5 free kid-friendly activities that you should make full use of during this pandemic
With places closing left, right and centre and our movements restricted during this COVID-19 pandemic, many parents are finding it tough to keep their children occupied at home.
And let’s face it: even as Singapore exits its circuit breaker and people begin to return to work and school, it’ll take a while before we return to the pre-COVID-19 levels of social and business activities. Until the coronavirus is banished from the face of the earth or a vaccine is ready, working from home and home-based learning are a new normal we’ve to get used to.
So for parents who’ve run out of things for their kids to do, here are five free and under-the-radar activities (in my opinion) that I’ve come across recently and found interesting.
Samsung Kids — Fun and engaging activities for pre-schoolers
If you’re a Samsung mobile device user and have young children in the family, don’t overlook Samsung Kids, a free app that’s pre-loaded on most Samsung smartphones and tablets.
Designed to let kids explore and connect with others in the digital space safely, Samsung Kids packs many child-friendly activities and offers strong parental controls and safeguards to protect your personal data in their hands.
For instance, you can set playtime limits, configure app access and more; and your child can’t quit the app without your biometrics or PIN. And while they can play with the camera and take photos, their albums are separated from yours to prevent any accidental deletion.
Of course, it’ll take some effort to keep young children entertained over a long period of time — thankfully, Samsung Kids has that covered with its many mini apps. In a cartoony world populated by many cutesy animal characters, kids can play dress-up, sing and record their own voices, doodle to their hearts’ content with the plethora of drawing tools and even solve puzzles and learn about the basics of block coding along the way.
Learn more about Samsung Kids here.
Apple TV+ — Another avenue for kid-friendly shows
Have you bought a new Apple device recently, such as an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV or a Mac? If you did, don’t forget to redeem your free one-year Apple TV+ subscription within three months of your device activation.
Other than offering many highly acclaimed and more adult-oriented original movies and TV shows such as Servant, The Banker, Dickinson and more, Apple TV+ is also home to a growing catalogue of kid-friendly shows.
One show that I highly recommend for kids aged four and above is Helpsters, a 13-parter series about Cody and her monster friends going around helping others solve problems, be it throwing a party, repairing an air conditioner or learning to be a magician. And since this is a Sesame Workshop production, you can expect the monsters to be fun and vibrant and the storylines educational and teaching all the right values (e.g. teamwork).
For older children, I recommend Ghostwriter, a mystery TV series that involves four kids teaming up to unravel a ghost’s unfinished business. Don’t worry, the show isn’t scary at all and even weaves in elements from popular classic and modern books to cleverly introduce its young viewers to literature.
Learn more about Apple TV+ and its shows here.
Raspberry Pi Foundation projects — For young people learning to code
The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK-based charity which mission is to make computing and digital making knowledge accessible to everyone. It’s also the developer of the first Raspberry Pi, arguably the world’s most beloved single-board computer. People use the Pi to build all sorts of things, from web tracker blockers to media servers to even arcade boxes and voice-activated coffee machines.
But back to the Foundation, especially the charity’s project site, which is a treasure trove full of free resources and coding activities for kids, all filtered by topic and level. For instance, instead of diving straight into the Python projects, beginners can start with Scratch, a block-based graphical coding language specifically designed for children, to learn the basics.
Also important is that all the online projects come with step-by-step instructions, so they’re easy to follow for children as well as adults who sometimes may have to step in to help troubleshoot.
Finally, a tip for parents who don’t have the time to regularly check back the site: you can sign up for a newsletter to get activity updates based on your child’s age and ability.
Learn more about Raspberry Pi Foundation’s coding projects here.
Canon Creative Park — Great for making cards and such
Okay, so you don’t want your child to stare at their (your?) phone or watch TV the whole day. How about doing some arts and crafts — with the help of a printer?
There are many creative projects that parents I know turned to during the circuit breaker period, but my favourite is Canon’s Creative Park, a resource site that provides paper craft ideas and tutorials.
The projects on Creative Park are surprisingly varied. You can make scrapbooks, stationery holders, gift boxes, mini flower bouquets, custom envelopes, greeting cards and more. Since Father’s Day is just round the corner, I’ve been trying to hint to my kid to explore the site (and hopefully, make me a card).
While Canon would love that you print the materials with its printers, that’s not a must and the company is kind enough to let anyone access and download the content for free, though some materials require you to register for a free Canon ID first. The site is also constantly updated with new content, so it’s clear Canon is in this for the long run.
Learn more about Canon Creative Park here.
NASA at Home — For kids and families into rockets and space
We may not be there at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida to witness NASA’s successful and historic SpaceX launch, but that doesn’t mean the American space agency can’t bring rockets and the universe into our homes.
In a nutshell, NASA at Home offers a specially-curated collection of resources to keep space lovers in the family happily occupied. Other than the latest news, images and videos of launches and space science, there are podcasts, e-books and even virtual tours of places that we don’t normally have access to, such as the Armstrong Flight Research Centre in California and the Hubble Space Telescope.
Kids can also learn to draw Artemis, the space launch system designed to return astronauts to the Moon by 2024. There are quizzes, colouring books and comic books too, covering topics such as the solar system and astrophysics.
With so many activities catering to different age groups, it’ll some time and a lot of clicking to fully explore NASA at Home. One fun activity I recommend is this simple paper rocket-making task, which teaches you to create a paper rocket using just a piece of paper and straw.
Learn more about NASA at Home here.
Balancing the New Normal:
