5 fuss-free ways to keep kids busy (so you can work from home more productively)
Upiopers doing various joy-filled after school activities
The pandemic has put working parents on a roller coaster: you are working from home, with “coworkers” being your kids right in the next room. With a hectic workload plus childcare, it could be easy to get overwhelmed. This article will give you five easy ways to keep kids busy and entertained, so you can have the time needed to complete important work tasks.
Let’s start with a mindset
For high-standard working parents, it’s easy to expect everything will be just right. You are used to overcoming challenges, and the pandemic is just another curveball to deal with. Yet even with the most strategic, detailed plan, things can still go out of control when you have cooped up kids downstairs and 15 emails all marked important. If you expect work and home tasks to happen smoothly, you might get disappointed.
In the long run, a wise way to stay sane is to set reasonable expectations. Some days you got to be 200% productive, some days you need to be a devoted mom/dad, some days it’s 50-50. Do your best every day and give yourself grace if things happen to not turn out “perfect”.
Another strategy is to be flexible with how things are done. It might get messy here and there---your kids might once waddle into your room during a Zoom meeting, you might spend an hour cooking lunch instead of touching up your report---but as long as no serious trouble is caused, you can be okay with the way it is.
Clever strategies to keep kids busy
1. Employ Little Helper - Odd jobs made exciting
We all have to do everyday work tasks and household chores that are boring but essential to keep our lives together. So why not take this time to let your kids chip in? This can increase their sense of responsibility and create a fun time together.
For example, you can ask kids to wash veggies, take ingredients out of the fridge, set up and wipe the table after dinner. For older kids, you can let them make smoothie or take charge of some simple desserts to bring out their chefness and grow essential cooking skills.
Kids can also help you with office chores, like shredding papers and organizing stationery. Just make sure you give them a little bit of instructions beforehand. Cassey, a marketing manager said she lets her 7-year-old daughter arrange her color-coded files after a work session.
2. Initiate Creative Projects
Kids love missions. Setting up a creative project with a specific goal and a time limit will tap into their drive to complete a challenge and get you time to focus on your work. Give your kids the space and tools to make handmade cards for friends and family, decorate the bookshelf, build a freestyle Lego fort, or design clothes for their toys.
Remember to let your kids have a say in what to do, since they love ownership and will likely be willing to spend more time on what excites them. Another thing to note is that they should have freedom to create their own artworks instead of having them follow a certain instruction. Lena’s son demanded her help every time he realized midway the right colors for his coloring book were missing. When kids have the autonomy to steer their creative wheel, they can likely work more independently.
3. Strategize screen time
A bit of screen time done right can help your kids learn new things, while you get some uninterrupted time to finish important work tasks.
The first tip is to let them watch educational videos or movies of their interests. For example, Cassey’s daughter loves playing with water, so Cassey let her watch Finding Dory and told her to observe different creatures in the movie. At the end of the day she told Cassey about the colors of clownfish, sea turtle, whale shark, and stingray. For Youtube videos, it’s a good idea to prepare the playlist on the weekend, which takes a bit of time but is worth it.
The second tip is to enroll your child with live lessons. Opt for the programs with activities your kids enjoy and make sure the coaches have experience teaching children. If you live in the Middle East, consider our upcoming spring camp with Finnish coaches. We have science, coding, arts, cooking, and many more hands-on activities for your child to try out.
4. Switch between Autopilot vs. Focus Mode
A bit of multitasking skill is evermore helpful in the pandemic. When you are spending time with your child, you can sneak in small tasks that do not require a lot of focus to be done. For example, you can clean up junk folders in your computer, or rearrange the files in a more aesthetic and orderly way to boost inspiration for future work tasks.
If you have a partner or a maid at home, you can discuss with them when you need to focus and ask them to cover childcare at that time. If not, you can design 20-minute activities for your kids using Pomodoro technique (20 minutes working – 5 minutes resting, repeat 4 times) to have short laser-focus sessions. Feel free to be flexible and have shorter activities for your kids and cut yourself some slack if things can’t work out once in a while.
5. Team up with other work-from-home parents
Many kids love spending time with friends. It gives them fun and boosts their social skills. You can team up with other work-at-home parents to create structured social time for the children. You can decide one parent will host the kids and return the favor on another day when you have a bit more down time.
A big plus if you can design a little project for them to work on together. For example, they can teach each other new words, tell stories about their day, or co-create a large painting. You can have them show off their works later as kids love sharing their achievements.
Last thing: Schedule Me-time
If you are reading this, you’ve made lots of efforts to maintain productivity and be a good parent. Sometimes things work out, sometimes they are a bit messy. And that’s okay.
Remember it’s always important to take care of your wellbeing as a working parent, and even more so during the pandemic. Routinely schedule me-time to rejuvenate yourself. Take a walk, practice skincare, and have quality time with your favorite workout or books.
After all, it is a marathon. Prep yourself for the long run. And enjoy every part of the journey.
Whether you want ideas for an exciting after-school activity for your child, update educational news, or get handy tips for teaching young learners, consider subscribing to our blog.