We may be coming to the end of our isolation period (!), or some of us are, but there are still lots of great ideas for fun indoor activities inside this book from Matt Brown: Trapped indoors with kids. We have another one today; check out his ideas, and have a look at how you can help your kids to become super spies!
There’s a cunning spy inside all our children just waiting to burst out and creep silently around the house—which is great if you need to quieten things down for a bit.
When it’s approaching time for your child’s afternoon snack but you have work to be getting on with, Spy Kids will keep them happily (and quietly) occupied for a while. This is ideal if your work requires you to sit at the table. The aim of the game is simple—your child must try to nab their biscuit from under your nose without you noticing.
You will need:
- A packet of biscuits (or other healthy snack)
How to Play Spy Game for Kids:
- Make a cup of tea, open your laptop and set out your work area at the dining-room table, for example.
- Place the packet of biscuits on the table next to you where you work.
- Ask your child to begin at the top of the house (or the furthest point from you).
- Challenge your child to creep downstairs and nab one of the biscuits from the packet without your knowledge.
- Make sure they understand they can only take one biscuit, not the whole packet. This part is crucial, since they must somehow extract a biscuit from a noisy packet without arousing your awareness. This, of course, will be impossible—but it will have the effect of prolonging the game.
- If you spot your child from the corner of your eye, or hear them making too much noise, then you can send them back to the start to try again.
“What’s Dad doing?”
“He’s on his laptop.”
“Is he watching us?”
“No, he’s concentrating. Look—he’s doing that thing with his mouth.”
“Good. Let’s slither on our bellies over to the sofa.”
“You go first then.”
“No you.”
“Okay. Here goes…”
“You’re wriggling but you’re not moving anywhere.”
“I know!!”
Unless you happen to be a professional ninja and have encouraged your child to follow in your footsteps, the chances are that you will hear and see them many times during their daring sortie. The trick to this game is to make it last for as long as is reasonable, without your child getting frustrated. Long enough so that you can concentrate on your task and that the game presents a pleasingly tricky challenge for your child.
“Did he see us?”
“I don’t think so. He still looks like a zombie.”
“Hmm? Did I just hear something?”
“Shh!…”
“Nah. Probably just a cat.”
If you let your child succeed too easily, you will only result in them wanting to play again immediately. You will gaze at your barely-started email and will probably succumb to their persuasive charms. That way leads down a slippery slope towards an empty packet of biscuits.
When they finally manage to grab the packet, listen (without laughing) to their excruciating attempts to extricate a biscuit.
“Shh!”
“What?”
“Your crinkly noises! You’ll give us away.”
“I can’t help it. It’s a crinkly packet!”
“Don’t make another sound or we’ll have to start all over again.”
“I can’t keep my hand stuck in there. The chocolate’s melting!!”
As always, Matt give us a bit of a laugh at the same time as offering up some wonderful ideas for entertaining the kids. So do check out his book on Amazon today. It’s only 99p, and well worth the ideas, and the extra time you get back from keeping the kids entertained for that little bit longer.
To download the activity – just click on the rounded image below and it is yours!
If you are after more fun indoor activities – we have LOADS for you to try:
Indoor activities to do with kids
Balancing game for toddlers: Soft toy head pyramid game
This game is also included into Trapped Indoors with Kids: 100 Ways to Play, Have Fun, and Stay Sane. If you like Sleeping Dragon, you will also need to check this one.
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If you don’t have enough thoughts here, then there are lots of other clever people out there that you can copy to entertain your kids….
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Helen
Helen
Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine! Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time. KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10. It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania. Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on. Get in touch TODAY!