Visual arts serve as an excellent creative outlet for children and youth of all ages that can be done from home. (ID 141946514 © Larisa Kapustkina | Dreamstime.com)

By Martin Martinson

Learning Together

Helpful tips to keep kids learning at home during COVID-19 quarantine

Apr 7, 2020 | 9:46 AM

With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing families to stay home in isolation for an extended period of time, it is important to ensure children and youth are given satisfying and mentally stimulating activities to stay active and engaged during their homestay.

Executive director of Battlefords Boys and Girls Club, Nicole Combres, said one easy way to get the kids engaged is to give them the chance to help with food preparation. Whether actually making the food, or just helping out by collecting supplies; in addition to learning a useful skill, doing so also helps demonstrate the importance of teamwork, among other useful life skills.

“Whether that’s cooking or baking, there is a lot of relationship building that happens around food,” Combres said. “There is also a lot of math skills that happen when you’re looking at recipes and you’re doing some of that stuff. Kids don’t even realize they’re learning math, they’re just having fun cooking and baking.”

In addition to helping out in the kitchen, Combres also suggested more visually stimulating activities, such as colouring, painting, drawing, or writing that can be done throughout the day.

While each child’s personal interests will be different, Combres said ultimately it is important to keep the home life a learning environment using whatever resources are available, recognizing that for many in the community, virtual learning may be a limited option.

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“The teachers are doing the very best they can with the resources they have to continue to provide an education to children and youth, but the reality for many of our community members is that there isn’t always a computer and a tablet and internet at home,” she said; adding the library where some may have accessed those things before, is now closed.

She said old school math games or homemade spelling tests are always an option, as are other thought-provoking games and activities, such as crosswords, word searches (or for the older kids, even Sudoku).

Regardless of activities one chooses to implement for their child, while the circumstances of the quarantine may be less than optimal, Combres said making the effort to enjoy the most of the additional time spent together as a family is something that can serve as a silver lining for families during the pandemic and moving forward.

“I think this is a great chance for our parents, our guardians and our caregivers to build a relationship with their child, or grandchild, or niece or nephew, on a completely different level,” Combres said.

Toys, crafts and other educational activities and supplies, such as crayons, colouring books, puzzles and more are available for take-home use for those in need at the Battlefords Boys and Girls Club.

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Martin.Martinson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: MartyMartyPxP1