It’s been over four months since things went crazy and I’m now at a stage where I’d appreciate any little help from anyone to make the days easier. We’ve kind of gotten into a rhythm and although things are inching towards normalcy and lockdown eased where we are, we’re still paranoid and in no hurry to be going out. Also with summer at its peak, there isn’t much to do outside anyway.
I wish I didn’t wake up every morning with all these unexplainable overwhelming emotions and dread about how to keep the kids occupied and off screens amongst other things.
If a grown person like me feels this way, I cannot even imagine what’s running in the minds of these little people who in most cases cannot/don’t understand what’s going nor are able to really communicate what exactly they’re feeling.
I’m all for free, unstructured play and that’s what we do most days. I encourage them to play independently and/or with each other without an adult sitting right next to them (I still have an eye on them/keep my ears wide open) but there are days when these don’t work and I need to sit down with them.
When we’re done playing all that we usually play and I can’t come up with anything more meaningful or fun to play with, I like choosing something that’s playing + learning fused together.
With schools out for summer and my son shrieking at the sound of any mention of school/learning, I’ve got to resort to other ways of making learning fun. Where he doesn’t even realize he’s learning something but actually is. So today I’m sharing lsome of these resources that the World Wide Web has blessed us with that I have discovered during this time.
Crayola Crafts
I’m sure most of us are familiar with the brand. If your kid enjoys crafting and in case you didn’t know, Crayola has a craft section on their website that has plenty of easy and fun craft ideas that you can make using things you may already have at home.
They also have free coloring pages that you can print out if you’d like and free weekly at-home activity where they share a video followed by activity ideas to go with it. These are absolutely fabulous and I’ve been looking forward to it every week.
Hand2mind.com
This site has free printable stuff and learning ideas for kids from Pre-K to Grade 5. It covers Math, Science, Literacy and Social Emotional Learning etc.
You can choose from their daily lesson option or other resources according to your needs. The lesson plan in PDF format is super structured and takes you to the relevant activity sheets/supporting videos (if needed/available) as you click on them.
They also have an option of going green and doing all this virtually called Virtual Manipulatives, if you don’t mind the screen time and although this one’s not free, it has a free 30-day trial.
Nalandaway Foundation
This was shared with me by a dear friend and we’ve done plenty of activities from it. These activities are designed to help kids and adults regulate their emotions and be more empathetic.
It’s called Art for Wellbeing and there are activities available for ages 3 to 15 and older. These guides for parents are available in multiple languages as well.
Learningresources.com
The site has a whole lot of free printables that you can make use of. They cover topics like math, science, literacy etc.
If you’re willing to spend more time/effort or don’t have access to a printer, you can recreate some of these yourself. Plenty of ideas on this site that you can easily build on or adapt to suit your child’s interest.
This week I’m looking forward to trying some of their ideas for screen-free coding. It looks very interesting and like a great place to start with to see if it’s something my son would enjoy learning more about.
So, these are the resources we’ve been using the most the last few weeks other than our books, the Twinkl based resources my son’s teacher shared for the summer break and ideas from Pinterest, of course.
Did you know about these? How are you keeping your kids ‘productive’ and engaged these days? Spill your secret(s).
And So We Adult 
Sharing some of our activities/ideas that we have been doing since lockdown… You can do those with your kids if you want..
1. Face painting with easily washable food color/or white lotion
2. Tapes on the floor in different forms, used as car tracks, animals walk/run or simply self run or walk…
3. Sticking random animals/toys all over the house at accessible locations and let the kid find them
4. Any crafts like animal mask, monster mask or just a funny mask
5. Easy doable science experiments with baking soda, vinegar and food color
6. Hopscotch game but with hand and leg prints, stuck on the floor
LikeLike
This is a lovely list. Thank you for sharing. 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you! I’m bookmarking these for Z
LikeLike
Yay! I hope they’re helpful. ❤
LikeLike