By now, I am sure most of your kids are either bored out of their minds or just spending their free time playing Mobile legends, Fortnite, or some new video game that they have yet to play due to the sudden cancellation of classes. And by now I am guessing you are wondering: “Gee, how could I make my son/daughter do anything besides playing video games or watching youtube videos all day?” Well, I am not one to talk, since I do most of those myself, but here is some advice I could give to parents as to what other activities kids can do during this period of lockdown.
Play Tabletop Games as a Family
I know, this sounds old-fashioned, but hear me out first. A lot of tabletop games, from Uno to Monopoly, require more than just one player to play it. This means that aside from your kids being able to play a different kind of game aside from the ones they are used to, they can also spend time playing with you or their siblings. Another advantage of encouraging your kids to play tabletop games is that it exercises their minds on how to solve puzzles or work as a team to win the game. Playing tabletop games allows you to bond with your kids while helping them exercise their critical thinking and analytical skills.
Watch Movies with the Family
Of course, tabletop games are not the only activity you and your kids can do while staying indoors due to the lockdown. Another thing you can do while staying indoors is, you guessed it, movie marathons. If you have Netflix, even better, as you do not need to switch disks all the time to play the next part or movie. I would personally recommend the Lord of the Rings trilogy, in particular the uncut release, as these movies are not only great films, but they are quite long and a good way to spend time with your kids. You can also watch educational shows with your kids if watching movies gets a bit stale. I heard some of the channels are bringing back educational shows during the lockdown as well.
Teach Your Kids on how to do Housework
Yeah yeah, I can almost hear you say: “How could I teach my kids how to do housework?! They will make all sorts of excuses to avoid it!” I think the trick is, you slowly ease them in on doing housework. You do not just give them the most complicated ones early on, you give them simpler tasks first then move on towards the next difficult task and then repeat this process until it has become almost routine for them. I think one of the reasons why some kids do not like doing housework is the fact that they do not like being scolded by their parents if they did something wrong when they did the housework.
Study
Ok ok, I know what your kids will tell you if you tell them to do so: “Why? What is the point of doing so when there are no classes?” That might be true, but they still have their final projects to finish so it does not hurt to finish them early on so that they can truly enjoy their break. They might also have online classes scheduled by their teachers so that they can still hold classes despite the lockdown. So it might be helpful to remind your kids of this so that they would not miss their online lessons.
Lockdown Doesn’t Mean Intellectual Quarantine
Sure the kids may be unable to go out and see their friends due to the Community Quarantine, but it doesn’t mean that they can’t keep learning. After all, Community Quarantine does not mean mental quarantine, so encourage the kids to go out and learn new things!