Coronavirus: Arts and crafts and YouTube top resources during lockdown
Nicole Weinstein
Wednesday, December 2, 2020
Arts and crafts have been rated as ‘the most engaging resources’ provided by nurseries during lockdown, a national survey of parents has revealed.
More than 1,000 UK parents of children aged four and under, took part in an online YouGov survey commissioned by Fennies Nurseries to find out about their parenting experiences during the first lockdown.
Just over a quarter of parents, 26 per cent, said that arts and crafts were the most engaging resources provided by nurseries during lockdown.
This was followed by storytelling and singalongs, both at 17 per cent; physical activities at 15 per cent and then, in order, cooking; guided nature walks and mindfulness.
Other questions in the survey included sleeping patterns, dietary changes, hygiene precautions, mental health and online entertainment.
YouTube won the battle of the screens, trailed by Netflix. And Disney Plus, a platform only released in the UK on 24 March 2020 – one day after the spring lockdown - was children’s third choice.
The research also highlighted the positives of lockdown with nearly two thirds of parents, 64 per cent, stating that the biggest overall benefit was spending more time with their children.
Nearly a third of fathers, 32 per cent, said that lockdown has improved their relationship with their children, and they were also getting more involved in household chores. Thirty per cent of fathers said they had done more cooking since lockdown started, and more fathers than mothers handled the grocery shop (27 per cent versus 25 per cent).
Hygiene practices were also looked at in the survey. Forty-two per cent of parents revealed that their children now wanted to wash their hands more than before the start of the first lockdown.
Dane Hardie, head of commercial at Fennies, which has 11 sites in London, Surrey and Kent, said, ‘It’s all too easy to see lockdown’s drawbacks but there was a tremendous amount of positive, not least in the increased engagement between fathers and their children, but the fact that parents claimed the biggest advantage of lockdown was spending more time with their kids.
'Despite screen time increasing for obvious reasons of being at home more, we’ve also learnt arts and crafts were the most popular tool of engagement from nurseries so we will look to increase and expand creative solutions for children.’
The survey of 1,003 parents took place from 21 to 25 October, prior to the announcement of the second lockdown.
