Keeping our Kids Keenly Occupied During Quarantine #AtoZChallenge

Happy Easter Sunday everyone! We organised an Easter egg hunt at home today, which my son absolutely loved! If you’re a parent reading this post, you know the struggle involved in keeping kids happy and engaged during quarantine. I’ve been getting queries on Instagram, on how to keep kids occupied during lockdown. As I’m reluctant to put my son on Instagram, a detailed blog post will have to do in its place.

I’m not an expert but I’m sharing tips and tricks that have worked for me so far, and will probably work for you too, no matter the age of your child.

Easter Egg Hunt for Easter Sunday. Hard-boil the eggs, paint on them and then dunk them in food colouring. Hide the eggs around the house, and have your child find them. Reward your child with something sweet when all the eggs have been found!

Here are the most important things to keep in mind:

• You need to be involved in every activity with your child. Your children are as anxious about this unprecedented situation as you are. They’re probably missing their friends/ being able to play outdoors/ normal life. The only connect they have to normalcy is you, hence, you must be involved in some way or another, in every activity of their day.
• A fixed schedule is tremendously helpful, as your child knows what to expect at what time of the day. It also allows you to finish your chores/ rest during the times your children are occupied with their scheduled activities.
• Enforce the same bedtime as the one they follow during normal school days. Well-rested children are happier children.
• If you are lucky enough to live in a joint family, divide roles and times of day that your children spend with every family member. This is the best time for children to bond with their grandparents.
• Involve them in regular household activities as much as possible. You’ll get your chores done and keep your kids entertained!

Imaginative play mixed with scheduled school homework is a great way to keep them occupied

Keeping these basic principles in mind, I’m sharing a rough layout of my son’s daily routine during lockdown. You could take inspiration from this, as well as use the online resources I have mentioned:

1. ONLINE LESSONS:

On weekdays, my son has three online lessons conducted by his school, beginning at 8 a.m. These lessons are spaced out over 3 hours with breaks in between each one. During the breaks, he eats breakfast or plays.

If your children don’t have scheduled school lessons, I recommend using online resources that teach school lessons as per age group.

Older children can also access museums and zoos from around the world that are offering virtual tours for free, during lockdown.

2. WATER PLAY:

After lessons, my son plays on our roof where he likes to water the plants with his grandparents. Most often he has a bath there, while horsing around with buckets of water.

It’s important to encourage any sort of outdoor water play, especially now that the weather is hot. If you don’t have access to a roof or a garden, this can be in your balcony or even your bathroom. Children love water play and it keeps them occupied for long periods of time while also utilising their pent-up energy.

3. MEAL TIME:

Encourage eating lunch/ at least one meal together as a family, around the same time every day.

4. MOVIE TIME:

After lunch, my son is allowed to watch a movie of his choice. It has been made clear to him that this arrangement is strictly for lockdown time only, and will stop when school re-starts. Disney + Hotstar and Netflix are great options with extensive content for children of all age groups. I believe they are offering free subscriptions during lockdown period.

5. PLAY TIME:

After the movie, my son gets a couple hours of play time. During this he chooses any of the following activities:

• Plays with his toys in our living room
• Plays on our roof
• An activity sticker book
• Arts and crafts/ assigned homework from school
• Baking/ cooking activities with his grandparents
• Reading books with mom/ dad
• Imaginary play with things he’s found around the house
• Whatsapp video calls with his Nani/Nanu/ uncles/ aunts/ cousins

If your children get bored of their existing toys, here’s an easy trick you can try. Rotate their toys every few days, by hiding half of them in a storage box. Take the hidden ones out after a few days, and hide the others. This allows them to re-discover the joy of old toys.

My son also enjoys enacting movies with his toys, which can be used to substitute characters from their favourite films!

6. DINNER TIME:

My son eats dinner slightly earlier than us. He’s a bit of a restless eater, so, we sit together and enjoy some activity books or read while he eats.

7. PRE-BEDTIME:

After dinner, he gets to watch 15 minutes of TV, then changes for bed and follows his night-time routine. Reading books is a daily ritual. During lockdown, I have been reading a chapter or two of “The Little Prince” by Antoine De Saint-Exupery, to him every night. It’s meant for slightly older children, but he enjoys having the story unfold little by little every night.

8. BEDTIME:

We enforce my son’s school time bedtime of 8 pm as he has lessons the next morning, but on weekends he sleeps at 8:30. Since he doesn’t take naps during the day, he sleeps on time!

Playing on our roof

Our daily schedules are designed around my son’s which ensures the smooth operation of everything in the house. Some days are harder than others but for the most part, it’s not been a difficult adjustment.

If you’re looking for more tips on keeping kids keenly occupied at home, check out this post by fellow blogger Cindy.

Hence, my tip for you to beat the lockdown blues today is:

Design a daily schedule for yourself and your family members and stick with it. Try and wake early and sleep on time. Earmark timings for daily chores, and give yourself time for leisure activities like reading/ fitness/ meditation etc. Trust me, the more your lockdown days feel like normal days, the easier they are to deal with!

If you’re looking for a good book to read during your leisure time, here’s my recommendation with the letter K:

“Kane and Abel” by Jeffrey Archer was the first novel written by him, that I read. I was fascinated by the tale of two men whose lives are strangely entwined.

If you prefer watching a TV show to reading a book, here’s one that I recommend:

“Koffee with Karan” is a talk show hosted by the effervescent producer/director from Bollywood- Karan Johar. He interviews Bollywood celebrities in his unique no-holds barred style. You can watch all six seasons of this show on Hotstar.

Over on Instagram, I’ve reviewed 3 movies that released this weekend on different streaming platforms- “Bamfaad” on Zee5, “Love Wedding Repeat” on Netflix, and “Tigertail” on Netflix. I would love it if you checked out my review, linked here!

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That’s it for today folks!

Do check out my daily update videos on Instagram Stories for #LockdownWithTheLadyLawyer and follow me there to stay better connected. Also tell me your favourite TV Shows/ movies/ books/ bloggers with the letter K?

Khuda Hafiz till tomorrow!

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This post has been written for the #AtoZChallenge 2020. My theme this year is #LockdownWithTheLadyLawyer, where I’m journaling my thoughts during the coronavirus lockdown, and sharing numerous recommendations that will help keep your spirits up.

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*This is not a sponsored post.

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