School isn't the only place where people can learn. You are your child's mentor while they are at home. But it doesn't have to feel like an actual class. Disguising learning experiences as a fun time will get your kids excited about learning something different. 

Some parents still want to keep their young children at home to avoid the coronavirus—and are exploring new ways to keep them busy while building on the skills they've been learning in school. Keeping kids involved and active while staying at home can be difficult, particularly when safety precautions restrict play dates, restaurant trips, and visits to crowded parks, zoos, and other places kids enjoy. 

B E N E F I T S

Before we get to the enjoyable activities you can enjoy with your kids, let's see what the expected advantages of spending fun, quality time with them can do:

1.) It helps build strong relationships.

Playing together is also one of the most important ways to develop strong relationships with your kids. Children learn to trust others and feel secure through play.

2.) It helps children improve and acquire different skills.

They learn how people behave in social situations when they communicate with their parents and others. They also understand what is appropriate by following your lead. Other skills they can discover may include:

● gross motor skills

● control of emotions 

● leadership

● creativity

● cognitive flexibility

3.) It is good for your health too.

When mothers and fathers participate in affectionate play with their children of any age, the hormone oxytocin is released, which aids in parent-infant bonding.

A-C T I V I T I E S

Since many of these involve you and your child sitting at a desk, you don't have to worry about staying sedentary. Staying at home has introduced many people to height-adjustable desks and even chairs or stools that promote active sitting, keeping our bodies conscious and subconsciously reminded that we need to move to keep our muscles busy from time to time. Such standing desks are safe to use around your kids and are adjustable enough to fit their height when doing some of these activities with you. FlexiSpot has a range of height-adjustable desks that are durable and moisture-proof and even have sit-stand desks for young and growing kids!

These enjoyable and affordable activities will keep kids learning and provide you with easy ways to interact with them.

Science Experiments

Preschoolers will enjoy basic science experiments that don't require much effort on their part but are jam-packed with fun learning opportunities. Your school-age children should pursue more involved science projects that won't leave your house in shambles when done.

Identify Colors

Put a pack of colorful pom-poms on a trail to recognize colors, learn how to count, and begin sorting, all while encouraging gross motor skills. At the same time, by allowing them to pick up the small things, you are assisting them in developing their fine motor skills.

Writing

Writing is an ability that your children will need in their lives. Teach them to write using techniques other than a pencil and paper. Make a mess. Enable them to trace. Join the dots. Morph letters out of Play-Doh or draw letters in shaving cream. They'll be amused while still being better prepared for classes.

If you have preschoolers, teach them the alphabet and how to move each letter.

● Create a writing center. Choose a table or desk as your home's "writing hub" to make writing/prewriting exercises more appealing to young children. Fill it with materials that encourage discovery and experimentation. Children who have a range of resources at their disposal are more likely to begin self-directed writing projects.

● Set up a home office for them. Set up a makeshift office in a corner of your home where your children can make phone calls, write letters and "send" them, and type important emails. Then play along with them, giving them a "message" and asking when the mail will arrive or asking for a face-to-face meeting in their office.

Math on Anything

Since math is all around us, it is a simple subject to teach. Add the number of customers who are waiting in line at a restaurant. 

Ask your child to count the cups of ingredients, the number of plates and utensils required for the whole family, and who has more or less mashed potatoes.

Create a Website

While preschoolers might not be the best website designers, they are not too young to have their website. They can take photographs for their site, tell you what they want to say on their blog, and discover what it takes to make a website run smoothly with your help. When they're old enough, you can rebuild the site for them and hand over the keys without having to do too much work for them.

Preschoolers will get a head start on number recognition and learning to count. For school-age children, use math games, an abacus, and even cookies to solve fractions and other advanced math problems.

School-age children can handle the majority of their websites, which can help them develop their writing and critical thinking skills. You can also use their website to educate them about online safety. 

Start a Store

Encourage children to take on various roles, such as shopper, manager, and cashier, and engage with one another in character. If you've been doing spring cleaning, this is a great activity to try; children can look at the things you're getting rid of and "shop" a few items with play money.

Music

Impart a love of music in them that they will bring with them for the rest of their lives. Pleasant music lessons, building your instruments, and playing musical games can help you hit the right note. Create a music trivia game, act out the answers, record instrument sounds, and play them back to see if your child gets the answer correct.

Boost Storytime

To help your child's vocabulary:

1. Look for words that you think they may not be familiar with and briefly describe and discuss them.

2. Ask your child if they understand what a word means when you reread a book, and try to use the new terms at other times of the day to reinforce awareness.

3. Try pointing to letters as you say their names or singing a slowed-down ABC song while pointing to each letter in the book to improve letter recognition skills.

4. Look through the book at random pages to see if the kids can name and point to the letters.

Put on a Play

Encourage your children to work together on a short puppet play. They can adapt a well-known story or fairy tale, or they can make up their own. Chat with them about the plot and characters after they've performed the play, and ask them questions about how they came up with the script. Set up toy cribs for children to bring their "babies" to bed, water tables for children to bathe their dolls, and feeding stations to feed their dolls with old bottles, sippy cups, and spoons. Assist children in creating caregiving situations and praising them for their tender loving care.

Explore Cultures

Preschoolers will love designing crafts they might see in other countries and tasting authentic foods you prepare together. School-aged children should learn about cultural etiquette, write to a pen pal throughout the world, and learn words in the official language.

Gardening

Gardens combine science, diet, and patience into a single plot of soil in your backyard. To keep records of the growth of plants, have them measure water into a watering can, count seeds, start tallying days on a calendar, and make notes. Preschoolers learn how plants come to life in a greenhouse. It's also a simple way to educate him about diet and encourage him to eat the grown vegetables. School-aged children can keep a gardening log, learn how to identify plants by their scientific names, and cultivate more complex plants.

Motivate them to check out the ideas behind math, reading, science with these engaging, at-home learning opportunities for toddlers and preschoolers. They'll be counting, reciting letters, and grouping their toys by color or form in no time. The world is theirs after that!