The federal government has issued guidelines on how to reopen the country gradually, and several states have started allowing individual businesses to restart operations. Despite these measures to go back to business as usual, a majority of states have announced that schools won’t reopen for in-person classes at least for the rest of the academic year.
Whether you plan on homeschooling your kids or letting them continue their education through online classes, your children will be staying at home for the rest of the year. This means juggling your own work while making sure they’re not only educated but also entertained and well-taken care of.
With the Internet a bit of creativity, there are plenty of activities for the whole family that you can do at home for little to no cost. Not only are these entertaining, but they’re also educational.
1. Explore virtual museum tours
You and your kids don’t need to book a ticket to Europe or fly across the country just to get to a museum. Plenty of the most famous museums like the Louvre and the Met are offering free virtual museum tours on their websites. If you have a huge TV screen, you can connect your phone or laptop so your kids can take in the tour and everything they see better. This is a fascinating way to teach them about the arts and history.
2. Have a weekend Disney+ binge
Who doesn’t love Disney, right? Now with its own affordable streaming platform where you can access thousands of movies and TV series, it won’t be challenging to find something the whole family can watch. Introduce kids to Hannah Montana or Troy and Gabriella, go on an adventure with Mabel and Dipper, or teach them about the importance of teamwork with the help of the Avengers. The options are endless; you’ll have something new to watch every week!
3. Follow a slime-making tutorial on YouTube
If you have kids around 3 to 6 years old, then slime-making is a great activity to do together. Making and playing with slime is sensory play for kids, which helps develop their motor skills. Apart from that, you can teach them about basic chemistry, problem-solving, and ratios.
4. Read one book a week
Like watching movies and TV shows, reading with your kids helps you form a bond with them as you go through adventures between the pages. So whether they still at the age where they need bedtime reading or they’re starting to form their own taste in stories, try making reading an activity you do with them. Give yourselves a week or two to finish a book and discuss what you’ve read on weekends.
5. Start a vegetable garden
Gardening has plenty of benefits, from lifting a person’s mood to having your own source of organic food. For children, gardening will teach them about caring and responsibility. They can also develop their confidence when plants successfully grow, and their hard work on tending to them pays off.
Being a parent is challenging, more so amid a pandemic. Lessen your load by keeping kids entertained instead of bored with the activities above.
