After a long year mostly spent indoors, parents are all eager for new ways to let their kids enjoy spending time at home. Until the vaccine rollout is complete and medical experts give the green light, home is still the safest place to be.
The good news is, there are lots of things your children can do from home to fight boredom! Here are a few ideas.
Learn to Code
Not only is learning to code a good way to secure a job in the future, but it’s also a lot of fun because kids learn to create their own video game. You’re seen your child play video games, but now they can learn from home how to do the coding.
Look for a program that has a low ration of teachers per student, and teaches programming languages professionals use all the time, like Python, C++, C#, and more. Also, the ideal program uses teachers who study computer sciences and skew on the younger side, since they also grew up playing video games.
The transferrable skills and employment opportunities are great, but the main thing right now is for kids to have fun.
Broaden Cultural Horizons
Your kids have probably watched a lot of TV in the past 12 months. There’s nothing wrong with re-watching beloved comedies or some other cinematic equivalent of comfort food!
But why not use the time to expand your repertoire? Most streaming platforms have a great selection of classic films. Find a list from The Criterion Channel, or go through the Best Picture winners from every year of the Oscars.
Maybe you want your kids to check out movies from other cultures. Avengers movies can be fun, but there’s more to film than the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They may need a nudge or two before watching a black and white film, but there’s no harm in trying.
Cooking
Learning to cook when you’re young will set you on the path towards a lifetime of culinary pleasure. It’s easier to understand how food is made and how nutrition works when you’re making the food yourself.
Especially for young kids, born into a world of restaurants and “ride-share” companies delivering food, it may seem like food appears ready-made. Seeing food evolve from a bunch of raw ingredients to a finished product will give them a keener appreciation for what food really is and what cooking is all about!
It may help drive up their enthusiasm levels if you limit the dishes to things kids want to eat, like chicken fingers and fries, and hold off the lessons on gastronomy or French cuisine.
There’s nothing better you can be doing than keeping your family’s morale high while also helping to keep your community safe by remaining largely at home but for essentials. The COVID-19 vaccine will be here soon, and in the meantime, there are still several ways to have some safe and productive fun at home.