How I kept my child engaged during COVID-19 Lockdown(Part-1)

On 24 March 2020, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered a nationwide lockdown for 21 days, the biggest problem in front of all the parents was that how we are going to keep our kids engaged at home in creative activities. Just after hearing the news, my mind also started exploring different fun-filled activities by which I am going to keep my daughter’s mind active and positive.

So here I am sharing a few activities that me and my 5 years old daughter enjoyed doing at home:-

Table of Contents

1. Making Doll Playhouse With Cardboard

This was our very first activity. We had some waste cardboard boxes with us which we used for making a simple dollhouse. First we created our dollhouse shape and cut the cardboard accordingly, then we used old clothes, and unused papers to make it attractive. My daughter was very excited. We sewed the cloth over cardboard and pasted few colorful papers from her old book and it came out really very nice.

2. Shark Craft

We had some worksheets of my daughter which were not needed anymore. I took those papers, pasted with glue and made a roll. I cut shark’s teeth from white paper, cut eyes and two triangle shapes for its fins. Then I took a blue colored cloth and wrapped the roll and fins with it and a wide mouth shark was ready within a few minutes.

3. Seed Art

One day while making pumpkin, suddenly an idea struck my mind that with this abundance of pumpkin seeds leftover we can make a beautiful flower pot art. Me and my daughter took a white notebook, pasted the pumpkin seeds on it in the form of a flower. We used watermelon seeds to draw the outline of our pot. My daughter painted the seeds with different colors. We used thin stems from our plant and pasted it with flowers. The flower pot came out really attractive.

4. Science Experiments

Upside Down Glass of Water Experiment

I started with Upside Down Water Glass experiment, which we had done in our school days to teach my kid about the atmospheric pressure.

How to do the experiment

Gently place the paper on the top of the glass. Move the glass over the container or sink. Gently place your hand on the paper, then flip the glass over. Remove your hand from the bottom and watch in amazement as the paper stays covering the glass and the water doesn’t spill out. My daughter’s facial expressions were like as if I had done some magic.

Oil and Water Experiment

Secondly, we did Oil and Water experiment. I taught her what happens when we mix oil and water. We took some amount of water into the bowl, poured few drops of oil into it. She learnt that the two don’t mix with each other. Because oil is less dense than water, it will always float on top of water, creating a surface layer of oil.

Color Mixing Activities

Then we did some color mixing activity. She added turmeric into one glass of water and Red kumkum in another glass of water then we kept both the glasses over each other. She learnt that when Red and Yellow color are mixed together, they form Orange color and was amused to learn new concepts from these simple science experiments.

5. Trumpet Craft

While learning about the musical instruments, my kid became little bit curious about the trumpet and started asking how is it played and wanted it right away.

So again I used some papers from pile of her old worksheets, I just rolled those papers and then cut the cone from glitter chart paper. The cone needs to be cut accurately. It’s important that the cone fits properly in the roll. I inserted the cone into the roll and covered the join with sellotape. Then I wrapped it with a beautiful gift wrapping paper I had at home. To make the handle, I took a strip of blue paper. Folded it a couple of times to make a sturdy strip. Bent it into a curve, then fixed the handle onto the tube with sticky tape. I finished off by adding stickers for the keys and my daughter had some real fun playing the trumpet!