Keeping children occupied

seems to be something of an issue right now. There are screams from a little further down our street  - at the house occupied by twin girls  of around three years of age.
I have spoken to them and their mother but cannot claim to know them the way I know the other neighbours with other kittens. I know the names of these other kittens. They had books bestowed on them by us when they were born - the obligatory AA Milne. I know they get read to at night. (This has happened even while M... is coping with T... and H... on his own. S... is out of self-isolation tomorrow and we are all looking forward to that!) 
I also know that all the kittens on the other side of the road - there are six of them altogether - have what I consider to be toys which have plenty of "play value". These are the sort of toys which require the kittens to use their imagination and develop a range of other skills. I have added to these over the past few years with their Christmas activity packs - intended to help keep them occupied over the summer holidays when it is too hot to be out of doors. The Senior Cat and I get some of this back from time to time in the form of "letters" and "cards" and "pictures". 
I am less sure about the twin girls. According to their immediate neighbour they never go to the library and they don't go to any sort of day care or nursery school. Perhaps it is little wonder if they are now both screaming again. 
Yes, the others can have temper tantrums but not quite in the same way. And yes, I know twins can set each other off.
But the Senior Cat and I were just discussing it. He said, "Imagine being stuck inside all day with two like that."
No, please! I would have to work rapidly to find all possible things for them to do...but would they know how to do things? As kittens my brother and I were expected to entertain ourselves a lot of the time. Our mother was not given to "playing" with us. She might have been a teacher - and a teacher of infants at that - but she took the view that we should learn to entertain ourselves. We were sent outside to play at every opportunity. It had to be raining steadily before we were allowed to remain in. Cold out there? Put another layer on and be active. Of course we were lucky. We lived in a small rural community at the time. Everyone knew everyone and all kittens played outside unless it was raining. (We didn't have snow.)
It would be interesting to know if children are playing outside more at the moment - or are they simply getting more screen time? I hope they are out.
And as I was talking to the Senior Cat I remembered an occasion on which my brother and I had built an entire village with our blocks and my train set and other things. It went across the entire floor of our room. We thought it was wonderful. We were having a great adventure with it. Our mother thought otherwise. It wasn't raining.
    "Outside now and do something!"
My brother looked up at her - and he can't have been more than three - and said, "But I am doing something!" 
And we were because learning is child's play.