5 super-fun indoor projects to do with your kids at home over Easter.

Easter time means taking a break – the entire family switching off and lying low to rest and recharge before clicking into gear for term two.

But with the entire country staying in – and staying put – these holidays it won’t be long before there’s a familiar cry heard across the suburbs. Can you hear it? I think the chorus is starting already: “Muuum, I’m booored…”.

The words will send a shudder through any well-meaning parent – unless you’re ready to tackle the whinging head-on with a swathe of learning tools that spark their imagination, inspire creation and are so fun that they won’t even realise their brain is getting a workout.

And there lies the challenge. Trying to keep little minds ticking but at the same time keeping up the ‘fun mum’ persona so they are happy to share valuable holiday time with you again.

I took a child-led approach and let my children choose a selection of crafty goodies and storybooks from Officeworks’ huge educational collection to keep them occupied and out from behind the pillow fort that’s getting bigger by the day. Shop by age, skill set or brand online, and you have everything you need for a busy break delivered to your home.

Pom Pom bunnies

Despite the current state of the world right now, the Easter Bunny is still making his way to backyards soon, so we thought we better hop to it.

Spying a pack of assorted pom poms, my daughter, who is six years old, set herself the task of creating some tiny decorative bunnies to send to her school friends.

She sorted the pom poms by colour and size and used some craft PVA glue to join three different sized pom poms to make mini bunnies. She cut sets of ears from colourful felt sheets, gluing them to the top of the bunnies’ heads. The task required oodles of concentration and a good use of her fine motor skills piecing, holding and gluing the tiny rabbits together.

Easter egg bags

My kids tell me chocolate egg collection requires two free hands, so they had a go at decorating a paper bag to gather and store their choccies in on Easter morning. With a pack of Paper Kraft Bags, some sheets of tissue paper and the remaining felt, they designed, drew, cut out and glued an Easter scene onto the bags. Even my three-year-old did a great job of drawing an egg shape onto tissue paper and cutting around the lines.

You can teach them some crafty skills along the way, including concertina cut-outs for multiples of the same shape.

Felt storyboards

Using the assorted colour felt, a nice idea is for children to choose a story or rhyme they enjoy and create a storyboard to illustrate the words or lyrics.

Using the words from 'Five Little Ducks' (why is there a lack of Easter songs?), we cut out a felt mother duck and her yellow baby ducks, a pond and a grassy hill for sticking onto the large piece of felt as we sung the corresponding lyrics.

The drawing and shape cutting was the task of my primary school-aged daughter, and my toddler son loved the singing, the story building and choosing the correct number of ducks to place on the board. Fine motor skills, creativity, numeracy and music class rolled into one.

Reading and listening

Reading is one of the best things you can do as a family, and not just because it improves literacy. The bonding time, the winding down at the end of the day and the lessons learnt from stories is all so beneficial for eager little learners.

We picked up a flip-up version of The Boy Who Cried Wolf, one of a big selection of paperback fairy tales in modern retellings. The pages were vivid and detailed, and my daughter read the story to us while my pre-schooler lifted the flaps, revealing surprise illustrations.

If you want your children to be good readers, read a lot and read often. This book was a good choice because it was suitable for both my children and had the bonus of a life message within the story. “You must not tell fibs because then no-one will believe anything you have to say,” says Miss M.

Message received loud and clear.

Puzzle party

Our task for the holidays is to each complete a jigsaw puzzle – the ultimate problem-solving game (and something they’re not going to finish in four minutes). Officeworks has a huge range of puzzles for all age groups that will challenge their thinking and improve hand-eye coordination.

A 30-piece Galt giant dinosaur floor puzzle for Master F and a 100-piece glitter unicorn Ravensburger puzzle for Miss M, and we have at least one rainy afternoon sorted.

Just don’t mention all the learning they’re doing along the way.

How are you keeping your kids occupied at home over the Easter break?