We are back to the weather when the winters are just about to go away and summers are approaching. Basically leaving us nowhere. Layering each day is confusing. Drinking water temperature is tricky. Kids fall sick during this time the most as its not too cold to be oh so careful and not yet warm enough to let the guards down! So the most common time to be house arrested with a sick child is here.
So here is my list of a few clever ways to entertain a child who’s home sick. My son’s immunity has always been a little on the less strong side. This raises the crankiness meter to alarming degrees when he is under the weather. He seems to be bored with all the board games and of course is not allowed to step out. Excessive screen time is a big NO for me. So these are the days when we basically snuggle up in bed and invent a few games which we can play with least amount of move about.
- Answer it all wrong: The first one and my favourite one is: “Answer it all Wrong” – This has a funny side to it which generally gets him to laugh. Basically one asks all the questions and the other one has to answer it but the answer has to be anything but correct. For eg I would ask him, “Why are you not in school” and he would say “Because I had plans to go rob a bank today”. You get the drift? We try best to make our answers as much fun as possible. This is easy to do while keeping him all covered in bed and good to keep his imaginations on a run.
- Choose a destination: Sometimes we play this with a globe or a picture of world map. We just close our eyes and put a finger on any random country of the world. Then we try and talk about whatever we know about that country. Like the popular dance of that place, the culture, the currency or any fun fact. Its great since my son is very inquisitive of different places. This increases his GK quotient and it often results in both of us learning interesting things about the world.
- Take a Stroll Down Memory Lane
I pull out his baby book or family photo albums and we leaf through them together. Children rarely tire of remembering vacations or hearing about the day they were born—and thinking about the good times can distract them from their sore throat or crummy tummy.
- Color Scheming: We choose a color and then take turns in naming all the stuff in that room that’s in that particular color. It’s easy in the beginning but once all obvious things are named it keeps getting difficult and interesting with time. You can even pick an alphabet and say out the names of the things starting with that alphabet.
- Who Am I: We pick a person in the family or neighbourhood or anyone common. And one by one drop hints about who that person could be. The other one has to guess in least number of hints about who could that person be. It’s interesting to hear about the traits that he notices about so many people.
It’s easy to park kids in front of TV when they’re sick, but there are plenty of other ways to brighten up down days. The next time your son or daughter is home sick, try these fun interesting games to get over being under the weather. You will be surprised to have a peek at what all goes in their little brains.
What are your tricks to keep the little one entertained yet not into the TV all day long while making sure he is bed ridden and rested for most of the day? Do share your comments with us.
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