With schools closed and everyone on lockdown, a lot of parents are panicking in a different way.
“How do I survive lockdown with my kids?!”
Fortunately, there are a lot of things you can do to keep your kids occupied at this time, especially if you need to get some remote work done.
Simple Ways to Maximize Your Kids’ Time at Home During This Lockdown
While the easiest way would be to give them unlimited screentime on their gadgets, it’s not the most productive way to parent them at this season. While you can still build your own gaming PC and allow them to have a couple of hours of game time every day, you would also want to develop other aspects of your children’s lives.
We have listed a few tips for you to help you fully utilize this lockdown season and raise your children responsibly without letting go of the fun that kids deserve.
Make homeschooling fun and interesting for them and yourself
Most parents aren’t used to a homeschool program set-up which adds on to their worries and anxieties.
First things first: Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Exhale. Do not panic.
Homeschooling can actually be loads of fun when done right. This set-up will not only instill in your child a greater sense of responsibility and discipline, but it can also work on your character as a parent.
Get into some subjects and topics that you can easily do at home such as reading, writing, history, music, arts, and other interesting subject matters like cooking, budgeting (yes, they need to learn money management at a young age), mythology, and a lot more.
Make it fun by giving them diversity in their learning methods. You can use books, movies, documentaries, the internet, play audiobooks. The choices are endless.
Encourage more reading
By reading, we mean actual hard copies of books, journals, magazines, and other forms of literature.
Help them develop a love for reading regardless of genre. Some kids love history. Others like fiction. Some others enjoy comic books and other young adult reading materials. Identify what are your kids interested in and give them recommendations for reading materials to go through.
Prepare a list of to-dos for them to tick off daily
During times of instability such as this, we need some semblance of stability to help us deal with the situation and prevent us from sliding into depression and anxiety.
Having a regular schedule helps give us all, our children included, a sense of normalcy. List down a variety of things that they need to do daily to keep them occupied and leave them feeling accomplished at the end of each day. Chores, exercise, schoolwork, different fun activities, time for leisure, and other similar things.
The goal here is for them to be productive amid the global pandemic.
Let them have fun on their own terms
This list so far has been focused on what parents want for their children. Give them some time within their day that they can do whatever they want. They can snack, play video games, watch Netflix or Hulu, chat with their friends, play outside (if you have outdoor space), and whatever it is that they find fun.
Of course, some are subject to certain conditions such as outdoor play and screen time. But the important thing is we do not want them to feel restricted in one of the most restricting times in modern history. Let them be kids.
Give them activities that make use of their creativity and imagination
A lot of fun and productive activities that foster and nurture creativity are available online. You can have them make cardboard costumes for a household cosplay, make a tape town on their bedroom floors, come up with games, set-up their bedrooms with makeshift tents or whatever. The important thing is they learn to unleash their imagination and creativity.
We are living in strange times which makes it hard for us to do the things we normally did. We need to adapt to the current situation without compromising what we value the most.