Tips to keep children busy during the Corona Pandemic

There is growing anxiety among people all over the world because of the Corona Pandemic. On one hand, they are constantly worried about themselves and their near & dear ones and on the other hand, they are stressed about handling their children, keeping them engaged indoors and worried about the safety of their children too. Tough times are here. For all those parents whose kids are very active, demanding your time & energy when you have to do all the household chores as well as manage to do office work from home and with all the stress and anxiety created by the Coronavirus, here are some tips how to keep your kids busy. 

New generation kids find a way to immerse into smartphones or other digital gadgets all day long forgetting to eat or drink or sleep. In a certain way, we should accept the fact that now a days, kids learn a lot from using internet. It is a place filled with innovative creations, both in a good & bad way. When I say bad, it means continuous usage of smartphones or computers are harmful to the eyes & brain as well, also when they do not adopt proper posture, that harms their musculoskeletal system. It also keeps the mind activated, hence affects sleep too. In order to prevent your kid from over use of electronic gadgets, make a daily routine schedule for them. And promise them that if they follow the schedule, they will be allowed to use the gadget for a fixed period of time, say 30 minutes to 60 minutes in the late afternoon or evening hours. In this way, you get to keep them physically active and busy in good ways and they get to do what they want at the end of the day, that is using gadget. 

Daily schedule for Kids

• Wake up at 7 AM

• Brush your teeth, followed by gargling with lukewarm saline water (for kids above 5 years of age)

• Wash eyes – Fill a cup or palms of your hands with water and just dip your eyes in it and open and close the eyes gently. Should be done under parent’s guidance. 

• Oiling the nostrils - Apply one drop of oil (any oil coconut / sesame / almond oil or ghee) inside the nostrils. Should do under parent’s guidance.

• Read the newspaper – Make sure to read atleast one column for children before 7 years of age, and children over 7 years of age should read atleast one page or more.

• Massage & Shower time – Apply some coconut oil on the skin all over the body, then take a shower in lukewarm water. This oiling the body not only moisturises the skin and keeps it soft & supple but also acts as a barrier against contact infections through skin.

• Try to make your own breakfast with the help of your Mom. Parents make kids understand that they should learn to do their work on their own. 

• Study time – Parents should take effort to make children study - Give your kids worksheets, simply don’t ask them to read from books as they would not like that. The previous night, make some interesting questionnaire from their study book or search the internet to give them some facts and make reading interesting. 

• Snack time – Roasted popcorn or roasted nuts or a homemade snack bar or fruit and an infusion. Snack bar - Just crush all your kid’s favourite nuts & dry fruits in equal quantity, add some ghee or coconut oil and give it to your kiddo and ask them to roll it into different shapes as they like. Now wrap them in butter paper and store in air tight container for a week. Make combination with different nuts & dry fruits so your kid does not get bored with the same taste always. Infusion can be made with cardamom or cinnamon or fennel or mint or ginger or combination of these. In a glass of hot water, just add few pinches of crushes spice, add some cane sugar, let it steep for 5 minutes. Then filter & drink. If you plan to use honey and not cane sugar, in that case add honey after filtering, when the infusion is lukewarm.

• Fun gardening - Now water the plants. Wait! Oh, are you saying you don’t have a garden? Then the best thing to do is to start a home garden first. Grab the old vessels or containers from your mom, or even a bucked would do. Fill it with sand from the roadside and then spread some coriander seeds or plant a tomato or chilli or potato. Plant as many as you can. Now water it every day and you can place it indoor too, place it near a window and make sure it gets sufficient sunlight daily as plants snack on sunlight. 

• Lunch time – Now arrange the plates, spoon, glasses on the dining table. Pour in water into the glasses. Enjoy the delicious meal and help your mom to clean the table.

• Slow down time / Reasoning time / Recall time – Post lunch do some slow activity like drawing, painting or learning craft making or playing instruments or brushing your dog or cat. Some days you can teach your kids about reasoning. Like making the concepts clear. Say for example, why does water flow in downward direction? Why is a leap year short? Why does February have only 28 days? This is not only interesting but makes your kids think and is like a stress buster for you too. Ask your kids to find reasons for everything, science is the base for everything and logical understanding is always necessary. One some days, you can share fond memories with your kids and ask them to share theirs. In our fast-paced lifestyle, we never have time for flashback, we are always in constant stress running forward. This is the time to slow down and recall all those happy memories which are deep stored in your mind. 

• Cleaning time – Become responsible, choose one area in your home and make sure you keep it clean daily. 

• Learning new words – Make a habit to learn 5 new words every day along with their meanings, may it be in any language, does not matter. Learning has no end, nobody knows all the words in a language, they think they are excellent with.

• Exercise time – Attention parents: You are the heroes for your child. They watch you keenly and learn from you. Hence if you are person who loves to relax but not exercise, it is time that you get back on the exercising track. Do exercise with your kids, this will not only help your kids as well as yourself stay healthy but also adds to a positive family time. Also include Trataka (staring at candle flame at a distance of one hand breadth in a room with lights off for 5 minutes. Can blink the eyes if the eyes get tired but immediately after blinking just stare on the candle flame again) in exercise time to improve focus & concentration. Then do palming, just rub the palms together and place on the eyes. 

• Refresh & have snack – Same as of the morning hours. 

• The Happy Awaited Time - Watch your favourite cartoon or YouTube channel or play games.

• Dinner – Enjoy your dinner.

• Walk 100 steps inside home. 

• Read a story book (not on mobile or laptop).

• Sleep Time - Good Night:)

So now that you know these, I am sure part of the anxiety is gone & your stress levels have dropped down.