Unpredicatable times!
None of us know till when we will be homebound. The most worrisome thought for parents at this time is to enable children to have a balance between play, screen time, and learning. I am certain that most have been trying to put their children in a routine, which now seems difficult….
My children are 10 and 14. My older one, being in grade 10 is managing to balance his time between learning, virtual classes, fitness, and screen time.
While for my younger one, I have a set up a routine and we use several resources that I am sharing with my readers.
Reading
Reading has multiple benefits such as it exercises our brains, expands our knowledge, builds our vocabulary. It opens a whole new world in front of us transporting us to places beyond imagination. While some children are vivid readers, but many are not. However, as a parent, I have set a rule in the house that my younger one will have to read for 30-40 minutes. She reads twenty to thirty minutes of fiction and ten minutes of non-fiction. What she reads is her choice. She has the option to switch to listening to read instead of reading to self. There are several websites that have amazing read-aloud. Youtube, too, has age-appropriate read-aloud.
Vooks — Storybooks Brought to Life
Writing
One of my previous blogs spelled out the importance of low stakes writing. Low stake writing is an important tool that builds confidence and interest in writing. Time should be set aside each day for the child to write what he is feeling, thinking, noticing, or wondering. The time spent on writing should be left open. It could be done on alternate days or thrice a week. Let the child be in control. My daughter may write a poem or a song. She may simply decide to create some characters or use the following tools to write stories.
Keyboarding
Keyboarding is one of the required skills considering the use of technology in our daily life. Ten minutes of keyboarding makes sure she is developing the required skill as well as doing something different. There are many free websites that have the program to practice keyboarding. However, I find The Typing Club very child friendly.
Fitness
Sitting at home can make one lethargic, be it a child or an adult. My daughter and I have recently started a routine of adding Zumba to our schedule. We play a youtube video and enjoy a Zumba session together. It sometimes turns in to moments of laughter trying to cope up with movements.
Coding
There are many paid coding programs. My son has completed 50 sessions of WhiteHatJr. He is now working on developing a game. My daughter has been enjoying Coding on code.org. Currently, she is working on developing a dance party. Honestly, I, too, enjoy using code.org with my daughter.
Paid coding program – www.whitehatjr.com
Free coding website – www.code.org
Science
Children are curious by nature. They want answers to questions that we never wondered about. Devoting ten minutes to finding answers to questions can be a great way to enhance the scientific temper of the children. My daughter and I have enjoyed watching Doug who beautifully caters to children’s curiosity. Mystery Science provides ready-made science mysteries for elementary, K-5, school students. Each lesson contains a central mystery, discussion questions, supplemental reading, and a hands-on activity.
Movie time with popcorn
Movie nights with family have been fun. It is bonding time during our new normal. We might divide the mover over two days. We cozy and huddle up on the couch to watch our favorite movie every night.
Screen time
This might just be the best time for the children. The children deserve their privilege of screen time if they complete at least some of the above activities. It helps them feel in control of their decisions and actions. It comes across an accomplishment and a reward.
My daughter and I sat down together for a discussion on how our routine should be. We created our schedule. However, we have left it flexible. There are days when we make exceptions to the above schedule and do nothing or everything of the above. But, most of the days, we stick to the schedule.
This blog was an attempt to share valuable resources to use with children during these unprecedented time
