How to Entertain Your Children When They’re Sick from School Again
Doesn’t it feel awful when your children come home from school sick? Here we go again. How can children get sick so often once school starts? It feels worse than ever these days. It’s exhausting.
Here’s an idea–why not prepare a treasure trove of activities and bring it out every time your children feel bored because they have to stay home again? You can create your own “Awesome Box” by filling a toy treasure chest with different activities so you can switch it up every time they’re home. Here’s the good thing–with a little imagination, most of the things you could put in the Awesome Box could be household items, so you don’t have to worry about going to the store.
Ideas to Fill the Awesome Box
Guess the Mystery Object
Do you have an unusual kitchen gadget that you don’t use very often? Ask your children what it could be used for. They might surprise you with their ideas. A great story to go with this activity is If You Happen to Have a Dinosaur by Linda Bailey. In this story, children use their imaginations to think about all kinds of zany ways they could put that dinosaur to good use.
Building Challenges
Would your children like to build a marble maze from simple materials like a cereal box? What about building a castle? A dollhouse? Or a parking garage with a ramp for toy cars? Design a better bridge that can support those toy cars? Could you challenge your children to think of a creative new building project for each day? They might need some prompts to get started, but will probably start thinking about amazing projects on their own once they develop some confidence and experience. With some simple fasteners such as tape, paper clips and elastics, plus a pair of safety scissors, your children could amaze you with their imaginative ideas. Challenge them to use materials you have at home rather than buying new materials. Since you want to stay home and not spread sickness in the community anyway, why not raid the recycling bin for a pop bottle, scrap paper or a box?
Games That Inspire Creativity and Problem Solving
If your children spend too much time online, have they ever tried traditional board games? Sometimes what’s old is new again, and games that depend more on strategy than chance help children develop their thinking skills. They’re easy to put in a box, and could keep your children entertained for hours.
What sort of game would appeal to your children? Do your children like word puzzles? Scrabble could help your children build vocabulary and become better readers. Chess appeals to many children, and it’s popular now. There are fantastic children’s books and websites for beginner chess players. If your children are too young for these games, what about Mousetrap? Or a new Lego kit?
Sketchbook or Writing Journal
There are fun step-by-step drawing tutorials online, or following written step-by-step drawing instructions is a great way to get a reluctant reader to read without realizing it. (If this sounds like your children, they might relate to Beth Bacon’s books, I Hate Reading: How to Read When You’d Rather Not or The Book No One Wants to Read.) Younger children might enjoy drawing pictures to go along with a favourite story. An artful artist might like making plasticine illustrations.
Lists are a great way to get children started with a writing journal. Making lists of silly foods or unusual ways to use an everyday object such as a paper clip can inspire a reluctant writer. Have your children ever made shadow puppets? It’s a great way to encourage your children to use their imagination to tell a story, and all you need is a small flashlight. They can write their own script, then present their play.
Make a Zine
We could all use a little more kindness in our lives right now. Here’s a free activity to create a zine about kindness. https://loveandkindnessproject.org/free-kindness-downloads/activities/
Playing Cards
Classic card games like Go Fish!, 21, or math games like Operations War are great choices. In fact, there are plenty of suggestions online for math games that only need cards or dice. Solitaire could keep an only child busy if you’re feeling too under the weather to play, or a challenge to build the tallest house of cards. Magic tricks could put that deck of cards to good use. Magic might inspire them to read The Magic Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris.
Science Activities
Do your children like to think about how things work? They might enjoy home science activities. Happy Maps is a fun way to begin coding offline, especially using a favourite stuffed animal. It’s suitable for children as young as Kindergarten. If they like secret codes, cryptography for kids might intrigue them. At-home science experiments make use of simple household materials. For instance, your children could learn to make a paperclip “float” on water (with a piece of plastic wrap on the surface), or how to carefully poke a pencil through a sandwich bag of water without causing it to leak. They can discover why a pencil in a glass of water appears to bend. The Walking Water experiment is fun, and only requires some clear plastic cups, paper towels and food colouring. If they’re excited about Hallowe’en, here’s a fun Disappearing Ghost experiment. There are so many websites and videos online, you’ll never run out of ideas once you get started.
Optical Illusions and Optical Art
Most children like Where’s Waldo?, but there are so many other possibilities when it comes to optical art and activities. Hidden objects in photographs by Walter Wick or Beastly Puzzles by Rachel Poliquin up the I Spy game. They may lead your children to ask how optical illusions work. Younger kids can try drawing one-point perspective pictures and three-dimensional objects, while older children enjoy the delightfully deceptive art of MC Escher or making Agamograph Art. For kids who prefer math and science, there are matchstick challenges, Mobius strips and other paper tricks, and pinhole cameras.
Craft in a Bag
The next time your family goes to the library, see if they offer free craft kits. Many libraries do. If not, look online for simple, quick craft in a bag ideas.
Scavenger Hunts
Backyard scavenger hunts are great when it’s time to get out of the house. These days, parents need to plan for all four seasons, since kids don’t just get sick in the winter any more.
If only there was a way to prevent airborne illnesses like COVID, RSV, the flu, colds, strep, measles, …
