While adults may be perfectly content to snooze on the sofa and watch telly, children will find lockdown a much bigger challenge. With high energy levels, being cooped up indoors, away from friends may lead to sulking, tantrums and door slamming. Kids need activities, and a 2 month long game of ‘I Spy’ won’t cut it. Fortunately there are ways to both keep your kids entertained and support local businesses. What’s more, they cater to a variety of interests.
For the Creative Types
Time at home is a great reason to boost creativity, and art is an ideal way to do that. If your child enjoys arts and crafts, head straight to Craft in a Bag. This local online service offers amazing materials to get the whole family into ‘Art Attack’ mode These include old classics like Mask-Making to things you may not have heard of, like Sand Art, and Scratch Art. Not only will the hours fly by, but your family will have a treasure trove of colourful mementos to show for it.
For the Budding Scientists
However, not all kids are arty types. For some, science and technology is what it’s all about. If this sounds like your kid, then try the website Open Thinkers. To be fair, Open Thinkers isn’t just science specific. They have educational toys and products in a bunch of areas, but their science collections are particularly impressive. There’s laboratory equipment, Aquariums to study pet insects and telescopes for young astronomers. For the more tech-headed, there’s a huge choice of robots to build and play with, a lot’s more. Malta’s science-centre Esplora are also providing great content for those stuck indoors, by regularly live-streaming science experiments on Facebook. An engaging and free way for kids to get their science kick.
For the Bookworms
Time at home is a great opportunity to get back to the habit of reading. Kids surrounded by electronic media may find reading patience-testing, but, with a bit of time, they’ll soon fall in love with the immersive power of books. BDL is an online book-store for kids, available here: https://bdlbooks.com/product-category/games/. It includes popular titles in both Maltese and English, all delivered straight to your door. What’s more, BDL has a selection of Maltese Card Games and Board Games. These will guarantee hours of friendly competition, and a way to brush up on our language too.
Of course, look beyond our island, and you’ll find a never-ending choice of online resources for kids. But, as is so often said, we’re all in this together, and out local businesses need your support more than ever. Give these local sites a chance, and your kids will find home-life quite a bit more bearable. And who knows, you might learn a few things yourself!
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