During lockdown, many of us have been keeping ourselves occupied in new ways– whether that’s with new hobbies, online fitness classes, cooking videos or audiobooks. There’s been plenty of ideas out there to keep kids busy while the schools are closed too – and our Education and Support Teams have been sharing some of their favourites on our Team Talk online platform over the past few weeks too.

But, going one step further, many of our Team Fostering carers have been coming up with unique and creative ways to keep the children they care for occupied during lockdown. Knowing that they weren’t allowed to travel anywhere this Easter, foster carers Kate and Andy came up with a fantastic plan for a ‘day at the beach’ with AP, all from the comfort of their home. Kate covers the day below:

 

Sunday 12th April 2020. Easter Sunday.

As we are unable to go out for the day due to Covid-19 lockdown. I came up with the idea of a virtual day out.

10am – AP was sent out to do an Easter Egg hunt on our street. On her return, she was given a bottle of drink, a purse full of 2p’s and a bag of sweets for the journey. We travelled to our destination, through the kitchen where I had laid out toy cars to symbolise travelling along a motorway.

On reaching our destination, AP had to buy some bus tickets (I had made these already) and then we boarded our open top bus (the sofa in the lounge!) Using YouTube we watched a video tour of Scarborough sea front from an open top bus. Then, we walked back along the seafront (also via YouTube) eating seafood while we did this. This is Andy’s favourite thing to do in Scarborough.

We also took a ride on one of the funicular railways on the seafront (via YouTube).

Next on our agenda was Crabbing from the harbour side. I made a magnetic game using printed crab pictures, safety pins and a fridge magnet on string. AP sat on the top of the climbing frame in the garden and fished for the crabs until lunchtime.

For lunch we sat out in the garden and ate Fish and Chips I had cooked. They were served on paper plates and we ate them with wooden forks. Andy found some sound effects of the sea and seagulls on his phone. It really took us to the seaside.

After lunch we chilled on the beach for a while (a picnic blanket on the grass). AP built sandcastles in the unplanted vegetable bed.

We then moved on and spent some time in the Amusement Arcade. I had created a shove penny game on an old piece of wood. We spent ages taking it in turns to play. We then had ice-cream.

Finally we all went for a swim in the sea, well a dip in the hottub really. Just as we were deciding to get out it started to rain, so just like a normal day at the seaside, we headed home.

We had a great day, all of the family bought in to my imagination. Later that night we found a note from AP, thanking us for a great virtual day out. Lots of photos were taken and I have created a photo book to remind us of our day out during lockdown in 2020.”

This magical day at the seaside was very special for AP, who said “I had an amazing ingenious day”

Andy, her carer said, “Due to the lockdown we missed a weekend away, so to try to make up for it, Kate had the idea and asked AP where she would like to go if she could have a day out. It took 3 days of planning and preparation to make it happen. We all had a fabulous day”

Have you taken your own virtual day trip too? Share your favourite lockdown days with us on Twitter here or Facebook here. We’d love to hear about your adventures.

If ideas like this come naturally to you and you’d like to find out more about becoming a foster carer, you can contact us in the following ways:

 

Photo credit: Richard Woodhead (Flickr)