[Corona Virus] Things to do with your Kids When Schools are Shut Down
Taking a quick break from skin care related topics, to something I know even MORE about.... keeping kids busy (and productive!)
My parents are preparing to take my nephews for awhile if their school closes so that my sister is able to continue working. They asked us for some ideas of what to do with them during this time.
Here's what I wrote to them:
Hi Dad,
I would focus on games where they learn something (Monopoly, Stratego, etc)
Mom was always good about creating a summer schedule when we were growing up - that helps immensely. Keep them in 30 minute intervals where sometimes they're together and other times they're doing something different/apart. Have them help you come up with the schedule and then have them also keep track of the time. Maybe part of each interval includes a 10 minute writing time of what they did during that 30 minute time period.
- cooking/baking
- have them help you clean, declutter, organize, garden, wash windows
- board games
- online games like Minecraft but make sure they're building and in "creative mode" so that it's more productive (keep it to 20-30 minute interval so they have something to look forward to if you bring it back in later that day)
- If you have Powerpoint on your computer, have them watch a documentary and then create a presentation on it using Powerpoint. They can find free or cheap images on Canva.com
- Khanacademy.com for math skills. They can create an account and continue learning via video and test-taking.
- Duolingo - get a free language learning account and ask them which language they'd like to learn. They could easily do this in 15 minute intervals several times a day and actually pick up a new language in a FREE and FUN way. They include games and competitions.
- Have them do VLOGS (video blogs) where they talk about something for a specific period of time. You can even make it fun by giving them 15 minutes to research a topic of choice, create a script or just turn on the video and play "Reporter", giving a report of what they just learned.
- Like the VLOG idea, use the app BigVu, which is a teleprompter app where they can create the script and then a teleprompter shows the script slowly move while they "read" it.
- books on Audible (Hank the Cowdog series - plenty of those and they're clean)
- I would seriously have them work for you around the house - make it a win-win and you can always reward with computer time
- Get something from Michaels, Hobby Lobby or other craft store that would take hours to work on - I remember doing those car models in 6th grade - those were cool. Keep it out the whole time but only give them 30-45 minute intervals to work on it before switching out the activity to something else. Let them pick the car model to do. Mine in 6th grade was a pink Jeep :)
- Create a garden project, starting with the weeding and soil prep and then working their way with planting. Have them research something related to gardening every day.
- Have them record (blog, video or journal) each activity as it ends so that by the end of each day, they have a list of what they worked on that day. They may find they've been quite productive outside school!