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School is out! But not for summer. Suddenly you’ve switched from parent to home-school teacher and your kids might be restless already. It may be difficult to keep your children entertained for 12 hours of the day, but it is definitely not impossible. Here are some tips and tricks on how to keep your kids busy at home during social distancing.
1. Get school work knocked out of the way first!
This request may be met with moans and groans but putting all of the academics first on the list gives kids an incentive to get school work done. This also gets a lot out of the way for you as a parent if you’ve been struggling with transitioning your children to online versions of school.
2. Try and keep the same weekly schedule
Make a schedule that works for your family and try to stick to it. Psychologists have suggested that keeping the same schedule during social distancing is best for your mental health, meaning this is beneficial to you too! Although it may be tempting to sleep all day, try and wake up at your usual time and keep meals at the same time as well. Create a plan to add a fun family activity to your weekly schedule; make Friday a family movie night, or turn Saturday nights into board game nights.
3. Have a dance party!
It’s still very important to get up and get moving, even if you’re stuck inside the house. Put on your kids’ favorite songs and do some random fun dance moves, or take it up a notch and create some choreography! If your children are getting stir-crazy, you can take your exercise outside and get some fresh air. Try taking walks, or going for bike rides as a family.
4. Break out the puzzles and board games!
Social distancing is the perfect time for some old fashioned fun, and this too can be used for family time. More complicated puzzles with smaller pieces are best suited for older children, while simpler puzzles with fewer pieces are perfect for families with younger kids. Puzzles are definitely not for everyone though, and a great way to entertain your kids without setting them in front of a screen is a board game. Classic games like Monopoly can go on for a while, so this is a great way to occupy everyone for a longer period of time.
5. Set up an indoor scavenger hunt
This one requires a larger time commitment from you as a parent, but you could get older kids and teenagers involved to help you set up. You can create a broader scavenger hunt with challenges like “find a red toy” or “find a pencil”, or a more difficult and specific scavenger hunt with challenges like “find a Harry Potter book” or “find your yearbook from 2019”. Again, this activity can easily be modified depending on the ages of your children.
During this time in our world, things can be uncertain and scary, and it’s admittedly harder with kids stuck at home all day. We are keeping you and your families in our thoughts and we hope that these suggestions can help keep your kids busy and still having fun.
