Children's Wellbeing During Quarantine

Play is essential for their development as it contributes to the cognitive, physical and social development .We should understand the difference between play and game. A play is more engaging, socially interactive, joyful most importantly winning or loosing is not so important.

There is a lot that a child does at School and a lot that he learns. It’s Important to continue that at home also.

Below are some suggested playfulness activities for children to keep them engaged:

1. Involve them into the core household

Have your kids help with dishes, sweeping, gardening or cooking, but turn up the music and do it in a fun way!

2. Make play equipment

These can include balls with paper, plastic paper, using socks, stockings or hand towels.

3. Basket shoot out

Setup a basket on the Chair or a stool, make a line on the floor or a point on the Floor.

4. Dice workout

On a sheet of paper, write down numbers 2-12 vertically. For example:

- 2-5 sit-ups

- 3-30 second plank

- 4-10 squats

- 5-60 second spot jog

- 6-5 knees to chest jumps

So on and so forth. These can be changed as per your liking to create your workout.

5. Hopscotch

A bottle cap that can be used as a marker. Chalk/tape to draw the lines

Draw a traditional hopscotch diagram like the one below

Throw the marker into the first square. (If it lands on a line, or outside the square, you lose your turn. Pass the marker to the following player and wait for your next turn). At the pairs (4-5 and 7-8), jump with both feet. At 10, hop with both feet, turn around, and head back toward the start.

When you reach the square with your marker again, pick up the marker --still on one foot! --and complete the course.

If you finished without any mistakes, pass the marker to the next player. On your next turn, throw the marker to the next number.

6. Towel activities

A room with space to move around .Using Towel with mainly three variations:

Towel Tug of war- the traditional tug of war-replace the rope with a towel.

Towel Resistance Run-this activity, one of the players holds the towel the

other tries to run while pulling the other player as well.

Towel Partner sit-ups

In this activity, the two players try to do sit-ups together while using the towel for leverage.

7. Four Square

A ball that bounces. Draw a large square on the floor, size may vary depending on size available and the age of the players. The squares are numbered 1-4.

Each player takes up one square.

The Player standing in a square can only hit the ball after it bounces in their square. Each time the ball bounces in a square, the player standing in that square must hit the ball into another square.

The ball must be allowed to bounce once in the receiving square before the receiving player hits the ball into another square of their choice.

8. Bowling with empty Bottles

Plastic Bottles can be used for Bowling.

Each turn the player gets two tries to knock down all the pins. Each pin knocked down is worth

one point. If you knock down all the pins in One throw that's a strike and ends your turn but you get a total of points.

9. Paper plane darts

Make Plane/dart with Paper and use Vessel as the Target.

Each target can have a set number of points or can be three tries for each target, with scoring based on the following:

Hit on 1st try = 3 points

Hit on 2nd try = 2 points

Hit on 3rd try = 1 point etc

10. Can catch

There are multiple variants of playing the game:

The player bounces the ball on the floor and catches it in the glass.

Players stand at opposite ends of the room and throw the ball to each other; the other player can catch the ball only in the glass.

Players play the ball against a wall and the other player has to catch the ball only using the glass.

Players play trick shots by trying to bounce the ball off objects and landing the ball into the glass.

11. Pillow fight

Clear the area in a room to avoid injury when the players fall. The players stand on a newspaper and a pillow in hand.

The players try to hit each other only on the body and not on the head.

When a player falls off the paper, their opponent gets a point.

12. Treasure hunt

Create clues and keep tasks at the place where the clue is pointing them towards.

The player needs to complete the task before the next clue is given to them.

Use Quarantine time to your advantage, Eat together, Cook together and most Importantly Play together. Enjoy each and every moment and Stay Safe, Stay healthy.