EMPOWER, EDUCATE & ENTERTAIN: PARENTING IN TIMES OF A PANDEMIC
Parents are often caught in a fix, how to have fun with kids while staying at home!!!
An enthusiastic child locked indoors usually leads to tantrums or fits of rage due to boredom. All of this can lead to heavy dependency on screens and gadgets.
Here are a few activities that can help you have some fun with your kids without stepping out.
Don’t feel like stepping out of your bedroom? Pillows can be put to some good use rather than just a resting place for your head. Build a pretend fort or car or racetrack or dollhouse. Alternatively, can also use those cardboard boxes lying around from your recent online shopping spree.
Patience and focus are important qualities that can be instilled in children through play.
BOARD GAMES:
A good board game can ensure they are not bored. Depending on their age group – Monopoly, Scrabble, Game of Life, Pictionary are all-time favourites. Card games help with their motor skills and analytical skills too! There are some freshly launched board games in the market, we will try to keep reviewing them periodically.
CREATIVITY:
The left brain should not be ignored either! A lazy afternoon is a perfect time to unleash some creativity. Fabric clue, some trinkets, and your kid’s old white t-shirt/shirt/pants or some old bag is the perfect opportunity to let their creative juices flow. Both parent and child can sit with a blank piece of paper and draw their versions of the same thing, for example, a sunset or a picnic and use different mediums like watercolours and crayons to express their ideas. You will be surprised to see what your child’s vision includes.
To work on their motor skills – You can build a castle with cards, or a candy stick house or just playing catch with a ball can make it fun.
All these activities are bound to make everyone hungry: use this opportunity to get into the kitchen with your child. They can be involved in baking their own pizza or cookies or popping some popcorn.
All play and no work will make you dull and grey. Let’s do some learning too.
LEARN SOMETHING NEW:
Pick up a new skill to learn – like NATO alphabets, Morse Code, Numbers, and greetings in other languages.
Let us take some inspiration from the popular cartoon shows – Handy Manny and Bob the builder. Use a day to orient your child with the toolbox in the house. Involve them in trying to ‘fix’ some things around the house. Make sure the toolbox stays locked at all times when you are not around.
After all this hard work throughout the day, even the parents will need to relax and unwind – a perfect time to turn your living room into a theatre and enjoy a family movie with some snacks.
Here is a list of 15 non-animated movies which the entire family can sit together and enjoy. Click here
