With the whole county on lockdown for the foreseeable future, it’s only natural that most people are dreading it. Whether you usually spend every weekend huddled in your room, or if you’re always out doing sports the whole time, having the option to leave taken away -even if it is for the best - can be quite daunting. Most people are worrying about boredom and what to fill the empty days with. Well, I’ve thought of five ways to fight boredom this Easter and added some links too.

1. Origami

It doesn’t matter if you’re great at origami or you’ve only ever made paper aeroplanes, there’s a load for origami crafts out there for every capability. They’re easy to do and all you need is paper! Our head of year has started setting regular origami contests for our year-group, the first one being a jumping frog. I challenged myself to make the smallest frog I could (see photo attached). If you want to make your own really easy jumping frog, there’s a demonstration here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pddCghMF5og

2. Baking

Baking is a great way to occupy yourself. You can make simple rice crispy squares or challenge yourself to make something like profiteroles (as long as you can find ingredients in your home or in the shops). If you’re looking for something a bit more time-filling, you could try to decorate a cake with fondant shapes or by making chocolate buttons. There are countless recipes online as well as decoration tips, so go wild. Obviously, the biggest benefit to baking is that you get to eat all of the finished products, you deserve it after all that hard work!

3. Sewing

Luckily, I’m doing a textiles GCSE which means I’ve got a project to keep me occupied for a while. However, once I finish my dress, I’m going to try to sew some clothes for myself. If you have enough fabric at home to make clothes, you can find patterns online or tutorials on YouTube. If you want some free downloadable patterns, you can find some here: https://www.onthecuttingfloor.com/sewing-2/pdf-sewing-patterns/

If you’re not experienced enough or don’t have enough fabric, you can always try some smaller crafts, such as cross stitching a bookmark or making a scrunchie. If you can’t sew and don’t have any craft materials, I would recommend these no sew Easter sock bunnies: https://tiphero.com/no-sew-sock-bunnies

4. Learn a new skill

If you have an instrument like a piano or a ukulele in the house, try to practice using online tutorials or get a relative to teach you. Maybe you could find some yoga poses on an app or website and increase your flexibility. You could try writing music on a website like Noteflight: https://www.noteflight.com/home or just write some poetry on Word. Using apps like Duolingo could help you to learn a new language or continue to practice one you’d usually learn at school.

5. Keep fit

I never thought I’d recommend exercise to anyone, but even just keeping up the regular exercise that you’d usually get from walking around school can help to keep you active. Try walking around your bedroom, the garden, or up and down the stairs. If you’re looking for something more, try playing catch with a relative. If you can, you can play tennis or football in your garden, maybe against a wall if no one will play with you. You could also try Joe Wicks’ daily PE lessons: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAxW1XT0iEJo0TYlRfn6rYQ

Hopefully I’ve given you some ideas to battle your boredom. Good luck!