Life In Self Quarantine: How To Keep The Kids Busy!
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First night in self quarantine- Happy to report that the kids were down earlier than expected so their dad and I stayed up till closer to midnight binge-watching Pandemic and munching on local sweet mandarins. Bad decision. Come 7:30 am, the trio were up and about, while I was still reeling from the late-night shenanigans.
Its amazing how children are bursting with energy and enthusiasm early in the mornings. As much as I would love some lazy, quiet early hours, I wouldn’t change this scene for the world.
Life In Self-Quarantine
Whether we admit it or not, the virus has done one good thing. It has forced us to take a step back. To halt our ‘on the go’ lifestyle and take a breath. To actually ‘stay in’ with our children, spouses and parents.
Now, I understand this is also a formidable challenge. We are so used to packing our kids off to school and spending the better part of the day with our ‘work families’, that we are losing touch with the synchronization needed to live together as a closely-knit unit.
Its amazing what wonders a positive mindset can do. Surely most of us have observed this in our younger children. They stay positive and hopeful in all sorts of situations. Sometimes even, they’ll come up with bright solutions to problems only an optimistic mind can design.
Therefore, I have decided to go with this constructive approach and define 3 stress busting ways do engage and bond with your family during this ‘time in’.
Develop A Self Quarantine Daily Routine
Get together and let your kids brainstorm a fun and fruitful routine for every day. Let them add the activities they would like to do. Painting, play doh time, making scrap books, reading, writing journals etc.
Make sure there is time for some conventional learning and learning through different activities as well as relaxation and free play.
Let the kids cross out what they achieve in the day and what they want to carry over for the next. It gives a sense of accomplishment and a goal to look forward to for the next.
Cook Together
Involving children in various stages of cooking benefits them in more ways than you can imagine. Cooking with kids improves their vocabulary, enhances fine and gross motor skills and opens them up to different scientific concepts.
Avoid conflict in the kitchen by handing over the responsibility of one task per child. These tasks can be rotated daily or according to their ages.
Demonstrate how raw food undergoes changes in color, texture and taste upon cooking.
An experiment to see which food produce sink in water and which ones float can be be a great learning experience.
Baking a cake or muffins can be extremely rewarding for little brains. Let them participate in all the steps, like preparing the batter, pouring it out, setting the temperature on the oven and eating the end result of their hard work.
Learning to keep the counters clean and washing up before they leave the space teaches them discipline and cleanliness.
Cooking together boosts teamwork, builds confidence and promotes healthy eating. It does take a tad bit longer to get things done with so many cooks working on one broth, but hey! we have some time, don't we?
Deep Cleaning Together
Children love rummaging through shelves, drawers that hold clothes, photo albums, tools or toys. Use this free time to involve them in sorting their closets and arranging their belongings.
This teaches the older kids an important life skill of keeping a tidy space and the younger kids how to segregate objects of a kind together.
Exercise Classes!
A perfect means of burning all that pent-up energy! For both parents and children! Get together and develop an exercise routine for every day. Alter push ups and other moves to match your child's capacity. While you do a proper push up, your child can push up in any fashion!
Give younger kids water bottles or cylindrical wooden blocks if they want to add weights to their workout. Count together as you lift and this way, you will practice numbers too!
Be flexible with the duration, and timing of the workouts. Remember to include jumping jacks, sit-ups, skipping and star jumps. These moves are easy enough for children to do and so much fun!
Dance It Out
This may be the simplest way to get your children to exercise. Turn up the music and dance. Use your kid’s favorite music and dance vigorously enough to give yourself a cardiovascular workout.
Add some rules like nobody can stop till the music does and you will have a perfect dance party. You can even pick an aerobic workout dance video, and everybody can follow the instructor's moves. The little ones can just do their own jam.
Make Time To Meditate, Self-Reflect Or Even Yoga!
Along with sound physical health, children need a downtime where they can recollect and self-reflect on the happenings of the day. You could either do this individually with each child or gather them around you and just relax, do some breathing exercises and meditate. Let them count to 10 as they inhale and exhale.
it can be quite a task to get young children to focus on meditation, but it is worth it as long as they're trying.
Another section of this activity can be prayers or affirmations. Considering the current environment, you can as a family, pray (or reflect) in whichever way you seem fit for a speedy recovery for those affected and a healthy and disease-free future for all of us.
Let this phase of ‘social distancing’ bring you closer as a family and strengthen your relations with those who matter the most. Share your secrets of keeping the children occupied in the comments section below. Check out the previous post on how to build immunity for you family in quarantine. Come back tomorrow for another edition of Living in Self Quarantine!
