With the rain clouds rolling in and the winter school holidays in full swing, finding ways to keep your kids entertained indoors can be a challenge. As the temperatures plummet and outdoor activities become less appealing, the familiar refrain of "there's nothing to do inside" might be echoing through your home. Don’t worry, we know it well. Here are our tips for keeping them happy, and more importantly, busy, this winter.
DIY Movie Nights
Did you know there are a bunch of apps available online that let you sync up video streams? This is a great way to let your kids enjoy movie nights connecting with friends, even if those friends can’t make it in person. Everyone can settle in to watch the streams together, and ones like Watch Netflix Together even come with chat and emoji systems, though we recommend setting up a Skype or Discord server for the kids to chat together in.
Cloud Gaming
GeForce NOW Powered by CloudGG is an affordable cloud gaming service that lets you transform any laptop, tablet, or even phone into a high-powered gaming rig, powerful enough to keep any kid happy as they break it down in Fortnite, or any of the other thousands of popular titles available on the platform.
Virtual World Tour
For the more scholarly amongst the next generation (or if you want to make sure they’re doing something worthwhile with their time). A number of museums around the world now offer awesome virtual tours, letting you explore our worlds vibrant history from the comfort of your own home. This is a fantastic list of some of the best available around the globe.
Make sure they’re set up right
All the above suggestions are fantastic ways to entertain the kids this winter, but for them to work, you’ll need to make sure their connection can support it. There’ll be nothing worse than hearing cries of “it’s frozen!” during movie night, or “there’s too much lag!” on Fortnite. We recommend making sure their device is connected via Ethernet, or otherwise has a strong Wi-Fi connection, without any obstructions to the router like fridges, microwaves, or too much distance in the way.
If you have an older router that isn’t keeping up with their demands, maybe it’s time to upgrade to a high-speed Pentanet router, chosen to help you make the most of your Wi-Fi.
Set limits
Gaming and streaming the days away is great, we know all too well. But we don’t want our kids returning to school without having seen the sun in the last couple of months. There’ll be warmer days across winter, and these will be great times to get them out of the house. Once the kids get into gaming mode it can be hard to drag them away, but we’ve covered making sure game time is used properly before, so make sure to refer to that before letting them run wild.
At the end of the day though, the winter holiday is their chance to kick back and have some fun. Get involved! Kids love it when parents take an interest in what they love, so go and enjoy it with them, times like this always slide by way too fast, so make sure you, and they, enjoy it.
