Things to do with Kids over the COVID - 19 Break
Structure is extremely important as kids run on an extremely structured day when at school and will start to act up because of the unknown of what the day will bring. We were supposed to go to Arizona for our March Break but with COVID - 19 we cancelled our trip and are spending the next three weeks at home... in the not so nice weather. In the summer it is easy to fill your days with outside activities but when the weather isn't that nice outside, what do you do? Here are some ideas of ways to keep kids busy and learning for the next couple of weeks ahead. Don't get me wrong March Break is important for everyone and that is what we will do for the first week. However, by the end of the week we will all be ready for some structure and below is the plan that we have.
SCHEDULE: (I have taken my oldest son's classroom schedule and combined it with my youngest son's daycare schedule as I will be home with them and we need to be able to work together)
7:00 - 8:00 Breakfast and Cartoons (mom gets to hopefully enjoy some warm coffee before starting
her day and cleaning the kitchen)
8:00 - 9:00 Playtime
9:00 - 10:00 Snack and Outside time (Small snack which could also be outside if the weather is nice
enough)
10:00 - 11:30 Academic Time (Reading and Writing)
11:30 - 12:00 Lunch Time
12:00 - 1:30 Nap time for my youngest son, Puzzles, Painting, Books, board games or a movie for
my oldest son
1:30 - 2:30 Academic Time (Numeracy and STEM activities)
2:30 - 3:00 Snack Time (Possibly in the stroller while Mom gets a run in for her and the dog if the
weather is nice enough)
3:00 - 4:00 Outside time
4:00 - 5:00 Playtime while I cook Dinner
5:00 - 6:00 Dinner and Bath time
6:00 - 7:00 Playtime and bed night snacks
7:00 Brush teeth and youngest goes to bed
7:30 Oldest goes to bed
ALL SUBJECT RESOURCE LISTS:
Free online learning is a quick link to other free online resources for parents to use at home to help keep children learning and having fun.
Educational website list of companies offering free subscriptions due to the COVID-19 school closures. These are websites that usually have subscription cost but due to all of the school closures they have waived their subscription costs so students can continue to learn at home!
READING AND WRITING IDEAS:
Scholastics has organized different learning activities for different days and into nice themed based days. Follow the link and then click on the age/grade your child is in. It is really well organized and you can definitely add these books/videos into the reading and writing block and part/most of the block will be done. You could also go onto Pintrest and find different crafts to go along with the different theme of the day and have that as a next step to the activities.
MOE has also created an online learning bank for parents and students and you can go there to get grade based learning activities as well.
My son loves to be creative and make things. This usually causes me extra stress as I hate messes and it usually gets messy. But during the extra time off I will have to let that go as he always talks about what he created at school and this break will be long for all of us if we aren't having fun. My husband and I went to Walmart yesterday (yes we were feeling brave!) and picked up some groceries (what was left on the shelves) and some new things to give to the boys to help make this time at home a little more exciting as we were supposed to be in the warm sun of Arizona and swimming in the pool all week. We found this great crayola painting kit, my son already loves it as there are 3 different types of paints, different brushes as well as some shaped sponges. He has really loved the painting and I was sold on the fact that it said washable! This is an activity that we can do during nap/quiet time or during our Reading and writing time as we can link it to stories that we have read or working on our letters.
If you're looking for other ideas of what to do over this time please check out my post 10 Things To Do With Kids Over The March Break as I mentioned other science experiments and ways to keep kids busy and entertained.
LEGO is also another great STEM/Numeracy activity as it can involve kids counting blocks and creating at the same time. There is also a LEGO challenge that has a monthly calendar that has a daily challenge. Another stem off of this would be to get children to write about their building experience or to do research before completing the challenge (all dependent on their age and ability levels).
Virtual tours this is a link to a google doc that will take you on various virtual tours of zoos, museums and landmarks. What a great educational experience that can spark some excellent conversations! This can also be linked into a literacy time and get students to write/draw about something new they learnt.
Some of the links listed above in the ALL subjects area have some great math resources. My son really loves math so before I left work on Friday I printed off some great number recognition worksheets and basic math. The listed websites above definitely have some links to more advanced math (as that is my specialty) and I will continue to see what I can find for Kindergarten as this is a new realm for me.
OUTSIDE:
Obviously if the weather is not nice enough or too cold then this time will have to happen inside or be cut short. This will turn in to high intensity play time (getting the heart rate up as children also wont have gym and will need that time to burn some extra energy). Some examples of things you can do are Just Dance (YouTube has videos you can follow if you don't have a gaming console like we don't), Kids yoga, floor hockey (We have a pretty awesome floor hockey set up with HockeyShot skating tiles for the kids to even skate on when they want), racing cars or even racing each other around the house. We have even created obstacle courses in the basement for the boys to go through and time them to see if they can beat their old time. Anything to get their heart rate up and burn some of that pent up energy from being inside will be helpful when it comes time to sit and focus on their studies.
If the weather is nice enough to get outside then this time will be key for making everyone feel better. Simple things like playing in the yard with trucks, on the swing set, snowshoeing in the backyard, building a fort/snowman, playing with chalk on the road, road hockey, and much more! These are just a few examples of what we can do in our outside time to keep things fun and fresh for the next two weeks following the March Break. Also switching activities daily or after a couple of days will help to keep things fun and exciting outside.
SCHEDULE: (I have taken my oldest son's classroom schedule and combined it with my youngest son's daycare schedule as I will be home with them and we need to be able to work together)
7:00 - 8:00 Breakfast and Cartoons (mom gets to hopefully enjoy some warm coffee before starting
her day and cleaning the kitchen)
8:00 - 9:00 Playtime
9:00 - 10:00 Snack and Outside time (Small snack which could also be outside if the weather is nice
enough)
10:00 - 11:30 Academic Time (Reading and Writing)
11:30 - 12:00 Lunch Time
12:00 - 1:30 Nap time for my youngest son, Puzzles, Painting, Books, board games or a movie for
my oldest son
1:30 - 2:30 Academic Time (Numeracy and STEM activities)
2:30 - 3:00 Snack Time (Possibly in the stroller while Mom gets a run in for her and the dog if the
weather is nice enough)
3:00 - 4:00 Outside time
4:00 - 5:00 Playtime while I cook Dinner
5:00 - 6:00 Dinner and Bath time
6:00 - 7:00 Playtime and bed night snacks
7:00 Brush teeth and youngest goes to bed
7:30 Oldest goes to bed
ALL SUBJECT RESOURCE LISTS:
Free online learning is a quick link to other free online resources for parents to use at home to help keep children learning and having fun.
Educational website list of companies offering free subscriptions due to the COVID-19 school closures. These are websites that usually have subscription cost but due to all of the school closures they have waived their subscription costs so students can continue to learn at home!
READING AND WRITING IDEAS:
Scholastics has organized different learning activities for different days and into nice themed based days. Follow the link and then click on the age/grade your child is in. It is really well organized and you can definitely add these books/videos into the reading and writing block and part/most of the block will be done. You could also go onto Pintrest and find different crafts to go along with the different theme of the day and have that as a next step to the activities.
MOE has also created an online learning bank for parents and students and you can go there to get grade based learning activities as well.
My son loves to be creative and make things. This usually causes me extra stress as I hate messes and it usually gets messy. But during the extra time off I will have to let that go as he always talks about what he created at school and this break will be long for all of us if we aren't having fun. My husband and I went to Walmart yesterday (yes we were feeling brave!) and picked up some groceries (what was left on the shelves) and some new things to give to the boys to help make this time at home a little more exciting as we were supposed to be in the warm sun of Arizona and swimming in the pool all week. We found this great crayola painting kit, my son already loves it as there are 3 different types of paints, different brushes as well as some shaped sponges. He has really loved the painting and I was sold on the fact that it said washable! This is an activity that we can do during nap/quiet time or during our Reading and writing time as we can link it to stories that we have read or working on our letters.
NUMERACY AND STEM:
We have also tried a STEM activity with some white flowers and coloured water. We have done this experiment before but we did it with regular food colouring. This time we tried it with the Gel Food colouring and it worked so much better! We even took two flowers out of the blue water and added them to some purple water to see what that would do. It was really cool and got us talking about the science involved.
SPOILER ALERT: After two days in the purple die nothing has changed... We really like this experiment and might try it again when we can split the stem to see if we can get a multicoloured flower.
The walking water rainbow experiment and Fireworks in a jar are also great ones to try! CHIRP Magazines have lots of fun experiments and activities to do with kids that could help entertain kids during this difficult time.
Virtual tours this is a link to a google doc that will take you on various virtual tours of zoos, museums and landmarks. What a great educational experience that can spark some excellent conversations! This can also be linked into a literacy time and get students to write/draw about something new they learnt.
Some of the links listed above in the ALL subjects area have some great math resources. My son really loves math so before I left work on Friday I printed off some great number recognition worksheets and basic math. The listed websites above definitely have some links to more advanced math (as that is my specialty) and I will continue to see what I can find for Kindergarten as this is a new realm for me.
OUTSIDE:
Obviously if the weather is not nice enough or too cold then this time will have to happen inside or be cut short. This will turn in to high intensity play time (getting the heart rate up as children also wont have gym and will need that time to burn some extra energy). Some examples of things you can do are Just Dance (YouTube has videos you can follow if you don't have a gaming console like we don't), Kids yoga, floor hockey (We have a pretty awesome floor hockey set up with HockeyShot skating tiles for the kids to even skate on when they want), racing cars or even racing each other around the house. We have even created obstacle courses in the basement for the boys to go through and time them to see if they can beat their old time. Anything to get their heart rate up and burn some of that pent up energy from being inside will be helpful when it comes time to sit and focus on their studies.
If the weather is nice enough to get outside then this time will be key for making everyone feel better. Simple things like playing in the yard with trucks, on the swing set, snowshoeing in the backyard, building a fort/snowman, playing with chalk on the road, road hockey, and much more! These are just a few examples of what we can do in our outside time to keep things fun and fresh for the next two weeks following the March Break. Also switching activities daily or after a couple of days will help to keep things fun and exciting outside.
**None of these links are ads and just links to items I like and used**
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