Top 10 Tips to Engage Kids During the Lockdown

How to Engage Kids?

A lot of us who are on lockdown are parents who are home schooling our kids. Countries around the world put a halt to the usual school set up for the safety of our children. This is a good thing because we really need to put the health of our children first. However, a big chunk of their creativity dies when they don’t have the usual interaction that they get from their friends or from the outside world, in general.

And, to be honest, kids get bored easily so we need to keep them preoccupied with activities that will amuse them and teach them skills as well.

Here are top 10 tips to engage your kids during the lockdown.

Tip # 1: Hold a Story Time Session Regularly

It is your responsibility to ensure that your child does not forget what they’ve learned in school. You don’t really need to teach them how to read. You can schedule a regular reading time so that they can continuously work on vocabulary concepts that they already know.

Tip # 2: Play Master Chef

Honing life skills like cooking is a great activity for your kids during the quarantine. Of course, this activity needs to be heavily supervised. Your child doesn’t even need to go near the stove or hold anything sharp. He can simply help out with tasks such as measuring ingredients.

Tip # 3: Go on Limited and Safe Outdoor Time

Although staying at home is the protocol, it’s still very important to get some sun from time to time. Find a safe spot outside your home so your child can get at least an hour or two of healthy sunlight. Make sure no one is around. Your front yard is the perfect place to do this.

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Tip # 4: Do Kid Friendly Exercises

Incorporate physical activities in your routine. There are many playful ways to do this. You can even do it during an outdoor activity whenever you’re getting your daily dose of Vitamin D.

A great workout to try is Zumba. There are many easy-to-follow Zumba for kids videos on YouTube. It may even unlock your child’s interest in dancing which isn’t such a bad idea because being a dancer is a creative way of breaking out a sweat!

Tip # 5: Daily Music Immersion

Music heals. Thousands of studies have been made on how beneficial it is for kids. It encourages creativity and helps enhance your child’s musical aptitude from the mere activity of just listening.

You can play instrumental classical music during study time or you can sing karaoke at home! There are also many available free online concerts and theatrical plays that your whole family can enjoy. Just like Zumba, daily music immersion may also help your child find out if he has an aptitude for music. Who knows? You might even go as far as learning how to play a musical instrument during the quarantine.

Tip # 6: Give Technology Lessons

Having some screen time is inevitable. Kids these days enjoy technology so much and that’s alright as long as it’s constructive. Make sure they use their digital devices to learn a thing or two because as a parent, a lot of their internet usage will be under your control. So be sure to check their apps, downloads and browser history to make sure that they continue to learn. Do your research as well and show them how they can maximize their screen time efficiently.

Tip # 7: Go on Virtual Field Trips

Speaking of technology, because we live in the digital age, even if we’re stuck at home, we can still engage ourselves with the outside world by taking virtual tours. This is an inspiring way of learning about other cultures. To ensure that you don’t overwhelm your children, start looking at cities near you first and then slowly move into other countries.

You can even print out a blank map and your child can start to color or put stickers on places you’ve done a virtual tour on. This is a nice, crafty activity to track you progress and it inculcates in them how important it is to travel.

Tip # 8: Train Your Pet

The lock down is the best time to show your child how big of a responsibility having a pet really is.

Show your kids how you let your pets eat, what they eat, how they need to follow a strict routine and even show them how to train your pets to become really good indoor companions. Pets have always proven to be a great teacher of responsibility. And children develop a sense of empathy when they start being pet parents at a young age.

Tip # 9: Join Interactive Online Live Lectures

A lot of learning facilities are closed because of the lock down so they open courses that you can take online. You’d be surprised at how diverse these courses are. There are courses being offered for different forms of art such as voice lessons, dance lessons, photography, painting and the like. It’s still a totally different experience from face-to-face classes but if you check reviews, it actually works.

Tip # 10: FaceTime Family and Friends

Don’t forget about continuously communicating with your friends and family. Make sure that your children do not lose the relationships they’ve built with their friends by arranging virtual play dates with their friends’ parents. There are many fun interactive games that can be played online through messaging apps. But, you can also stick to just talking. Sometimes, just being able to interact with others is enough.

And there you go! 10 simple, easy and inexpensive ways to enjoy this quarantine more with your kids. We know that these are trying times and as a parent, we would have never imagined going through something like this while are children are still young so let’s do our best to see the silver lining and develop a closer relationship with our kids during the lockdown.