One mother shares her experiences with keeping children occupied and reducing screen time during the COVID-19 lockdown.
The difficult times of the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown changed all of our lives. For parents working from home, juggling their own work and raising their young children properly and keeping them busy became a major challenge. School closures confined children to their homes, leading to irritability and an increased dependence on mobile phones. In such a situation, it becomes crucial to improve children's daily routines with patience and understanding. Let's learn from one mother's personal experience how proper time management and creative activities can help keep children busy at home.
When my daughter Aasha was one and a half years old, I started sending her to the toddler group of play school because I feel that children learn better by playing and being among friends of the same age. Then after March 2020, there came a time when people's lives suddenly came to a standstill. While parents started working from home, children were confined to their homes due to the closure of schools. My daughter was two and a half years old then. My husband is an engineer in Microsoft company and I work on my startup.
Aasha has become very demanding
During those days, we both realized that Aasha had become very demanding. She started getting into a lot of mischief to get our attention. She always wanted her parents and grandparents to be with her. Furthermore, she had started spending more time on her mobile phone. This habit is very harmful to the eyes, so I decided to consciously improve her daily routine.
shared responsibility
Along with our professional responsibilities, it was also very important for us to provide a good upbringing for our daughter. So, after discussing with her grandparents, we decided that all four of us would take turns spending time with Aasha to play and interact with her. During the day, our grandparents would tell her stories, teach her how to draw and color. In the evenings, when we were free from work, we would play various games with her, teaching her to recognize letters, numbers, and words in an engaging way.
By creating an engaging school-like environment at home, we began to focus fully on her studies. The DIY (Do-It-Yourself) approach proved very helpful. I brought her ice cream sticks, colored papers, and pens and pencils. Her imagination soared, and she began creating many things with me to decorate her room. To reduce her screen time, we played Ludo, Carrom, and other fun board games with her daily.
Habits started changing
In our family, we made it a rule that after online classes were over, we would only allow Aasha to use her mobile phone for an hour. Even though she wasn't going to school, we would still put her to bed after dinner at a reasonable time so she could wake up early in the morning. Once her routine became established, she automatically reduced her mobile use. We also created interesting games for her that would give her a chance to learn something new. These days, she happily helps us with small household tasks like watering the plants and putting away all her toys after playing. Aasha is now five and a half years old and will soon start school. Based on my experiences, I can only say that it is very important to take out time for children.
5 rules of parenting
-Give enough time to children.
-Reduce screen time.
-Take help from them in household chores.
-Keep busy in creative activities.
-Give some freedom also.
