While in quarantine I have spent a lot of time with my boyfriend’s ten-year-old brother. I have helped him with his school work and I have been trying to keep him off the Xbox with fun simple activities. Here are three activities to do with kids while you are in quarantine that are also a bit educational.
The first thing that you can do with a child that also helps them learn is you can teach them how to cook or bake. Personally, I am a baker, so the best thing for me to do with him was to bake something with him. I would suggest making chocolate chip cookies from home, and you can find the recipe on the back of a chocolate chip bag. Since we are in quarantine and you might want to know the recipe BEFORE you go out into the jungle, here is what you will need. The Betty Crocker recipe calls for one and a quarter cups of flower, one teaspoon of baking soda, ½ a teaspoon of salt, one cup of butter, three-quarters cup of white sugar, three-quarters cup of brown sugar, one egg, one teaspoon of vanilla (I always add more), and two cups of chocolate chips. Once you are ready to bake, preheat the oven and follow the directions on the Betty Crocker website. This not only is something fun for the kids to do with you it also helps them learn about measurements and how to bake.
The second thing you can do is give them art challenges. If your child is missing out on art class, sit down with them and challenge them to make a cat, dog, or something else that you think of. You can either have them draw the art, or you can turn it into a hunt where they need to find materials from around the house and outside. This will not only keep them away from the video games, but it will make them move around and try to figure out what they can use. You could even turn it into a competition if you have more than one kid at home. Personally, I would say the winner gets an extra cookie!
The last thing that I will suggest doing with the kids is having a makeshift field day in your backyard or an open park. When I was a kid I used to look forward to field day every year and now, it is not going to happen. Field day is usually made up of being outside, playing with water or doing some other weird challenges, and having some kind of sweet treat. Here are a few field day activities you can set up for your kids. The egg race, or a race where people go head to head holding an egg on a spoon while they race to the finish line. Again, do this outside because you WILL break an egg during this event. The next thing is to build an obstacle course! You do not have any of the equipment from the school? Well that is fine! Take chairs and have them set up as places to turn or turn a tree into a checkpoint. Want them to jump through hoops? Take chalk and draw the circles on the ground instead of using hula hoops. You could even make the whole thing using chalk if you wanted to!