Bored in the house yet? — Activities you can do with your kids at home in this time of the pandemic

“I’m so bored, I can’t do anything”. This is just one of the complaints by Matthew, a 5-year-old kid who is already fed up spending time at home for nearly three years now, not being able to go outside because of the prevalence of the COVID-19 virus.

Photo by Markus Spiske

Kids are getting more bored day by day since the beginning of lockdowns and home quarantine in the Philippines, and parents are running out of gimmicks and tricks on how to keep their kids entertained at home but, worry no more. Here are the boredom sticks to the rescue.

Try to think of different activities with your child that both of you will enjoy. Write it on popsicle sticks and keep them in a jar or box so whenever your kids are complaining about how bored they are, they can turn to this jar and pick a random activity you can do for the day. To help you with which activities you can write on your boredom sticks, here are some of the creative ways we have hand-picked for Filipino families from an article in Connecticut children’s organization that can keep you and your kids busy while having fun.

1. Scavenger Hunt at Home

There are a lot of things that can be found at home which can be an adventure in finding them. List the things that can be found inside your home that you want your kids to look for, and give them interesting descriptions to guide them on what they are looking for. This will not only help them to be entertained but will also help them improve their imagination skills and detective skills.

2. Bring me Alphabet

This activity is slightly identical to the scavenger hunt but in this one, you will ask your kids to bring anything that starts with every letter of the alphabet. Bringing things that start from the letter A to Z can be exciting and can exercise their critical thinking skills as well.

3. 4x4 Obstacle Courses

You can create obstacle courses even just within the four corners of your home, hence the activity name ‘4x4 obstacle course.' In doing this activity, make sure that it is kid-friendly and make sure to guide your kids so that they can still be safe while enjoying the process of building obstacle courses. It can be an obstacle course for toys or even for themselves. This can enhance their hidden knack for the strategic building of things and their practical application of ideas.

4. Treat of the Week

Have your child pick a food they miss and try to make it together. This can be a street food they miss and haven’t eaten ever since the pandemic started, like kwek-kwek, Scramble, or Fishballs. Cooking or making food together can always be a form of bonding between you and your kids and this can give them a sense of independence to be able to make or cook their own food at home.

5. Get them gardening

The pandemic has given birth to the plantitos and plantitas together with the trend of indoor plants, but kids say “Me too!”—Turn your kids into PlantBulilits and teach them how to do gardening or take care of indoor plants. You can help them choose what kind of plants they want to grow or if they want to have a sustainable garden where they can grow fruit or vegetables-bearing plants like calamansi, wild chili, or basil.

6. Create a Fort

You can level up the Filipino household children’s game, bahay-bahayan, by helping your kids to build or create their own fort. Tap into your children’s imaginative side and guide them on how they want their fort to look like. This fort can serve as their hiding place or reading nook where they feel bored. This can also be their safe place where they can lounge or relax and play—a personal space they can call their own inside your homes.

7. Quarantine time capsule

Despite the pandemic having brought negative impacts on the lives of many, there are still some positive things that you might want to remember that you did or happened to you during this COVID-19 Era and you can preserve these memories of you and your kids by creating a Quarantine time capsule. When this is all over (which we all hope for to be near), have your kids bring anything they want to put in the time capsule—a significant thing that when they see in the future will flash memories of them during their quarantine days. It can be an animal origami they made, a book they read, or the prizes or rewards they have accumulated from all the activities you did together during the pandemic. Then in 1, 3, 5 years, or even after a decade, you can open it together and reminisce about that time in their lives where they managed to be busy, entertained, and learned a lot of things even just by staying in the comfort of their homes.

These are just a few of the myriad of activities that you can do at home. There are still more you can consider but one thing that you should keep in mind is to have fun and cherish these times that you can still be together. At first, you have no choice but to stick to the protocols and not to go outside if not necessary but, eventually, when the time comes and this will all be just a memory, you will be happy that you tried doing something together and ended up choosing this time to be a memorable one because this will be a rare time soon when the world gets back to being busy.

References | Children's Org | Time Capsule

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Previously submitted to Feature Writing class