Wondering what activities to do with kids in lockdown. While we are busy nagging about how difficult it is for us to stay locked down in the house, there is someone else too who is trying to cope without their routine life. Yes, its the kids. Children, no matter from which part of the world they belong, love to play. They are deprived of their regular outings be it their school or playground and unfortunately they are not able to express what they are feeling right now. Some parents may be noticing behavioral changes in their kids. It is very important to keep our kids motivated and occupied during this period.
In my opinion children have responded beyond their capacity. Where we as adults are getting frustrated and are exhibiting emotional outbursts. Our kids are just being far accommodating. They are as energetic as ever, what becomes important here is to channelize their energies towards positive things. If you have been searching for things to do with kids during lockdown, this article may be a bit of help for you.
6. Things To Do For Keeping Kids Active And Motivated During Lockdown
1. Educate your Child
When the child knows the gravity of the situation, he/she will try to take things with greater level of acceptance. Teach your kids all the words and their meanings that are relevant to the current pandemic situation. Some important words that are related to covid=19 are:
Corona Virus
Pandemic
Quarantine
Lockdown
Community Spread
Contact Tracing
Isolation / Self=Isolation
2. Involve them in the household work
Instead of treating them like a disturbance in your increased household chores, team up with them. Give them small jobs to do, try to figure out what they would like to do or what they volunteer themselves for. If your child likes to help you in kitchen give them small things to do, like mixing, whisking etc. If the kid likes to do cleaning, tell them to tidy -up the place after they finish playing with toys.
3. Teach them new things
We have to accept some kids are creative and some are not as much creative. But every child has some particular things that they do better than the other. Try to figure out what activities interests your child and help them grow themselves in that particular activity. If its painting teach them different techniques of painting that kids can do. For example, fork painting, ink wash, block painting etc.
Fun Activities That My Kids Have Been Doing During Lockdown
- Singing : My daughter discovered her liking for singing during this lockdown. I am no singer but I am trying to support her in learning this new talent. She even started her youtube channel :
Painting : I have been teaching her paint different flowers, painting a landscape.
This is a fork painting I taught my 5 year old daughter and she was so happy to learn a new way of painting.
- Learning Prayers : My daughter is happy praying the Holy Rosary nowadays.
- Baking / Cooking : Although she is too small, and indulging her in baking etc. leaves an added mess in the kitchen for us to clean. Once in a while we do baking together. Even Pizza making was a quite fun activity to do with her. Our baking video
4. Play with Your Kids
No matter how many new things you teach them, but in their heart of hearts kids love to play. What I have discovered during this lockdown is that children enjoy it more when their parents play with them. They love to see a child in you and for a change finding a friend in their parents, make them delighted.
You can play any board game, card game, word game, solve puzzles etc.
5. Allow Them Screen Time
I know many parents reading this may not approve of this. But wait, give me a chance I can explain it. Everything is on one side and the joy of watching TV is just another level. There are only 2 things that make kids happy. One, is when mom cooks them their favorite treat and the other is when they are happily allowed to watch their favorite program.
This will leave a positive psychological impact of freedom in their tender minds. It will help them remain motivated for other activities that you plan for them. If it is just one sided affair, children feel they are being regulated and they lose their motivation for other things as well.
Considering these are trying times not just for us adults but for our children as well. We should try to be little more liberal with them.
Moderation while allowing screen time is also equally important.
Keep Them in Tune with Studies
We are not sure how long this pandemic is staying here. But it is certain that once we resume our normal life, our kids have to go back to their schools and study.
Make them attend their online classes and do the work assigned to them. Teach them whatever is being taught in their online classes. As once the school reopen, the rush to complete the syllabus will begin. In such a situation the child must be up to the expected mark in terms of their studies.
Conclusion
Children have a very tender heart, and we need to behave with them accordingly. Being too strict, being too liberal will not work. The trick lies in striking the right balance between fun and learn.
Behaving normal with kids will also not work as even they know that everything is not normal. So team up with them and make them understand how we can fair well in this scenario.
No matter how much I have succeeded in putting up this article, in reality it isn’t as rosy as it feels while you read it. We all have had those weak moments when we lost our cool and got frustrated. But then we have to carry on, our children look up to us for even smallest of things thus we need to just put our best foot forward during this period.
Here’s wishing you and your kids all the best to sail through this phase in the best possible way!
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