Family Support Free family activities Free family activities With so many of us in isolation either at home or in hospital, we thought it would be a nice idea to share some fun free activities to help make the days ahead fun for our families. We'll be growing this area over time and would love to hear your ideas, so please email us at [email protected] if you'd like to add an idea to our free family fun list. Our free activity categories are: Mother's Day fun Weekly activity planners Easter activities Things to do in the kitchen Art at home and online Reading fun Animal adventures Science fun Keeping active at home Where to look for more ideas Apply for an Activity Pack Thanks to our generous supporters and wonderful leading toy suppliers, including Tiger Tribe and Kaleidoscope, we have developed these Activity Packs to help children with neuroblastoma and their families whilst isolated indoors at home or in hospital. The packs are designed to help keep children entertained and engaged, with fun, practical games for long-term use. Packs contain quality brands including Djecco, eeBoo, Janod, MudPuppy and more, and all arrive in a handy cotton tote bag. Apply for your activity pack here Mother's Day fun Delicious Frangipani Cupcakes Present Mum with a stunning bouquet of frangipani cupcakes! Download the recipe here and get baking! Printable fun Download your own frangipani frame to colour in here. Fill it with colour and put your favourite family photo in the middle or draw your family inside as a pretty gift for Mum. Northshore Mums have put together a range of wonderful free Mother's Day printables from breakfast menus to Mother's Day cards. Northern Beaches Mums have a Mother's Day Guide and gorgeous do it yourself Mother's Day card template. Bake Mum some delicious muffins Muffin Break has released the recipe for these gorgeous and easy to make raspberry muffins for home baking on Mother's Day. Take a look today. Weekly activity planner Sometimes a bit of routine can go a long way to making the days at home easier. Whether you're working from home or just looking for a way to structure your day, we've put together a couple of weekly activity templates that have helped us. The Neuroblastoma Australia Activity Template This Excel spreadsheet has been designed so you can copy and paste a range of activities for each child into a weekly schedule. The schedule is loosely based on the NSW Primary School day. The idea is to add activities around meal times into the schedule for each child in your house. We've added some activities (broken into: Preschool, Lower Primary and Upper Primary) into the template and added links. This means you can print out the full schedule (so everyone can see what the week ahead looks like) AND keep an electronic copy on your device to easily open each activity as you move through the day. Download the NBA Activity Template The Neuroblastoma Australia Activity PDF If Excel is not your friend, never fear! Here is are two PDF activity planners you can print out. We have a simple black and white version and a colour ready for you below. Just print out and hand write in your activities for the week. We've included a frangipani boarder for your kids to colour in and make the week ahead their own. Download NBA Activity PDF Simple Black and White Download the NBA Activity PDF Colour Easter activities Get crafty Take a look at this edition of Kidspot for some fantastic A-Z listing of Easter craft activities. Find Easter crafts to make with kids for the Easter holiday including an Easter basket, Easter eggs, Easter bonnet and other Easter activities for kids. Colouring fun Get colouring with Peppa Pig! nicjr has some wonderful Easter themed colouring in stencils that you can download from their Peppa Pig page. Or take a look at Crayola for a range of Easter themed colouring and craft activities that you can download and print out for free. There are some fantastic Australian Easter themed colouring in from the Brisbane Kids website. Just visit the site directly or download these now: Colouring_Easter_Eggs Koala_Colouring_In Bilby_Colouring_In Kangaroo_Colouring_In More egg-citing ideas North Shore Mums have a wonderful article full of ideas on how to make this Easter at home special and The Northern Beaches Mums have put together a great list of ideas on their 10 Egg-stra Fun Kids Activities article. Things to do in the kitchen Kids in the kitchen Sydney Living Museums have drawn together a selection of craft activities and recipes, inspired by Sydney historic houses and exhibitions, for children to enjoy at home. The Anzac biscuit recipe from 1920 is a great activity for Anzac Day on Saturday 25 April. Culinary historian Allison Reynolds the author of 'Anzac Biscuits, the power and spirit of a national icon' kindly shared this recipe with Sydney Living Museums and it is based on a hand written recipe found in a notebook that belonged to Carolyn Warner in South Australia. You can see our Superhero Maddie and her brother Levi making a delicious batch of modern day Anzac biscuits on the Facebook page Levi's Kitchen. Missing an ingredient? Great article from The Guardian which lists fun recipes to try when your cupboard is short on some baking staples such as flour or eggs. Take a look next time you head to the kitchen! Art at home and online Frangipani colour in photo frame Together in Art - Kids The Art Gallery of New South Wales and media partner the ABC have announced Together In Art Kids, an online project designed to inspire and support children isolated from their friends and community due to COVID-19. Each month one Australian artist will invite kids to create an artwork to a theme using materials available in their home. The resulting artworks can then be photographed and submitted by families to Together In Art Kids in two age categories, 5-8 years and 9-12 years. Reading fun The Sydney Writers Festival For the little book worms in your life The Sydney Writers Festival's Head of Children’s and YA Programs, Amelia Lush, has found some of the best places to join expert narrators for online storytime and a wonderful list of new Australian picture book releases to look out for. Walker Books activity centre Stay at home with your favourite book characters. Wonderful games, colouring in sheets, mazes, videos and author information from Walker Books. Have fun with Where's Wally? Guess How Much I Love You, Alex Ryder, Maisie Mouse or Go on a Bear Hunt. Take time to explore this faulous hive of activity inspired by Walker Books. Willoughby Library and Roald Dahl Take a fantastic journey through Willoughby Library's Roald Dahl Digital Escape presented by the children's team at Willoughby City Libraries. Click around the images for hidden clues and solve the puzzles. If you have any questions or comments please forward to [email protected]loughby.nsw.gov.au Australian author Sally Rippin Recommended for children 4 and over, the free Sally Rippin holiday program focuses on a different Billie B Brown title each week and includes work sheets, behind-the-scenes articles, fun activities and special events with Sally Rippin. Take a look here if you have a fan at home. Storytime Tune in to one of Berkelouw Books' Rhymetime sessions which are streamed through both Facebook and Instagram generally at 9.30am. Audio books Listening to stories is a wonderful way for children to unwind, escape and enjoy magical worlds. Although Australian libraries may be closed many are still leanding eBooks and audiobooks. Search for your local library to find out how to borrow music, magazines and interactive learning. You should also be able to join your library online and access your state library with your library card. Harry Potter at home Visit the Harry Potter At Home hub where you’ll find all the latest magical treats to keep your family occupied - including special contributions from Bloomsbury and Scholastic, nifty magical craft videos, fun articles, quizzes, puzzles and plenty more for first-time readers, as well as those already familiar with the wizarding world. Animal adventures Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney Discover online activities and resources for families, schools and communities through the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney website. Explore the plants and animals, the scientific work and horticulture of the garden with their immersive virtual tours. Entertain your kids with activities you can do at home and for primary school children there is a wonderful selection of remote learning resources. They have also put together some beautiful Zoom backgrounds that you can download for your next call. National Geographic Kids Club For kids who love exploring, learning and discovering new and exciting things The National Geographic Kids Club has fun activities, stories about other children around the world, games, competitions and entertainment. Wild classroom Help kids explore and understand the world around them in the World Wildlife Fund's daily activity plans and resources. Week 1 has dolphins, rivers, polar bears and tigers and Week 2 features fresh water, butterflies and climate change. The activity plans would be suitable for upper primary school students but you can find a range of games and colouring in sheets for younger children too. Also if you have Minecraft there is an interactive science curriculum you can access. Bring the zoo to you Fancy having a lion in your loungeroom or a tiger in your kitchen? If you search for one of the animals below through Google on your smart phone and click View in 3D the animal will appear in your camera! It's great fun taking photos of the kids with an Alligator, Angler fish, Ball python, Brown bear, Cat, Cheetah, Deer, Dog (Bulldog, Pomeranian, Labrador Retriever, Pug, Rottweiler), Duck, Eagle, Emperor penguin, Giant panda, Goa, Hedgehog, Horse, Leopard, Lion, Macaw, Octopus, Racoon, Shark, Shetland pony, Snake, Tiger, Turtle and Wolf. Check out the article from Google for a full 'how to' guide. Also, many zoos around the world are inviting you to join them for feeding times, just to watch the animals play or in the case of Melbourne Zoo to watch the keepers dance. Here are some links: Taronga Zoo TV Melbourne Zoo live stream Wildlife Park Sydney live stream Science fun Become a home astronaut The Space Station Explorers developed by the International Station and the U.S. National Laboratory brings together dozens of no-cost activities for the whole family. Out-of-this-world activities including story time in space, toys in space and loads of experiments to do at home. Take a look through the featured activities or search their entire catalogue for age appropriate ideas. Reach for the stars Visit NASA at Home for some wonderful family friendly activities including videos, activities and craft ideas to engage in the science of astrophysics and astronomy from home. Great for explorers! Staying active at home Joy in the community Add some joy to your neighbourhood. Make a chalk rainbow on the path, create a rock garden leave a thank you note for your postie or even leave happy signs for others to find. Now is a wonderful time to spread a bit of joy in your neighbourhood. Rock painting Create gorgeous rocks at home with bright colours and messages of hope. Share the joy by creating a garden for others to enjoy, leave a happy rock for someone to find or brighten up your own back yard. Take a look at Whitsunday Rocks or the Kindesss Rocks Project for ideas and free online workshops. Chalk the sidewalk Decorate the pavement and bring some colour to your neighbourhood! The US site Good Housekeeping has listed some great chalk art ideas with links to how to create them. For inspiration a little closer to home check out the amazing Chalk the Walk artists create incredible 3D artwork. GrowFit at home Grow Fit have launched an interactive Da Fit Club, with loads of games for parents and educators to keep kids engaged and energised. Take a moment to check out their videos and activity schedule through their Facebook page. Boredom busters from Budget Direct A great list of fun games for kids with a search function so you can find an indoor or outdoor games for children from as young as two to over eight. Whether you’re looking for classic party games like hide and seek, dress ups, finger painting, and follow the leader, or something a little more ‘outside the box’, like creating a homemade volcano, making your own obstacle course, or building cardboard cars, these fun party games for kids are sure to be a massive hit with your kids. Take a look today. Play the wall game From the home of pre-school football Little Kickers comes the wall game - you just need a wall, chalk and a ball. That's all you need to practice your balls skills at home. Check out the game rules here. Yoga at home Join Cosmic Kids Yoga for Yoga, mindfulness and relaxation designed specially for kids aged three plus, used in schools and homes all over the world. What's your name activity game Here's a great exercise game from 730 Sage Street. Your kids will get a workout without realising it when you make fitness into a fun game with this spell your name workout. Bears everywhere Bears are appearing in windows around the world to give little ones something fun to spot as they walk around the block. Dress up your window (this is what Lyn's looks like today). Join up the Going on a Bear Hunt Australia page on Facebook and look out for bears whilst taking your kids for a healthly walk around your suburb. Where to look for more ideas ABC Education There are some incredible education and entertainment resources to be found through our national broadcaster through their ABC Education portal. ABC TV Education provides school programming during the school term, 10am–12pm weekdays. iview Education offers on-demand, curriculum-matched programming for primary and secondary students. Behind the News is a fun, high-energy way for students to learn about current issues and world events. ABC Kids Early Education offers an inspiring range of curriculum-linked ABC programs and podcasts for pre-school aged children. They also have a range of downloadable Apps and Games for kids to enjoy. Family Matters with HWK Family Matters is a new publication from Holidays With Kids and has some wonderful low cost or free options for online learning for kids, best educational apps for children and home activity ideas. Check in with your local parenting groups We've listed a few of our best picks here but you might find your local parenting or community group has wonderful lists of free activities that other parents have recommended for your area. Inner West Mums The Inner West Mums group have put together this handy guide of classes and activities that kids can enjoy either one or one or in a virtual group….all online! Lots of great ideas and links to organisations ready to educate, entertain and keep your little ones mentally and physically active. They also recently posted this helpful article on fun ways to help develop writing and drawing skills for 4 to 7 year olds. In the Cove In the Cove lists a wonderful range of sporty, creative and educational programs for children, including children’s activities that have gone online. North Shore Mums North Shore Mums has set up a COVID-19 page with lists of activities and advice for parents including free drama classes, the local bear hunt, and 115 things to do at home with the kids. Sydney Mums Group The Sydney Mums Group has put together a comprehensive isolation survival guide for parents. They have sourced online education, digital resources and plenty of activities to keep the kids active and learning. Northern Beaches Mums On Facebook and through their website, the Northern Beaches Mums highlight the latest news on local businesses and play areas that are open and lots of listings for events that you can attend from home.