Even though I am mostly sad about being far from our daughter at this time, I am also quite thankful that she is in our family home in the Philippines because she has a bunch of company there. In the first month of the ECQ, my mom and 4 sisters were there with her full time so she never runs out of playmates. Even now with the MECQ, she still has her two aunties left because both are students and school hasn't resumed since. Unlike here where hubby and I have to work and do chores ourselves, we only get to really spend time with her in the evening and that too limited because we are either tired or sleepy.
To make up for the distance, I always try to plan activities to keep her busy in this #stayhome period. Sharing with you some of them :)
We try to do a little bit of homeschooling. Before the circuit breaker in Singapore, I got to buy a workbook to help her learn high-frequency words. I must say, the exercises are peanuts to her because she's been reading since she's 5 but at least it helps her to get more familiar with the spelling of these commonly-used words and also keep her writing so she won't have to adjust again when school is back. I also try to teach her a math lesson or two, and very recently, we had a run through of common nouns and proper nouns. It helps that Maddie is a fast-learner so she's able to pick-up even though some of our sessions are via Facetime :)
She also plays board games with her aunties. Among their favorites are Uno and Toy Story 3 Monopoly. These make her quite the competitive kid, and it also trains her to accept defeat (wow ah! haha!)
We also indulge her need for gadget time, but only once she's done with her learning sessions. She is quite addicted with an app called Roblox where there are a million games within a single app. Because of it, she's now the one calling us once in a while to check if it's already "Roblox time" with Mommy and Daddy. Playing with Maddie helps us to be virtually together as well -- look, I have screenshots! :D
Musical instruments. Maddie loves music so my sisters gifted her with a keyboard on her 6th birthday (oh, I need to write on this soon!) and she also got a toy ukelele last Christmas. She tries to play these instruments with the help of her Aunt Haley and this weekend I was so happy because she said she wrote her own song! She shared with us the lyrics and sang it to us while on video call and even though it's only a few lines I have to say, wow, we have a Taylor Swift in the making!
Swimming sessions. Yesterday, we finally got her an inflatable pool! Even before the lockdowns, Maddie loves swimming, so she was pretty ecstatic when she saw it and can't wait to dip already! Needless to say, she spent some 2.5 hours in the water and afterwards already said she's gonna have another pool session today (and she did!).
We try to engage her in oldie-but-goodie challenges like Categories and P.A.N.T.S (90's babies, raise your hands if your remember this!). In P.A.N.T.S, a player chooses a random letter and all the other players write down a place, animal, name and thing that starts with the chosen letter. After each round, everybody shares their answers and whoever has unique ones gets the S -- score that is! :) This game is fun and it also adds to her general knowledge and vocabulary.
Online Cathechism classes. Here in Singapore, the Catholic churches hold Cathechism sessions for kids every Sunday but due to the circuit breaker, the face-to-face sessions were cancelled. Thanks to technology, they were able to commence it this month via Zoom. Maddie learns more about Jesus in each session and she also gets to interact with kids her age. Special mention to the Church of St. Teresa and the very dedicated cathechists who make this happen.
Listed above are just some of the things keeping our pre-schooler occupied while staying in. Well those and eating a lot! And like most of us grown-ups, she's already gained more than 2 kilos in the last 3 months! Pwera usog! :) But look at the photo below, she's getting really chunky and her clothes are quite snug now so I am already looking forward to to spending some time with her shopping when life goes back to normal, or at least what they call "the new normal."
Oh well, let's all continue praying that this virus ends soon. Until then, keeping our kids healthy, safe and happy remains our #1 priority! So fellow mommies, if you have your own quarantine activities to share, please leave them in the comments so that we can try them too!
I hope you all enjoyed your long weekend and have a good week ahead!
Laters,
