10 Helpful Activities to Do With Kids While Working From Home

The kids are at home while you are probably also working from home, so what do you do with them? Teachers have created elaborate online interactive lessons for them to do most of the day, but you don’t have the time to walk them through all the assignments while you’re working too. As a teacher and parent of a 1st-grade child myself, I know how you feel. Read on to discover some ideas on how to get through these difficult times together. There are so many activities to do with kids while working from home.

This is a guest post by Christine Duff! Take it away, Christine!

#1 Make a schedule

Make a colorful and extensive schedule and hang it on the wall in a common area. It doesn’t have to be extremely detailed, just list what is expected of your child at each part of the day. Note quiet times when you know you will be most busy working and unable to tend to their every beck and call.

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#2 Offer activity choices

Kids will feel stressed and may begin acting defiant if a parent or older sibling is dictating their every move. Reduce stress by making everything a decision.

Put all their online learning codes together and offer an option of which one they can work on during their screen time part of the schedule. Offer different break time activities like games or coloring.

Even the subjects they are working on can be traded. You don’t have to follow the strict schedule the teacher sent. Let them pick which subject they do first in their online classroom.

#3 Create a reward system

It can be a simple sticker chart or a checklist for older children. Make sure it is in an area they will all see. If they are following their schedule and staying out of your hair, give them a sticker or check on your way to get a drink or use the restroom.

Don’t even announce it. Just add it and continue your work. They may act like they don’t care at first, but if you stay on top of it, they will keep checking it throughout the day.

Make it clear that they will not get a sticker or check if they ask for one or continuously brag about what they’re doing. Use a color of the pen that they don’t have and keep it with you if you think they may be tricky. Once they earn the required number of stickers or checks, give them a prize.

It can be something free like:

• Extra game time on the computer
• Staying up 30 minutes later at night
• Choosing dinner preference
• One on one time with a parent
• Allowing them to download a new free app
• Letting them sit in your favorite spot for the day
• An extra bedtime story at night
• Allowing them to skip a chore for that day
• Letting them choose their own snack at snack time
• Letting them sleep in a tent in the living room or outdoors
• Scheduling a video chat with their friend

It can also be something more tangible like:

• Cheap toys in a treasure box. Check out these cool things I bought from Oriental Trading Company. They are offering free shipping right now with code HipHop20.
• Money towards something they have been asking for
• Buying their favorite cereal on your weekly shopping trip
• Let them choose a movie to rent
• Let them choose a small toy to order online

#4 Mark clearly defined boundaries

If you have more than one child, working while they are fighting will be difficult. Get some colored masking tape from Amazon or use painter’s tape you may have in a drawer. No, the tape is not for tying up the kids! Mark out areas for each child if they frequently want to be in the living room or if they share a room. You can also mark around their desk area and put a list of times they can leave their desk for breaks and snacks. Be sure to explain that being caught in their designated space will result in rewards.

#5 Show them how to go on an online field trip

Many companies are offering virtual tours while closed during this time. Just Google keywords “Virtual Field Trip” or check out some that I found:

• Discovery Education is offering virtual tours to NBA headquarters, Girl Scouts STEM Center, Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, Technology in Agriculture, Polar Bears in Nature, Ford Motor Company, and many more interesting tours.
• Monterey Aquarium has live webcams of their animal exhibits. You can watch birds, penguins, jellyfish, and more.
• The Zoo Atlanta has a Panda Cam! You can watch baby pandas play.
• NASA has a picture of the day and tons of activity ideas

The Cincinnati Zoo allows people to watch Fiona the baby hippo!

#6 Make them a scavenger hunt to keep them busy

You can use riddles for them to solve or give them a map and hide notes under each stop. Make it a contest if you have multiple children. Include books to find on the bookshelf and have them fill out questions to make it last longer.

You can include things in the backyard if you have one, and the weather is good. Be sure to tell them the first person to finish will get a reward so they will keep trying but offer the award to the other children still working after the first one completes to ensure they will stay busy and not fight.

Offering a reward should keep them busy for at least an hour so you can get some work done.

#7 Tell them to write letters, draw pictures, and make cards for friends and family

They don’t have to live far away. Give them a list of every address you have and tell them to make something for each person. After they are done, take a family trip to the mailbox to drop them off. Maybe they will send letters back too!

#8 Download learning apps to a phone or tablet

There are several companies offering free subscriptions and trials right now, including:

• ABC Mouse 30-day trial, all subjects. For younger grades.
• Mindplay 7-day trial, reading help. For all grades.
• Duolingo Language, free. 
• IXL Free, all subjects Pre-K-12th grade.
• Brainpop is free right now for all grade levels. There’s also Brainpop Jr that is geared towards children 0-3 and has all subjects. 

Code.org is a Non-Profit company that teaches children of all ages valuable coding skills.

#9 Get them on their online classrooms for the school

Make a little office with any table and chair so they will have their own space to take their learning seriously. If you have smaller children who are not capable so using a computer without asking for help every 5 minutes, ask their teacher if you can print work or have them write their answers on paper. You can then scan and email the pages or take a picture with a smart device and email it. A lot of schools require teachers to have live teaching lessons with zoom or Google Hangouts. Create a free account to be ready and mark time out of your work schedule to assist them with joining the meeting. You may have to set a timer to remember to stop what you’re doing and help them log on. It’s not reasonable to expect children to stay busy doing classwork for a full 8 hours while at home. Usually, there are lessons posted Monday and are due at the end of the week on Friday. Set reasonable expectations on your children and give them a list with a couple of assignments from each day from each subject for them to complete before allowing them to have screen time.

#10 When all else fails, there’s always TV, TicToc, and YouTube!

Don’t stress too much about allowing them to have more than the recommended 2 hours of screen time per day right now. If you aren’t working from home and have a significant other who is working to make sure ends meet, then you have more time to organize activities for your children to stay active and learning without giving them devices. If you are the only parent and you have been the sole breadwinner for your family. Remember: It’s a Pandemic, so we are all worried about survival. Keeping our children busy so we can work at home to keep our jobs is at the top of the list. If you get so stressed trying to make your kid complete all their schoolwork and keeping them off screens, what time will you have to keep your job and make money to survive through this? Just do what is best for your family and don’t feel bad about making hard choices to keep your income flowing and children busy.

More activities to do with kids while working from home

Hopefully, reading this article made you feel more comfortable about the dramatic change that has happened in your life recently. Maybe these ideas will help you and your loved ones navigate the waters of working while children are learning from home. Just remember this time is also challenging for your children.

Try to be patient with them and hold your temper. They are missing all of their friends and activities that they have been used to for years. Having patience with them and taking the care to guide their daily activities at least a little will be better for you both. Children crave structure and need set boundaries.

Not knowing what to expect can cause them to have behavior issues. You need to take the time to have a meeting with them about the changes that are happening and be truthful about the amount of time you think this will last. Explaining to your kids about the activities you miss about the situation will help them see you as an equally unwilling participant in this new way of life.

However, long the quarantine goes on, at least one thing will last forever. The bond you make with your children during this time. Stay safe and take care of each other.

If you know of more things to do with your kids while working from home, let us know in the comments!

Related Posts:

• 4 Best Crafts for Kids to Maximize Parent-Child Bonding
• 13 Activities You Can Do at Home During Quarantine
• 40 Activities for Toddlers at Home Indoors and Outdoors

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