Creative Flow: Ways to Entertain Kids During School Closures
If you’re like most people, you didn’t think that the school closures would end up lasting the rest of the year. But they have, and now the kiddos are being home-schooled until summer. Though most students are e-learning now, there is still way more time in the day to explore different ways to entertain kids during school closures. Take some time to switch up the daily routine and look below for additional ideas. Your kids—and you—will love the opportunity to try something new!
Have A Weekly Family Night
Yes, you’ve been spending a lot of time together already, but that’s probably been very unscheduled and small. We suggest giving yourselves a magical family night, one that’s different than the others. Make Friday nights (or whatever night you choose) the night when you cook dinner as a family, have a game night, or camp out indoors. When you intentionally set aside this night, as opposed to all the others that seem to blur together, you’ll give yourself something exciting to look forward to.
Introduce New Ways to Keep Them Active
In a previous post, we talked about some key tips for keeping kids active during the coronavirus. The more of these tips you can implement, the better chance you have of keeping them entertained. Even if you’re busy with meetings that run past the end of their at-home school day, you can give them the go-ahead to set up an outdoor obstacle course or turn on Wii Fit. These new ways to stay active will keep them entertained no matter what, rain or shine.
Get Artsy
If you head for the paintbrush to wind down after work, let the kids do the same! Putting the kid’s creativity pants on will help them unwind after their own busy days and entertain them for a while. There are a few different ways you can do this—painting, learning a new instrument, putting some chalk on the driveway, becoming mad scientists, and so much more!
Check Out Virtual Tours And Learn From Them
Similarly, you can continue the kid’s education by checking out the huge variety of virtual tours available. There are museums, art galleries, tours of cities, and so much more. Once the kids watch, you can ask them to share what they’ve learned or give them books and internet time to learn more about what they saw. These tours can entertain, provide further education, and even kick-start a love of travel!
Bring Out The Open-Ended Toys
If you plop your kids in front of the toys with batteries and flashy lights, then you run the risk of them not getting bored after a while. Entertain the kids throughout the day by pulling out the open-ended toys. These are the toys like Legos, blocks, dress-up clothes, tea party things, toy cars, and whatever else you have. Things like this encourage creativity and put more of an emphasis on the child producing something playful, rather than on electronics.
It’s not an exact science—there will be days when they don’t want to play or when their energy is too much for the house. When they’re stressed and when you’re stressed, remember to breathe through the tension for a few seconds and turn to a few of these ways to entertain kids during school closures.
