“Mummy, I’m bored!”. “Daddy, I have nothing to do.”
Have you heard these or similar complaints from your children during this COVID-19 lockdown?

As a parent and productivity coach, I’ve been asked by clients and friends for help in the past weeks on how to manage WFH with their young humans.

The trick to effectively supporting and enabling your children at home is preparation and communication. These can be improved with the use of 2 organizing tools:
1. Routines
2. Schedules

Routines are a set of reoccurring typical activities and actions that should be done regularly or during specific times on specific days.

Schedules are observation tools for establishing, recording and checking off activities, events, chores and tasks.

The above organizing tools can help your children develop the following behaviors and skills:
Self-regulation
Self-awareness
Attention management

Time management
Accountability
Responsibility
Intentionality, etc.

These tools can also help you enjoy:
Calm
Control
Coordination
Clarity
Confidence in your parenting abilities. Haven’t yet seen any parent who doesn’t need more of this.

I’ve explored 5 types of activities to incorporate into your children’s lock-down routine and schedule. Good news is; only 2 require screen time.
1. Education
2. Extracurricular
3. Entertainment
4. Engagement
5. Enhancement

1. Education

You want to establish this type of activity during the first hours of the day when your children are most active and creative. Flexibly explore different educational activities depending on the age(s) of your child(ren). My 9 year old son has authored 2 books since the lock-down, amongst other things. Try different concepts to help them express their creative energy. Think of lifetime concepts like financial education, communication, planning, task and time management, etc. Explore fields of study like science, technology, design, arts and creativity. We’re teaching our children the concept of Life Harmony and understanding the 6 components of life: Health, Work, Finance, Relationship, Mindset and Lifestyle. This week, we’re focusing on finance and have taught them some basics of financial education. Your teens can take online courses and listen to online content.

2. Extracurricular

These not-so-mentally-tasking development activities can be included after some hours of educational work. They can learn a new fun skill or strengthen the ones learnt before like playing musical instruments, etc. Have you explored Apple’s Garage Band app? My daughters (5 & 2) are drawing and crafting a lot but let’s not talk about the mess afterwards. Ok! This is where I remind you that the messes are fine and should be welcomed.

3. Entertainment

Wholesome entertainment can help your young ones not only relax but also engage their imaginative minds. If you find entertainment that’s also informative, the better. Explore video and music platforms like YouTube Kids, Netflix Kids, Spotify kids, etc. Your teens can use sound tech like: headphones and portable speakers if they have to listen to music in their rooms and without disturbing others. In addition, they can also play computer games or online games with friends from school. Facebook now has a kids messenger application where they can chat and play games with friends.

4. Engagement

Engage them in family and household activities for their physical and mental well-being. Designate times for storytelling, playing, self-expression and communication. We’re having family bible study time and allowing our children pray more. It’s beautiful to listen to their prayers. For fun, my 2 year old princess has played dress up as a cowgirl, scientist, rock-star, chef, etc. Engagement activities allows us enjoy lots of laughter. I’ve also created a chore schedule that allows them handle different age-appropriate household work. Remember the mess from number 2 activities? This is where we clean them up.

5. Enhancement

All the above activities require physical and mental energy so it’s important for your children to recharge their bodies and mind regularly and adequately. Sleep is the number 1 health activity. Now that there’s no hurrying out, this is a great opportunity to help them enhance their overall well-being by ensuring they get the daily required sleep dosage for their age. You can also establish naps during the day. Feed them right to boost their immune systems. Physical activities are also beneficial to their overall health and performance. Take them on short walks outdoors but do so with precaution.

The specifics of how you design your routines and schedule around these activities, depend on a lot of factors unique to you and your household. You can engage the services of an organizing and productivity consultant, where you need more help.
With these 5 types of activities explored daily, I doubt that there’ll be moments of boredom and restlessness at home. I hope you feel empowered to enjoy these moments with the ones you love the most.