Many parents have been left vulnerable with managing children at home while balancing the new normal of pandemic life. If you feel that you are becoming a substitute teacher for now – you are not alone!
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This is a guest post from Musa Mawanda, Ph. D, the Founder and CEO of Lugelo, Inc., a mobile and web app for private journals, scrapbooks, biographies, and storybooks.
The second wave of infections across the globe has made many governments impose more lockdowns, and that means many more children back home again from the classroom.
It is up to parents and other caregivers to keep kids involved, motivated and learning new things.
When schools around the country are closed, and children are being forced to stay at home, the risk is lack of motivation and procrastinating their homework.
On the other hand, they cannot go outdoors to play as well. This is why it is important to move out to play. Children are free-spirited and like to go out with their friends and play and connect.
They hate spending too long indoors. Therefore, the parents need to keep their little ones engaged in constructive quarantine activities amidst the lockdown. Here are the 5 top ways that can help parents.
1. Engage in Reading
There is nothing better for children after love and affection than reading. If you’re reading to them or reading for themselves, there is an unprecedented academic gain regardless of age, grade or reading level.
Reading is one of the best ways to make up for missed study time. Moreover, it also stimulates the imagination of a child, which, in the long run, can help them solve problems, enhance their memory, boost their self-confidence, and socialize better and be more curious.
Moreover, let’s face it, a decent book might also be a great time killer. In reality, the original bingeing (unlike Netflix today) was the way many children used to lose hours… lost in a book.
2. Journaling
While journaling is a great way to engage children, it can often come up as a boring idea to a few. The key is to make the daily activity log a part of learning.
Some children do not like to follow the old-school journaling methods with a diary and pencil. Instead, giving it a digital twist can be an attractive option.
This means you can choose to help them journal using the parenting journal apps like Lugelo. It provides various ways to log activities – text, images, speech to text, and videos to both parents and children.
It is an excellent way for children to recall their daily tasks and record their learnings. Parents can leverage such documentation as a part of creating memories for the coming time.
Cultivating the habit of journaling is productive for children and makes way for a healthy routing of self-reflection. Set a specific time with your children dedicated to journaling, and you will see how it yields productive results in the longer run.
3. Indulging in Fun Games
LEGO games provide a great way to ‘learn with fun’ for children, so are very trendy at the moment. Moreover, they also teach mathematics sneakily without children realizing that their visuospatial memory is at work.
Start with simpler constructs and continue to get hold of the idea as your child starts to progress into more advanced ones. This workout alone will keep your child busy for hours and is excellent for beating boredom.
4. Get them into Creativity
In addition to completing the lessons offered by your child’s school system, do focus on additional learning opportunities that give them time for creativity.
- Schedule time for independent creative time every day, for activities such as creating a costume featuring their favourite character or drawing a picture of what is going on in their book.
- Have your child study a subject of their choosing and make a poster with pictures and facts they are discovering.
- Let your child build a model out of clay, create a diorama, or engage in another project of fun art.
- Kids love to cook. Choose a favorite recipe and try cooking together. Don’t forget you can transform their cooking activity into a quick math lesson.
5. Planning a Play Routine
Try to develop a schedule that affects age-appropriate education services that can be followed online, on TV or radio.
Also, factor in reading time and time for play as a part of family rules to be followed by everyone. Using daily activities for your kids as learning opportunities. And do not forget, where possible, to come up with these plans together.
While it is critical for children and young people to set up a routine and structure, you will find that your children need some amount of flexibility in these times.
Switch up activities for you, too. Flip to a more active choice if your child appears anxious and agitated while you are attempting to follow an online learning program with them.
Do not forget that it is perfect for the growth of fine and gross motor functions to prepare and do house chores safely together. Try to remain as tuned as possible to their needs.
Bottomline
Parenting is about raising children with the right values and investing time to make them a better person. A lot of learning is possible for children if they start being productive at home by following the tips mentioned above.
Start with one of these and see how your child responds to it, and later you can indulge them in other activities.
Author:
Musa Mawanda, Ph. D is the Founder and CEO of Lugelo, Inc., a mobile and web app for private journals, scrapbooks, biographies, and storybooks.
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