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Social distancing is making many aspects of daily life harder during the COVID-19 epidemic, including our kids’ education. How can you make sure they keep learning and active while stuck at home, where all they want to do is stare at their screens all day? Well, here are a few fun ideas you can try.
1 – Sand
Sand is a versatile learning and play tool that allows children to build different projects. It also gives them an engaging and erasable writing surface where they can write out numbers, letters, and shapes using their fingers or a stick.
Experts say it’s still safe to let your children go out and play if you take certain precautions, but the truth is that it’s hard to feel relaxed in public spaces these days. The good news that you don’t need to take your children outside to give them access to sand.
Plenty of companies sell indoor play sand, which behaves similarly to traditional sand but can be made of many different materials. The resulting sand is less coarse, can come in different colors, and has no chance of irritating the skin. If employed correctly, play sand can work as both an education and an entertainment tool.
2 – Board games
Gamification is a concept that is gaining traction in the educational world, and for good reason. People of all ages love playing games, scoring points, and working towards victory. Educational board games allow children to do all that while also learning basic school subjects; if the game is really good, they may not even realize they are learning.
On top of that, if you have parent friends who also have kids, you can set up digital board game playdates for the children. Playing board games long-distance works better if both children have the game, so they can both interact with the pieces on their side.
3 – Worksheets
Topics like math and science can become pretty dry if all the child does is read and answer standardized questions. Fun and well-designed worksheets can make all the difference in helping them both understand and enjoy the topics being studied. They also lend themselves to being printed and answered by hand, which helps your child develop motor skills and spend some time away from the screens. If you’re looking for some worksheets to print, check out this link: https://www.edhelper.com/math_worksheets.htm.
4 – Household tasks
It’s important for a developing mind to stay active and learn new things, and that includes things that are outside the school curriculum. This may be a good chance to give your child important life skills, such as cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, and tackling other tasks around the house.
Learning those will help them stay active, reduce their time in front of screens, and it can help them discover what they are passionate about. They may end up falling in love with cooking, for example. At the very least, understanding what goes around the house on a daily basis will help them appreciate the work their parents do.
Here are some fun cooking videos:
5 – Roleplaying
Roleplaying games of different levels of complexity can be a great way to explore topics like literature and history. It can be even more fun if everyone involved can dress up and make costumes to help the child’s imagination get engaged.
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This content is brought to you by Steven Gallagher.
Photo: Shutterstock