Keeping children occupied during a lockdown
As we are aware, we are key workers, and everyone else should be staying at home as much as possible. This could mean in some circumstances you may be in the home with the children and them with you, every day! This is a gift, although not all children are going to respond positively to this.
If you are currently at home with children to keep occupied, we have put together a few ways to make it a little bit easier—on your kids, and on yourself!
Tips to organise the days
Organised fun Okay, rarely as good as spontaneous fun, right now though routine and discipline could be lacking and the best way to make it a little easier is breaking time down into sections, deciding what to do with each of those sections, and sticking to that plan. The days ahead, with your kids at home, are no different.
Break each day down into a few chunks. Morning, afternoon, evening—these are the most basic, but you can plan to half-hour chunks if you like. The time chunks are up to you, decide what you want to do with each of these chunks, they do not have to be complicated, a walk outside, working on hobbies, projects, calling friends.
Keep learning
It is important that you do not let your kids slow down on their education. Remember, this is not time off, it is an extraordinary circumstance.
If your schools are sending tasks via email or publishing on the school website, make sure your kids are doing them to completion. Help them, whilst emphasising their own problem-solving abilities and resources.
There are a ton of great resources online that can keep kids’ attention and teach them something at the same time:
School home learning packs are designed to complement SATs and GCSEs and are closely matched to the National Curriculum. They are usually paid resources, but as the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak is an extraordinary circumstance, a range of these are free to take from their website.
Twinkl another provider of resources from EYFS to GCSE, have made some resource packs free. there are 630,000 available right now! You will need to sign up with an email address for a free account on their site, once that is done, you’ll have a huge pack of great resources available.
Quizlet Quizlet Each new thing you learn is an achievement. Quizlet breaks down topics and subjects, so you accomplish something new every step of the way. They specialise in AI-assisted learning, which identifies areas where a person might be having difficulties—it works like a real tutor. And it is not just school subjects—it can cover cooking, coding, even woodwork
Games!
Not just video games—though honestly, fully expect Xboxes across the nation to be feeling the strain right now, board games and role-playing games are perfect. They encourage you all to spend quality time together exercising your own minds. It is possible to make this social beyond your own household. Getting your kids’ friends together via a video app like Skype or Zoom to play is a great idea, and apps like Roll20: Online virtual tabletop for pen and paper RPGs and ...provide an incredible resource for people playing tabletop games remotely.
Video
Ordinarily, you want to limit screen time as much as possible. But as we keep saying, these are extraordinary times. For your own mental health, it can be good to find a kid’s movie on the TV or a streaming service and enjoy an hour or so to yourself. No-one is going to judge you—it is not easy to meet the demands of a child 24/7. Take the time you need to unwind for yourself.
