The global health crisis has driven wide swathes of the population confined to their homes in the next few weeks – including school children in Ohio. Out of school and restricted in their outside activities, your kids will have plenty of unspent energy at home.
Here’s how you can keep them busy:
- Create a scavenger or treasure hunt
Scavenger and treasure hunts are a great way to pass the time at home. Aside from being a fun and exciting experience for kids, it also allows them to practice their problem-solving skills.
Treasure hunts and scavenger hunts differ in terms of what the kids will be looking for. A treasure hunt provides children with a series of clues that will lead them to the treasure while a scavenger hunt gives them a list of items to search for.
When creating a treasure or scavenger hunt, customize the difficulty level of the activity according to their ages and interests. If your kids like math, turn the clues into the math problems that they can solve. You can also have your kids search for items in the house that begin with a letter of the alphabet or fit particular adjectives.
- Race to clean their room
Challenge your kids to clean their rooms before the timer ends. Winner gets a prize! Cleaning their room can include making the bed, picking up their toys or things on the floor, and placing their dirty clothes in the hamper.
- Workout with your kids
It’s important for kids to stay physically active, especially when they need to be indoors. One way to make the experience fun for everyone is to have them work out with you! There are plenty of exercises that you can choose from, such as jumping jacks, squats, star jumps, and running in place. Keep the workout interesting by mixing up different circuit workouts.
- Have a dance party
Shake off the blues and get your kids off the couch by having a dance party in your living room. You can even turn it into a game by pausing the music and having everyone freeze immediately.
- Start a DIY project
DIY is another wonderful activity for the whole family. There are countless DIY projects to choose from. Thinking of building an indoor playhouse? Spare cardboard boxes can be transformed into a cool and unique playhouse. You can also tie-dye white shirts, make decorations for their rooms, or create DIY toys and accessories.
- Start a family book club
A family book club is a great way to encourage and inspire your kids to read. It also builds stronger relationships with the whole family. Before selecting a book for everyone to read, consider the ages of your kids and what they’re currently interested in. Keep each book club meeting interesting by playing a charades character game, dressing like a character, or watching the movie adaptation. If you opt to watch the movie version, ask your kids what they liked better: the book or the movie. This will help develop their critical thinking – plus it’s fun discussing what made it to the movie and what didn’t.
- Play with artificial intelligence
Take advantage of what the internet has to offer by checking out the different artificial intelligence (AI) activities online. The Emoji Scavenger Hunt, which requires a mobile phone, challenges users to find real world versions of the emoji displayed.
Want to find out what a certain object or word is in another language? Take a picture of it and the Thing Translator will automatically tell you. Other AI activities are Quick, Draw!, Semi-conductor, and Shadow Art.
If you would like to explore your options among the many Ohio homes for sale, get to know the Communities you may want to move into. For inquiries, get in touch with me, Michelle McQuade. Call me today at 440.823.2449 or send an email to MichelleMcQuade(at)HowardHanna(dotted)com.