prize at the end. If you are stuck for a game at the end, penny up the wall or soggy biscuit is always fun (and educational).
FASHION STYLIST FOR THE DAY
Even the most mundane everyday tasks can be turned on their head in lockdown. You can turn every person in your household into a fashion stylist for the day. Give each family member another family member to dress. They pick their outfit, accessories and are in charge of hair and make-up (for the girls) for that day only. Make sure you take a picture of this as the results are brilliant and will be one for the family album.
DRAGON’S DEN
Just like the BBC show, each family member (or in teams if you’d prefer) has an hour to come up with a business idea and create material including supporting images, text and bar graphs from the internet to create a 5 minute pitch to the other “Dragons” in the house. The overall winner will have their business idea “invested in” by the other dragons. A simple “Yes I am in” will count as a point to that person or they can get “slayed” by the other dragons who pick holes in that business idea with hilarious results. May even bring out a young entrepreneur in your family.
GO FISHING
Normally dull as dishwater especially for younger kids. Something you would do if you were 65. But if you get some maggots or worms you can attempt to pass by the time FISHING. Make it a competition to see who can catch the most. One of our readers did crayfishing and caught 16. Please put the fish or crayfish back when caught though as illegal to kill if you don’t have a licence. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it as thought this was going to be my least favourite activity, actually turned out to be our favourite.
THEME NIGHT COOKING
So normally boring but when all you can do is EAT it is great. Make up a themed night, dress up, absorb some culture. The best is Mexican because you can buy sombreros and moustaches for a fiver from Amazon and cook Nachos, Fajitas or Chilli and have a spicy feast for the family. You can also play games such as pin the tail on the donkey, pinata if you have small children that would love sweets instead of fruit for dessert one night. Themed nights are so easy to do as well. Check out the Chill In recipe for a Mexican Feast or American burgers, hotdogs, fries and popcorn while you have a movie night. If you want to go healthy opt for Japanese and make some sushi rolls.
