Lock-downs are getting imposed across India again. It can be a tough time for both parents and kids. Keeping kids meaningfully engaged is a task that parents are constantly worried about. Here’s a list of 25 lock-down activities for kids that I have used to keep my 11-year-old daughter busy. You can try them too.
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Why do you need lock-down activities for kids?
- To fill the vacuum created by the absence of school provided activities.
- To ensure the flow of creative juices of kids.
- To keep them physically fit.
- To pick up skills they normally would not be focussing on during school days.
List of 25 lock-down activities for kids – tried, tested and worked wonders with my daughter 🙂
1. START A KITCHEN GARDEN
Gather some vegetable or fruit seeds and try growing them in a small patch of soil. Observe them daily and encourage kids to take photos every day that can be converted into a video to see growth in action.
2. STORY NIGHTS
Read an Indian mythological story each night for your children. Introduce to them the richness of each character from our Indian mythology. Analyze the characters and have a debate with your kids.
3. GO ON A VIRTUAL TOUR
Pick up a globe and take a virtual tour around the world with your kids. Talk about 4 countries in each continent, their capitals, specialities, languages spoken, a brief history of the country, etc.
4. TAKE UP PAPER FOLDING
Pick up origami – the art of paper folding and teach 7 different origami crafts that they can practice again and again so that it stays with them for life.
5. SOAR TO THE SKY WITH KITES
Make kites with your kids. Try different variants. Fly them on a windy day and see the thrill on your kids’ faces.
6. TURN INTO A QUIZ MASTER
Have a quiz program within the house. Have one or two members each in a team. Conduct different themed rounds. Sports, politics, states, sweets, wildlife, planets, anything you think of is a theme.
7. WORD HUNTING
Give each child a newspaper. Shout out a word that they need to locate in the newspaper. The one finding the word wins the round.
8. BRING HOME A PET
Bring a pet home or adopt one from the street. Let your kids learn the attributes of empathy, sensitivity, kindness and care as they tend to the needs of the pet.
9. ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILLS FOR A GOOD HOME
Introduce kids to the aspects of home cleaning, sweeping, and other chores that form a part of essential life skills. In fact, this is my number one choice among all lock-down activities for kids.
10. INCREASE YOUR KIDS’ WORD POWER
Learn along with your kids the names of 20 vegetables in both English and your native language. Repeat the exercise for 20 kitchen ingredients, 20 fruits, etc
11. AHOY! HIDDEN TREASURE
Play treasure hunt within the home. Start with the first clue that will lead the kids to the place where the second clue is hidden. Let them go through 10-15 such clues before they end up at the treasure.
12. ZOOM INTO THE INVISIBLE WORLD AROUND US
Take a magnifying glass and zoom into everyday objects and pique the curiosity of kids. In case you do not have a magnifying glass, you can go to the play store and search for Magnifying App. Install one of the apps and use it.
13. BRING HOME THE THRILL OF SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS
Reproduce some simple interesting science experiments from YouTube at home. Among all lock-down activities for kids, this one brings both learning and fun together like no other.
14. TURN MULTILINGUAL
Learn a new language using an app like Duolingo along with your kids. Use simple phrases in day to day conversation.
15. FASTER HIGHER FURTHER
Make 5 different flying contraptions using just newspaper and have a flying race to determine the best design
16. LET’S COOK SOMETHING
Delicious Food cooked by my daughter
Encourage children to pick up a few cooking recipes suitable for their ages. Younger kids can try their hands at recipes that do not involve the gas stove.
17. RIDDLE TIME
Ask riddles to get your kids to think out of the box. This is one among the lock-down activities for kids that you can keep on for the whole year. Make it a part of your home culture.
18. IMPROVE VOCABULARY
Improve everybody’s vocabulary in the house by suggesting new words and using them in everyday conversation.
19. LABEL TREES
Go around the garden with your kids on a botany trip. Identify the plant, dig out its scientific name and list some of its uses. Prepare a label out of the info and hang it around the tree.
20. PLAY TRADITIONAL GAMES
Learn and play traditional Indian games like Chowkabara, The Tiger and the Lambs, Kuntabille (Hopscotch), etc. This is one of my favorite lock-down activities for kids as it teaches them key skills of sportsmanship.
21. PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS
Improve the photography skills of yourself and your kids by looking up some tips on mobile photography on the Internet. Snap several photos to hone your skills.
22. NIGHT SKY WATCHING
Take a mat, a pair of binoculars or a telescope and lie down in an open area away and watch the sky. Use apps like Google Sky or SkySafari to identify objects in the sky. Learn more about them.
23. STORY MAKE-UP
Start a wild story and let the other family members go on adding to it. Who knows, it might just be the story for a good book.
24. BRING THE ZOO TO YOUR HOME
Search the internet for Google 3D Animals. Follow the instructions and you can get exotic animals right into your living room and take pictures of them along with your kids.
25. SCRAPBOOK FESTIVAL WEEK
Make a seven page scrapbook of different craft ideas over a span of one week.
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