COVID-19 has forced everyone to stay indoors and people have run out of movies and TV series to watch. Though adults were looking forward to a respite from the intensive work schedule, kids are the ones who did not expect this at all. They have been forced to be locked up in homes, without the luxury of going out to play, or meeting their friends at school, or going for a vacation which they would normally be doing at this time of the year, or any other outdoor activity that kids often enjoy so much. So, what can the kids indulge in during quarantine? What quarantine activities can kids look forward to amidst this troubling time? How can they pass their time now that they don’t have school to go to or tuitions to attend or can go out and play? Let us look at what kids can do to make quarantine fun as well as productive.
9 Fun Quarantine Activities For Kids
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Art And Craft
It has always been said that art soothes the mind. Make your kid sit down with pencils, colors, paints, brushes, and sheets, let her/him go crazy. Let them express anything and everything that is on their mind on the sheet of paper. Give them pencil shavings and ask them to arrange them in patterns. Let their artistic side shine and bring out the best in them. You can also help them print patterns using various kinds of leaves or different vegetable and fruit cuttings. Kids can also decorate plastic bottles or broken mugs and you can help them grow plants in those to decorate all around the house and in the balconies and verandas. They can make pen stands for gifting to relatives or for their father/mother using empty cans. This quarantine activity will help your child get in touch with their artistic side and you, on the other hand, can motivate your kid by displaying his/her work around the house.
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Indoor Games
Today’s generation is busy with online games like Clash of Clans, PubG, Candy Crush, and many other mobile and computer games. This isolation is a good time to teach your kids how to play Ludo, Snakes & Ladders, Tambola, Monopoly, Carrom, cards, and all the Indie games that generations have grown up playing. These games provide a physical aspect to the gaming that kids these days are mostly used to. Instead of living in the virtual world, this is a time when they can be brought back to the real world. You can also indulge with them in brainstorming games like Scrabble, Fun with Numbers, etc. that give learning a fun twist. This will not only help them enjoy and pass their time but also make learning new things fun. They’ll be quicker to learn vocabulary words, sharper in doing math problems, and will, in general, be in a better mental state than before.
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Cooking Under Parental Guidance
Are holidays even good without some delicious food and drinks around? This quarantine when kids are at home all the time, they will obviously want to eat new things, they’ll also be craving food like pizzas, burgers that they would normally be eating during holidays. You can utilize this time to teach your kid how to fix a sandwich, or how to make cuppa noodles or even help them bake some easy-to-make cupcakes. You can be innovative and encourage your kid to do the same. You can even make pizza at home using bread, veggies, and cheese and can ask your kid to make it! You can ask your kid to help you by garnishing a dish, or by simple tasks like getting something from the refrigerator, depending on your kid’s age, and what you are comfortable with him/her doing.
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E-Learning
Has your kid been pestering you to learn something that you had to refuse due to his/her busy schedule? This quarantine can be taken as a good respite from the monotonous everyday schedule of kids, from school to home, to tuitions, to dance lessons, and whatnot. Kids these days never really get time to learn what they really want to because of their busy schedule. Now, they can indulge in courses offered online, be it learning a language, learning origami, or how to play an instrument. Online tutorials are available for almost everything a kid might want to learn. You can help your kid to enroll in an online course of his/her choosing and then set a time for them to sit through the lessons and practice whatever they’re learning.
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Morning Or Evening Exercise
Quarantine is not just about having fun like there’s no tomorrow. It is more about being in discipline even when you cannot follow the routine you used to and making the best out of your time at home. Sitting at home, playing indoor, and binging all the time is sure to affect your and your kid’s health. To avoid this, you can always put on some music and do some yoga, aerobics, or dance with your kid. This will keep them entertained, in shape, and will help them spend time with you in a light-hearted atmosphere. Make sure to put on energetic songs that your kid enjoys and can help you set the rhythm for your workout routine.
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Do It Yourself/DIY Activities
Amidst the times we live in, we hardly have any time to learn something new, a skill that would help us all our life. This might be a good time for you to teach your kid how to use a screwdriver, a wrench, or even how to change a car tire if you have enough isolation space to do so. These are skills that would help your child grow and develop and be self-dependent in times of crisis. You can also teach them how to clean different types of surfaces at home, like how glass needs more care and should be cleaned with special cleaning agents, or how some surfaces only need a bit of dusting. These skills are sure to stay with them for the rest of their lives.
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Home Adventure
To keep your kids on their toes during this quarantine you can plan a treasure hunt for them within your home. You can hide candies or anything that they hold dear and give them clues to find it. You can also help your kids to camp indoors by fashioning a tent using some chairs and bedsheets and using flashlights inside it to give it a real tent-like ambiance. This will help them cope with the feeling of missing out on being outdoors and playing with their friends. You can be your child’s friends and enjoy with them. You can relive your childhood through them and with them, giving the whole family a sense of belonging and ultimate enjoyment.
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Give Back
Quarantine is hard for kids but, staying in isolation is much harder for the older generation. If you live with your parents, make sure that your kids spend some quality time with their grandparents. It can be hearing stories from them, interacting with them, teaching them how to use a gadget or any other thing that presents an opportunity. If, however, the grandparents stay far away, help your kids make sure to interact with them using video or phone calls, so that even they do not feel isolated. Let us give back to them by showing our love and not forgetting them during this time.
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Family Time
How many times does it happen that you are looking for a photograph and have to scroll through thousands of photos to find it? With all photographs in mobile phone galleries or cloud drives these days, give your kids a taste of the photo album. Show your kids old family photos, introduce them to your childhood, show them how you used to have fun, and pose for photos. If you have a printer handy, you can also develop your own family photo album that you can take out any time you want to revisit old times rather than scroll through a myriad of photos in the gallery. This will help you all spend some quality family time together.
These are indeed quite difficult times. Despite being close to the family at home, we are missing our daily routines, our busy lives, our work, and above all going out of the house carefree. It is important to take care of everyone during this time, be it our kids or our parents. In these trying times, it is important that we support each other, keep each other busy, enjoy the time we are getting to spend with our families and try and find new ways every day to keep growing and evolving and making the best out of this extended holiday that we’ve been gifted by nature. Let us stay positive in our attitudes and battle this quarantine with activities that we never had time to do before. Give your kids time to grow and utilize isolation to the maximum. And if you have some quarantine activities for children to share with us, leave a comment below.