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Coronavirus, pandemic, quarantine, outbreak, all are words that can be confusing and unsettling to your child, and it’s your job to assure them and make them feel safe. It can also be quite a hard task to keep your children entertained while quarantined and with no outdoor activities, and no schools even.

The crisis the world is currently facing has left all of us anxious, worried, and confused. And being quarantined in the house for this long doesn’t exactly help. It is a well-known fact that children grow tiresome and bored faster than adults, that’s in normal situations, let alone a situation like the one we are all in right now. So if you think you have it hard, remember that it is 100 times harder for your child, with no schools, no activities, no parks, no malls, no trips, and no sunlight. So the last thing they need on top of all of that is to watch their parents freak out and go out of their mind without understanding why.

So make sure to handle this situation delicately and with caution, because you don’t want to have this time to leave a scarring trace in your child’s memory causing any kind of long-term negative impact on his/her life.

To help you achieve this difficult task, we have brought you a few tips & tricks that will help you keep your children stable and entertained during this coronavirus quarantine.

1. E-Learning

This is one of the most positive activities that you need to include in your children’s daily schedule. Because not only will it keep them busy, it will also keep their brains fresh and energized.

You can use any of the major e-learning websites which offer free courses and lectures on different topics and subject, not only curriculum-related. You can also book your child a live lesson with their teachers through video calling applications which a lot of schools and teachers currently provide.

2. Homeschooling

Just because the kids are not going to school, it does not mean they get to skip school. Arrange homeschooling sessions on a regular basis to review with your children what they studied in school in every subject. After consulting with their teachers, try to achieve some progress with your children by teaching them some new stuff according to their curriculum ao that they don’t miss out on what they were supposed to learn.

This can also present a new bonding chance between you and your child where you spend some time alone doing something you are not exactly used to doing.

3. Developing Hobbies

Every child is born with a gift, help your child hone his/her gift by discovering their hobbies and working with them on developing. It can be drawing, playing an instrument, or practicing a certain sport, whatever it may be, try to encourage them to practice and developed their hobbies while staying at home. You can do so through online tutorials or lessons, or through helping them yourself if you can.

This will help your child stay entertained, active, and feeling less of the global stress we are all under.

4. Playing brain games

Playing old school intelligent games, such as board games and chess with the rest of the family members presents a great opportunity for your children to challenge themselves mentally while simultaneously bonding with the family and keeping busy. Digital brain games are also great at developing your child’s critical and strategic thinking. However, make sure they don’t spend too much time using electronic devices, such as computers, TVs, and Tablets.

5. Reading or Watching TV

Reading is extremely important to both kids and adults, and it is also the perfect and most beneficial way to kill time in the quarantine. So pick out some age-appropriate books and create a reading list for your kid. Then, to take it the extra mile, schedule a book club session to discuss each book they’ve read once they’re done. This will help them developed their critical thinking, in addition to their literature sense. This can also be achieved by watching age-appropriate movies together and then discussing them later. Who knows, you might have a little critic on your hands and you didn’t even know!

6. Share Meals Together

Back in the day, before there was quarantine, most family members had different yet equally busy schedules, which resulted in not being able to sit down together and have dinner as a family. One of the few perks of this lockdown is that now you can do that for all three meals of the day. This will help bring up your child on strong family values and also help all family members develop their bonds with one another.

7. Do housework together

The more people in the house, the more housework there is. However, this could actually be a blessing in disguise, instead of telling your kids to get out of your way while you do all the house chores yourself, you can have them help you out around the house. It will help you bond more and help your child develop a sense of leadership. The important thing to remember is to give them age-appropriate chores, like for example, you can have them water the plants, clear out the tables, or be your right hand in the kitchen, anything just as long as they’re safe doing it.

8. Decorate the house together for Ramadan

One chore that would be totally safe and extremely fun to share with your child is setting Ramadan decoration around the house together. This will bring joy and happiness to the house and your child and help keep his mind off of all the negativity going on in the world. You can even make it a full-on activity and make all the decorations yourselves. This might be a little more work, but your children will love seeing something they made with their own hands hanging around their homes, and it will definitely make them like or at least bare staying home a little more. If you want to know more about making Ramadan decorations alone or with your kids, check our Ramadan Decorating tips here.

9. Be honest with them about what’s going on

This might come as a surprise to you but patronizing your children only makes things worse. So instead of trying so hard to find the perfect lie to feed them about what’s going on and why we all have to stay home, try directing this effort into something more useful like enlightening them and helping them understand what’s happening in a constructive positive manner.

Don’t spread panic in their hearts, but don’t blind their minds either. Don’t use too many big words, but don’t dumb the truth for them either. Try to find a middle ground to stand on to let them know that the world is not okay but it is not ending.

And on that note, our last tip for you is to keep some of the hope you try to feed your children with for yourself. Remind yourself that our planet has seen worse, and just like it survived then, it can survive now, and so can you.

Try as hard as you can to keep a positive mindset and remind yourself of the good in your life for which you have to keep going, like those precious children of yours.