Many parents will be concerned with how to keep their kids entertained now that the schools have closed and many are self-isolating. Parents will be working tirelessly to ensure they have all the educational tools they need to engage with during the day.
However, some parents will need to be working from home too. Many will be adjusting their diaries to get tasks done – juggling children, housework and projects for the office. How do you get a break from the kids for long enough to get it all done?
Lynsey, the Queen of Clean, alongside family favourite laundry and cleaning brand ACE, have worked together to turn household chores into activities that kids can get involved in – teaching them planning, organisational skills while making the chores more fun.
- Planning and preparation: Teach your children the art of planning by getting them to draw up a chore rota. Colour-coordinate it based on who does what chore, and when. Include parents, carers and siblings in the chart and block out the time you need to work. This will teach the kids that planning leads to success.
- Cooking: When preparing meals, get the children involved by teaching them activities such as sorting out fresh from unusable vegetables. To teach the children about food preparation, storage and planning for any shortages, make a large batch of soup, cook it, cool it and freeze it. This will teach your children vital food preparation and storage skills for the future and provide the family with some tasty food reserves.
- Laundry: It’s time to get the kids to understand their clothes don’t wash themselves. Set them the task of dividing clothes into piles: white, colours, delicates, wools, etc. Doing this will teach them about materials, about how clothes are coloured with dye and how this can run, and that different materials need to be washed in different ways.
- Gardening: Planting easy-to-grow herbs and small vegetable plants suitable for window boxes is a great way to give children the knowledge of where their food comes from, how to nurture plants and keep them alive, and when to pick them. Watching them grow through the spring will be a daily activity for them. Weeding the beds and trimming back plants is also a great activity. A chance for your children to get some fresh air, be one with nature and get a little dirty – as kids love to do!
- Decluttering and organising: Why not get your kids to pull out the toy boxes and cupboards and find toys they no longer play with? Sort them into piles – one pile to pass to younger siblings, one pile that can go to a charity shop or hospital for disadvantaged children and – to teach them about e-commerce – perhaps arrange to list and sell some on selling sites, to make your children some pocket money in the process.
- Washing cars and bikes: As spring is here, why not get out the hosepipe and get the kids to wash your car that’s collecting dust in the drive? Take the bikes, scooters and outdoor toys into the drive area and get the children to give them a good spring-clean when the weather’s nice. Reward them with a bike ride in the open air of a park or recreational area.
- Music makes it fun: Create a playlist, as a family, that can be played while doing chores. Every member of the house gets to pick songs. Pick songs that will help motivate you to work, while being enjoyable for the children as they do the chores. Educate children on the genres of music, what they mean and how they can make you feel.
Lynsey, the Queen of Clean, offers some advice: “It’s vital now children are not going to school that we remember that they are still children. Getting messy and doing fun things is as important as sitting down to educate them. Equally, we need the children to be occupied so that we’re able to balance our day with work, educating them and getting things done around the house”.
We will be updating their blog for parents throughout the coming weeks with more activities to keep children entertained in the time that the schools remain closed. For further hints, tips, advice and more why not follow us on Facebook and Instagram? @ACECleanUK
