We’re all quite a few months into this pandemic. COVID-19 has captured the attention of the world, and we’ve all been asked to stay at home and practice social distancing. A lot of focus has been on the elderly or people facing financial difficulties due to the closure of businesses. While this has been going on, our young children have had their worlds turned upside down.
It’s tough to explain to children why they can’t see their friends, go to school or maybe celebrate their birthdays in the way they used to. Explaining the situation to any child under ten is challenging, you want to give them enough information in a simple manner so that they understand. You don’t want to overload them with information and possibly frighten them. It’s an extremely challenging time for young minds and parents.
You may have exhausted all your usual techniques for keeping bored kids busy, but there are lots of ways you can distract them and have lots of fun. If you have older children, you can get them involved too!
Consider getting creative and making some quarantine shirts. If you are homeschooling, then you could get your children to design their home school uniform, once they have come up with the design, use plain t-shirts and fabric markers to make them. You can also use glitter or basic sewing techniques. Older children may like to recreate slogans shirts based around the lockdown. Get them to research some ideas that would work and then help them create their masterpiece.
Camping is a great family activity and can be done in your backyard. If you want to keep everyone busy, you could create your own village in the garden. Using what nature supplies to build your homes. Showing your children how to tie knots and prepare food for cooking around a fire. If you don’t have much space, then what about indoor camping? Turn your living room into a tent using old sheets and fairy lights. Then have the whole family spend the night together.
How about turning your hallway into a bowling alley and getting the whole family together for a great evening out. You could cook burgers and fries for after the game. And young children could make decorations to make the hall look even more like their local bowling alley.
Cinema nights also work well. If you have a projector, you could take it to the next level and create your own movie night under the stars or even a drive-through movie, projected onto the side of your home!
There are lots of ways we can keep our children distracted from the significant events happening around us. Technology means we can stay in touch with friends and have access to all the equipment we need to deliver some exciting adventures within our homes.
Get talking to the whole family and find out what adventures they miss, then recreate them at home!
