The competitive Hartlepool brothers who are smashing boredom under lockdown

Matt Turnbull, and his sons Ben, 12, and Dylan, 13, are setting daily tasks and inventing projects.

They have started a daily quiz challenge in a Mastermind style and that’s just one way the family is handling their stay-at-home routine.

Matt Turnbull, and his sons Ben, 12, and Dylan, 13, are setting daily tasks and inventing projects.

Matt, who runs the Tri Life Warriors triathlon club in Hartlepool and is a teacher, said: “As a teacher we have lots of strategies to deal with anxious, worried and vulnerable kids and in this situation ALL of our kids have some vulnerabilities.

Ben prepares his T-shirt which he made under a lockdown project.

“I think it may be a good idea for parents to share ideas on how to allow our kids to understand, accept and cope with what's going on.”

Their schedule has included;

- Daily Mastermind quizzes with their own specialist subjects.

- Letting his boys loose on giving him a haircut!

Ben Turnbull with the T-shirt he designed during a Coronavirus lockdown project.

- Creating their own vegetable garden.

- Doing Joe Wicks PE sessions every morning.

- An art project where they design and print T-shirts.

- Selecting online courses for themselves. “Ben has chosen a Nutrition for Health and a BSL course and Dylan has chosen a Money Management course and Introduction to Digital Photography,” said Matt.

- Daily book reading. Matt commented: “Dylan is reading a Winston Churchill biog and Ben is on his fourth David Baddiel book.”

Matt said a great idea would be for all parents to share ideas on how to keep busy during lockdown.

Matt added: “Living in an enforced box together isn't as easy as it seems. Structure and activity to keep continuity for the boys, being inventive with projects and fun activities was only ever going to mask and distract for so long from the underlining worries that all of our children are having at the moment.

“Each day, this new life will present new challenges and obstacles and it is our job to see them, meet them head on and help our kids learn and adapt. Their mental health is as important if not more so than their physical health.”

Ben pictured hard at work at online studies.

How are you and your family beating the lockdown blues? Email [email protected].

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The competitive Hartlepool brothers who are smashing boredom under lockdown - and look how they are doing it!

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you