These days when school and kindergartens are closed and it is highly recommended by the authorities and commons sense to stay at home, it can become a real challenge to keep the peace and the good mood at home.
Let’s find creative ways to keep ourselves busy during this prolonged period of time.
1- Hopscotch
To play hopscotch, a court is first laid out on the ground. Depending on the available surface, the court is either scratched out in the dirt or drawn with chalk on the pavement
Designs vary, but the court is usually composed of a series of linear squares interspersed with blocks of two lateral squares. Traditionally the court ends with a “safe” or “home” base in which the player may turn before completing the reverse trip. The home base may be a square, a rectangle, or a semicircle. The squares are then numbered in the sequence in which they are to be hopped.
Playing the game
The first player tosses a marker, onto the court. The marker (typically a small stone) should land in the square without bouncing, sliding, or rolling out. The marker must be completed within the square without touching the line. The player then hops through the course, skipping the marker’s square.
Squares marked “Safe”, “Home”, or “Rest” are neutral squares, and may be hopped through in any manner without penalty. After hopping into “Safe”, “Home”, or “Rest”, the player must then turn around and retrace their steps through the course on one or two legs, depending on the square, until reaching the marker’s square. The player stops in the square before the marker and reaches down to retrieve the marker and continue the course as stated, without touching a line or stepping into a square with another player’s marker.
Upon successfully completing the sequence, the player continues the turn by tossing the marker into square number two and repeating the pattern.
If, while hopping through the court in either direction, the player steps on a line, misses a square, or loses balance, the turn ends. Players begin their turns where they last left off. The first player to complete one course for every numbered square on the court wins the game.
2- Tutti frutti
It is a creative-thinking game ideal for kids from 9- 14 years old, To start the game, all the participants must make a rectangular spreadsheet with boxes. At the top of this form, they must write, horizontally, different “categories” previously chosen, by mutual agreement, by the participants. These categories may be, for example:
- Names
- Country or city names
- Animal names
- Colors name
- Name of fruits, flowers or plants
- Names of objects or things
- (Others can be: sports, verbs, places, professions, among others).
The categories will be as many as agreed between the participants since all must have the same and in the same order.
The letters and punctuation must be written vertically on the right and left margin of the worksheet, respectively.
The game consists of rounds in which only one letter is chosen, drawing it in different ways so that from the result each of the categories is completed with words that begin with that letter.
A round ends at the choice of a participant by shouting “stop”, “tutti frutti” when all the boxes are completed, thus ending the same round.
There are three ways to assign punctuation in each round as the written word:
- For valid words written in a category and written only by a player, 10 points will be assigned.
- For repeated words, 5 points will be assigned.
- For invalid words or categories not completed with a word, participants will not get any marks.
Once the letter has been chosen, the same word cannot be repeated in the different agreed boxes.
3- Baking cookies
Baking is one of the favorite family activities, and one of the best ways to have old fashion fun and to spend time with the family baking up some delicious treats.
Get your kitchen ready with a few simple ingredients. Flour, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, and granulated sugar are pantry staples you should always have on hand. Baking powder and baking soda are also necessary for almost all of your baking endeavors.
Whip up a batch of simple cookies and the family will have fun rolling, cutting, and decorating. Kids love helping out in the kitchen — let them choose wacky cookie cutters while the grown-ups handle the oven.
4- Call an Old Friend or Family Member
Forget texting or social media. Pick up the phone and reach out to a friend or family member you haven’t chatted with in a while.
They might be surprised to hear from you, but it is an excellent way to keep connections and relationships strong at the same time you show them that you care about them.
5-Take an Online Class
Take an online course to hone or develop a new skill. You can find a wide variety of courses online, from language learning (probably is a good time to improve your Bulgarian) to learn how to write code.
You’ll find hundreds of courses to suit your interests on learning platforms like Teachable, Udemy, and Coursera, or just browse on Youtube to find lessons according to your interest
6- Make a Family Video
Grab your smartphone and take turns filming you and your family.
Or let your children use the phone to interview every family member to create a “documentary” of your family life together.
Check out OBS Studio, a free video editing software you can download for free to help you create your own Academy Award-winning production.
7- Watch a Movie
Make a batch of popcorn, and find the Academy Award winners from the decades past. You might be surprised how exciting and romantic these old classics can be.
And its always a good time to watch again classics like Starwars, Star Trek or any of your favorite series!
8- Read a book
The practice of reading books creates cognitive engagement that improves lots of things, including vocabulary, thinking skills, and concentration. It also can affect empathy, social perception, and emotional intelligence.
you can do it by yourself or reading aloud with your kids. just find a book that can keep you all interested, adventure books are perfect to keep the attention of the auditory.
9- Write a diary
A diary is where you keep personal musings about your life, the people in it and the things you care about. Your diary is a safe place where you can be honest and candid about your thoughts, feelings, and opinions. Diaries are for the eyes of their owners and no one else. Your diary is for you and by you. Reflect, create, dream. Do whatever you want with your words.
10- Do a Puzzle
Exercise those creative, cognitive and problem-solving muscles with a good puzzle. It is also a verified fact that puzzles are beneficial for every age, seeing that the young possess highly malleable minds while adults and seniors are more vulnerable to recollection difficulties. Jigsaw puzzles are particularly useful for our short-term memories mainly because it needs a recollection of shapes and colors, plus an imagination of the bigger picture, in determining what pieces fit together.
11- Freeze!
Choose some of your kids’ favorite tunes and turn up the volume. Ask them to dance until the music stops. When it does, they have to freeze in whatever position they find themselves in – even if they have one leg up. To make the game more challenging, ask the kids to freeze in specific poses: animals, shapes, letters or even yoga postures. Toddlers in particular love this game.
12. Simon Says
This traditional favorite will never get old. To start, choose one player (probably a parent for the first round) to be Simon.
The rest of the players will gather in a circle or line in front of Simon as he calls out actions starting with the phrase “Simon says”: “Simon says…touch your toes.” The players then have to copy Simon’s action, touching their toes.
If Simon calls out an action without uttering the phrase “Simon says,” the kids must not do the action. If a child touches his toes when Simon didn’t say…, he or she is out of the game.
There are lots of great ways Simon can trick players into doing actions when Simon didn’t say: Simon can perform an action without uttering a command, for example, or he can perform an action that doesn’t correspond with the command. Fun!
The last player left in the game wins and becomes the next Simon.
This is a good time to help your kids develop a strong character.
Children take games and activities seriously. They all want to be winners but don’t always know how to handle losing. By hosting family activities, children begin to learn social skills from how to lose gracefully, how to joke around and how to celebrate wins.
Take the positive of the situation, and this opportunity to share an unusually big amount of time together is a wonderful opportunity for them to make family ties stronger.
