#Collaborative post
As a remote worker, it can be difficult to find a way to entertain children during the working day, especially if they are younger and too small for school.
Here are some ideas for entertaining children during work hours so you can be as productive as possible in your career.
1. Build a Den
As many parents with young children will know, pretend games with sheets and boxes are often the most popular!
Building a den from old duvet sheets, large cardboard boxes and decorating them with felt tip pens and stickers can be a cheap and easy way to have fun. Simply secure the sheets to create a tent-like structure, and allow your children’s imaginations to create the fun!
2. Create a Play Space in Their Bedrooms
If you’re likely to be taking important meetings and need some quiet time to be able to do that, re-decorating your children’s bedrooms to include a play space could be a great way to help you get some important work done without the disruption of your children trying to play in your workspace.
Having a secure and safe play space can help set your mind at ease that your children will be able to have lots of uninterrupted fun without worrying about their safety.
If you want to redecorate your child’s bedroom, you may also want to invest in a new mattress for them. A mattress should be changed every four to six years, so if you have passed your single mattress down from child to child, you may need a new one.
Experts at Archers Sleep Centre are well-trained in finding the very best single mattress for your child’s needs, no matter what their sleeping preferences are!
3. Create a Routine
It’s a well known fact that children tend to respond very well to routine, so creating a schedule for days when you’re all at home together can help with productivity and with managing children’s expectations.
Of course, many young children don’t understand that you can’t play with them whilst you’re working, so creating pockets of time around mealtimes, or break times in the morning and afternoon will help to keep their attention sustained and allow them the space to play independently for the rest of the day.
Using a large whiteboard from retailers like Staples, you can, depending on the age of your children, write out a schedule for the day with times for breaks, food and family time. If your children are too young to understand words, try drawing representative pictures using colourful pens!
4. Sit Them With You to Play
If you have very young children who are not capable of fully independent play, you could sit them with you at your desk and engage with them in between projects by doing colouring exercises or organising some sensory play using their high chair tray.
You can use toys from retailers like Argos with different textures that may have a suction fixture to secure them to the tray, or glue some plastic pockets shut with shiny glitter or water soluble paint inside for some sensory play.
Do you have any tips for keeping your children entertained when you’re working remotely? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!