As most schools closed due to COVID-19, parents are suddenly faced new reality; double parenting-work time because the government issued a public advisory of social distancing and stay at home.

This situation, for some parents, can make parenting more challenging, especially for those who are working from home. It is because you have to keep your kids independently occupied so that you can work on your daily work hours. 

Read More:

Remote learning is surely not a new thing for most of us. But, due to the current condition, parents can feel overwhelmed because there are too many things to handle at the same time.

While jumpy kids can affect your productivity, let’s make them stay entertained and keep the learning pace without making a fuss. Here are some ideas to make your kids stay active and happy during COVID-19 quarantine time.

1. Keep a Routine/Schedule

Even if they have to do e-learning, but maintain your child’s usual routine is vital. It will help your kids to understand that the world isn’t falling apart at the moment because they can feel depressed about what is going on at the moment. 

Of course, it is very tempting just to put them in front of the TV or give them a smartphone/tablet after school time is over, but this will cause extra stress for you.

Rather than do that, you can write down your kid’s schedule for a day in a whiteboard every morning. This way will make your kids know what will be happening to them on that day; when is their learning time, playtime, snack time and rest time. You can even upgrade the whiteboard by giving stickers to the complete schedule to let them have a sense of control and fulfilment.

2. Use Technology to Keep in Touch

For many children, they must be feeling upset about the fact that they can’t go to school and meet their favourite friends. Technology can solve this problem as it is important to let your kids keep in touch with their school friend. 

You can set time to do FaceTime, video call or phone call to stay in touch with their friends. For example ‘FaceTiming with friends at 5 pm’. This will let them keep the friendship close and lessen their stress for not able to do it. You can also use this option to stay in contact with other family members who are in home quarantine too due to COVID-19.

3. Prepare Rewards for The Kids

When your kids can complete their daily schedule with no fuss, small rewards won’t hurt, right? Remember to not fixed at foods as rewards for kids because it will lead to many problems, such as cavities, obesity, and excessive tantrum when you fail to give them their favourite cookies when they want to.

Prepare non-food rewards to praise their good behaviour. The option can be endless but avoid things that involved outdoor activities. For example, extra bedtime stories, stickers, colouring book, new crayons, a virtual tour to their favourite place and extra cuddles, hugs, and kisses will be sweet touch, too!

4. Talk About The Virus When They Ask About It

If your kids ask about why they have to learn at home, doing e-learning and can’t go out to their favourite park, it is time for you to talk about COVID-19 in their level of understanding. Younger kids won’t really understand what the virus is, but you can teach them about keeping hands clean to prevent them sick. But for older kids, they tend to understand the situation better.

Emphasize that you, the adults, are here to protect them. You can start the conversation with ‘Why we are all staying at home? Well, there is an illness going around, and everyone must be very careful about not getting sick, and so are we. When we are at home, you still need to do the homework, I’ll help you with that, and mom and dad need to work too. So, we all stay at home until the virus gone’. 

As we are practising social distancing to avoid getting infected with COVID-19, should you have any health condition that needs doctor’s supervision, head over to Okadoc App to book your appointment online. Together, we all can overcome this!