As the COVID-19 outbreak has shut down schools, day cares, jobs, and public places, many parents late left home with stir-crazy children. Even as a SAHM, I have found our schedule been thrown out of whack and my toddler‘s energy forever rising. But there are plenty of ways keep our kids educated and stimulated, while also keeping our sanity during this time. Here’s my tips...
Keep a schedule.
Just because we are in quarantine doesn’t mean that ours or our children’s lives should just stop. And although being able to declare it all a big break and park ourselves in front of the tv all day binge watching Netflix, it’s still important to keep our children on a schedule. To give them clear expectations with structured times throughout the day, such as play time, reading time, “homework” time, and rest time.
Keep in Contact
If you’re like me, you’ve canceled a lot of family time, quarantining Sunday family get togethers. But there is a way to stay in touch with family members while also protecting each other. Our method is FaceTime. There is also Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, and WhatsApp.
Play Outside
Keeping the kids inside will not only drive them stir-crazy, but also yourself. So if you have access to an outdoor space, it’s important to let your kids get out. Let them safely burn off their excess energy. You can even encourage less touching involved games, turning a traditional game of tag into flashlight tag or hide-and-seek. Or my favorites of going for a walk or doing a backyard scavenger hunt (I make a scavenger hunt list of things that he can find in the nature of the backyard or of things I’ve hidden around the yard).
Have a Dance Party
And if your weather has been anything like ours here in Reno (snow, rain, and cold), have fun with a dance party! You can choose to blast out their favorite tunes, or make it more exciting with freeze dance, limbo, or musical chairs. And if you want to make it extra special, bust out those old birthday decorations and hang some streamers to make the party come to life.
Use Screen Time Judiciously
Like many parents, I’m leery most of the time about giving my children too much screen time. Especially as small children right now. But sometimes, technology is a mom‘s best friend. I’ve personally found it useful and more productive to download educational apps, play some kid-friendly podcasts, and use YouTube for indoor exercise such as kids yoga on my son‘s iPad.
Ask for Household Help
Take advantage of this time to Include chores within your children’s routine. Whether your child is 2-years-old or 15, it never hurts to benefit them with the education that comes from chores. Personally, I’ve noticed that the younger the child is, the more inclined they are to enjoying chores alongside of mom. And I take that all into account. Whether it be letting him pull the laundry out of the dryer and into a basket, picking up his toys, washing the vegetables for dinner, helping me push the vacuum, and the list goes on and on.
Potty Training
What better time to hop on the potty train than quarantine time? Potty training requires a lot of focus and at leas a few days of worrying about nothing but it. So why not use this time that you have to accomplish just that? Sure, with the Lysol wipes and other cleaning supplies being sold out you may not want to cover your home but with urine. But if my son wasn’t already potty trained, I think this would have been the perfect time. You don’t have to go anywhere, you can let them go commando all day, and there’s no deadline pressure. Just you, a toddler, undies, and a potty. If you need some more help, check out my potty training tips.
Pillage Your Closet
As most of you know, I love pulling from all of the random stuff in our house to create fun activities for the kids. And now you can too! Now is the time to use all of those random items, tape, glue, aNd scissors to cut, repurpose, and create. Use those old sheets to create forts. Use to paper towel rolls as swords. And use those old boxes for a private drawing space.
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