Children are the worst affected by the pandemic. Cooped up in the house with no friends for company, they find it hard to engage themselves in any activity. Young children especially miss their playtime outdoors. The older ones are bored to death with their online classes. They miss their classmates and the camaraderie. Slowly but surely, it affects their psyche and health. It is in this context that parents should devise joyful activities for their children to drive away the COVID-19 blues.
Here are some ideas to keep the children happy.
Which child does not like to play makebelieve games? Children live out their fantasies. If encouraged, they can transform the most mundane world into an exotic one. It is a world to which many an adult would like occasionally to return.
A chair turned upside down becomes a Jumbo Jet, a bench becomes a boat negotiating rapids, a sheet thrown across two chairs becomes a tent pitched on the slopes of Everest!
Provide children with basic materials — a box of discarded clothes, hats, shoes, old jewellery and other knick-knacks. Their imagination can run riot dressing up as a pirate with a cardboard eyepatch and curtain rings for earrings. Or they can wear baggy pajamas and funny make-up and pretend to be a clown. The clown’s hat can be made by folding chart paper into the shape of a cone and tying a balloon at the end. Tramps in ragged clothes and a bundle tied to the end of a stick can imitate the Charlie Chaplin walk. Girls can dress up as gypsies in swirling skirts and lots of beaded chains and bangles. The options are endless. Parents can lend them a helping hand.
Indoor gardening can be great fun. Children love to see things grow and can learn a lot about Nature by planting seeds. Take a shallow dish and line it with several layers of tissue paper. Wet the tissues and spread some mustard seeds on it. This way, one can avoid the messy soil. Wait patiently for a few days for the seeds to sprout. What a joy it will be to see the green seedlings filling the dish!
Improvise a “kitchen band”. Children love this noisy game. Any old tins or cans can be used as drums. Wooden spoons are good drumsticks. Saucepan lids are ideal cymbals. A piece of tissue paper wrapped around a comb becomes a mouth organ. Make a trumpet with chart paper rolled in the shape of a megaphone. Small children enjoy rattling instruments — small metal boxes with coins inside serve as rattlers. The ensuing cacophony is music to their ears!
The older children can engage in word games with their parents or elder siblings. This will be a welcome change sans their electronic gadgets. Anagrams carefully prepared by the parents with their meanings as clues will be challenging to teenagers. For example, ‘Fultibeua’ (meaning pretty) is ‘Beautiful’. ‘Dulce cas’ (meaning dead end) is ‘cul-de-sac’. If anagrams are difficult, play an easy game like Spelling Bee. Select common words which are usually misspelled such as ‘forty’, ‘receive’, ‘address’ and ‘pronunciation’. Include words with silent letters like pneumonia and psychosis. Word building games like Scrabble can be challenging.
Collage-making, Origami, shadow play and such creative activities are enjoyed by children. Whatever the activity, the time spent with children cements the bonding between parents and them. What greater joy can one expect in these times?
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