13 Easy Ways To Keep The Kids Entertained While Wfh

The clear silver lining for the world moving back to normal keeps the spirit high for everyone. With the reopening of schools, regular office hours, and tourism at an all-time peak, most employees are looking to return to work in offices.

The Current WFH Scenario

However, post covid, many of them permanently plan to restructure themselves to the WFH model. While the idea saved many jobs during lockdowns, the cons of this system have left most employees in a fix. 

As per a recent survey of employees who are parents of toddlers or pre-schoolers, one of the prime concerns was handling work with younger kids who cannot understand the need for non-interrupted working. They wanted to know how to keep the kids entertained while working from home.

Constant calls for washroom runs, food, or simply attention take a toll on work, especially during a meeting, client call, or a project with a strict deadline.

Most can't hire a nanny or someone to help during working hours. To solve this million-dollar question, we have compiled a list of activities to help them engage. At the same time, you get some uninterrupted work slots. 

1. Imaginative or Pretend play- is best to let the kids learn to entertain themselves. Pretend-play or role-play helps keep them engaged for hours but is also a sign of healthy brain development. Role-play as an airport scene, doctor's clinic, play restaurant, a trip to space, or school scene. Once the kid/s fall in love with being in charge, they would spend hours without you needing to put effort. The role-play helps to develop cognitive skills, critical thinking, and leadership skills. Open their closet and some clothes to dress up and play out their favorite character.

2. Colors - Offer them colors. For ages two years and above, various brands offer non-toxic and organic colors that your child can explore. Washable watercolors, magic colors, crayons, and oil pastels, let your child enjoy the world of art without compromising safety and your worries of ruining the house. The crayons are now available in shapes and sizes to suit the hand-grip as per the age of children. It is suggested to dedicate a corner, a table, a wall, or a board for them to pour their imagination. Having a specified space will save you from the trouble of micromanaging them all the time and stimulating them not to soil other places. Older kids can use hand-painting, blow pens, and stencils paintings.

3. Crafting and Artforms: Intriguing craft and art forms like origami, paper mache, ceramic arts, and glass painting can be habit-forming. Dot markers aur dauber assist handgrip and eye-coordination. Paper collage with paper confetti cut from large sheets (usually rough) promotes imagination. Draw your favorite animal or car and give beads, grains like pulses, and rice to stick. Q-tip painting is also a safe idea for younger kids.

4. Picture and Audible Books - Age-appropriate books are a cheerful way of entertaining kids while working from home, using audible books for tiny babies, big picture board books for toddlers, or beginners books for pre-schoolers. Even if they are young to read, flipping through illustrations will keep them captivated. This activity will help to keep the children entertained while you complete that one task or meeting.

5. Play Dough/Slime - Sometimes messy, but this is one go-to option to keep children engaged for hours. Organic clays or dough with vibrant colors let the children stretch their imagination and sensory development. For Indian households, giving a ball of dough (atta) is a prevalent and safest way to let ttechno1ll children are inherently curious. Puzzles, magnetic tiles, or activity games are great to keep them hooked while developing their problem-solving skills. They can make structures using magnetic tiles with the help of an instruction manual, which helps develop balancing skills and spare you an uninterrupted work hour or two.

6. Activity Class - Online or offline activity classes can come to the rescue with stable, uninterrupted time. Enroll your children in a hobby or activity class to keep them engrossed and develop gross motor skills. While children below three years need supervision, older children have many options. Offline activity centers close to your place can be helpful for them to interact with other children while having fun and learning. 

7. Legos - The hours one can spend with legos is infinite. When adults cannot refrain from the addiction, how can kids? Make towers. starwars realm, or wonders of the world and let their imagination run wild. These are also addicting and help develop many creative and cognitive skills. Legos are not preferred for children below 4 years of age due to safety hazards.

8. Organizing Skills - You know how kids go overboard to help you with chores. You can ask them to do safe chores and organize the home to let them feel involved, like folding the laundry, organizing the house, arranging groceries or mopping, arranging lids with containers. These skills are survival skills and inculcates positive character attitude towards life.

9. Dance party - Setting up online party with friends is not a task now. Being pro at these ideas, the kids can start one themselves, after all kids nowadays are zoom friendly. If they have a playlist, make sure you put in on and let them dance till they drop while you complete your pending work. Shake a leg along with them when you take that water break while WFH.

10. Play Gym - For kids who cannot be entertained with any of the above ideas, i.e babies, play gym or interactive environment with cot mobile or cot hangings can prove helpful to get some time for work from home. Colourful floor mats for kids that crawl is also great to keep them enchanted.

11. Stickers - This is our favourite, the kids love to tick things. Mostly by the age of 2.5 years, kids can stick glue dots, or actual sticker. They might not be able to do it perfectly but it engrosses them for a long time. Sticker books are available for older kids who can identify objects and place sticker on the matching object. This is also a win win as it improves their fine-motor skills with hand stability and patience.

How to incorporate these entertainment ideas

We are 100% with all the parents who are struggling to work from home and keep their kids entertained while they get some time to work without being called out for random reasons. It is a situation which can be handled well with planning.

Always try to alternate between activities and toys everyday. Do not offer all the toys and activities together, it will only lead to more work by way of cleaning up afterwards and they would also get bored with them. Instead plan few ideas for watch day and switch between what you have to offer each day. When kids get to play with different toys or activities in rotation it keeps them more engaged with higher concentration. 

Super parents, please share your tricks while working from home and keeping your children engaged. Our super parent community will love to hear from you! Afterall we are together in this parenting journey!