Breastmilk is the best for babies. The World Health Organisation recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life. Unnecessary introduction of bottle feeding or other food and drinks will have a negative impact on breastfeeding. After six months of age, infants should receive age-appropriate foods while breastfeeding continues for up to two years of age or beyond. Consult your doctor before deciding to use infant formula or if you have difficulty breastfeeding.
Days could be long during the lockdown. Playing games is critical to developing a child’s imagination. Limit screen time with these 5 games you can play together with your little one.
For the safety of children, make sure you supervise their play closely.
… And don’t forget, wash your and their hands as recommended by MOH, before and after playing. Avoid touching the face as much as possible.
#1 Camping at Home
Go on a camping trip at home. Let them make a mess while enjoying stay-at-home adventures!
- Supply them with a tent or let them make one (think sheets, tables, chairs etc.). Make sure that you supervise the setup.
- Once the tent is ready, have them fill it with sleeping bags, cushions and blankets and/or pillows.
- Help them round up items such as flashlights, snacks and drinks, books, stuffed animals and games. A deck of cards and a board game will keep the children entertained for hours.
- Other items to put in your play tent include a small table and chairs, colouring books and crayons, building block and Play-Dough.
- Leave the rest to their imagination!
#2 Hide-and-Seek
Hide and seek is a children’s favourite!
- Choose one player who will close his or her eyes and count aloud to 20. The other players will hide.
- Define a safe space where the children can hide, set boundaries of places where they should not go for safety (e.g. stairs) or your work area.
- The seeker opens his/her eyes and tries to find the hiders. The first one found is the next seeker, and the last one found is the winner of the round.
- Variate the rules by making hiders run back to “home base” while the seeker is away looking for them. If all of the hiders return safely, the seeker repeats as seeker in the next round.
#3 Hot and Cold
Hot and cold has been a children’s favourite for years. The only things needed are two or more players and an object or prize.
- Start by choosing a “hunter” and have them leave the room.
- Hide a small object or prize somewhere in the space where you are playing. Then bring the hunter back and have them look for the object.
- Signal to the hunter that they are moving away from the hidden object by saying “colder”. If they keep moving in the wrong direction, use words that indicate degrees of cold, such as “freezing” or “icy”.
- Tell the hunter that they are getting closer to the hidden object by saying “hotter”. As they move closer, say “burning” or “scorching”.
- Continue giving clues until the hunter finds the hidden object.
- You can also play this game by clapping your hands, faster as the hunter gets closer and slower as the hunter gets further away from the object or prize.
#4 Guess the Object
Children will need to use their best observation and detective skills to identify the mystery object in this guessing-game activity.
- Start by having the first player think of an object that they can see around them. Ask them to whisper the object to you and then write it down on a piece of paper.
- The other player(s) tries to guess the object by asking questions that can only be answered with a “yes” or a “no”. For example, if the object is a picture frame, a player might ask “does it have a glass?” or “Is it made of wood?”
- Up to 20 questions can be asked. If the players have not guessed the answer in 20 questions, each player gets one last chance to make a guess of the object.
#5 Name, Animal, Plant, City
- Create a 5-column table for each player. Name them: NAME, ANIMAL, PLANT, CITY and finally SCORE.
- You can change the categories according to the children’s ages.
A. Going clockwise for each turn, one player begins by reciting the alphabet until the next player says “STOP”. Depending on which letter the first player stops at, all players must then fill in the columns with a word starting with that letter.
Here’s an example for the letter A:
Name: Alex
Animal: Antelope
Plant: African Daisy
City: Anchorage
B. For each correct answer, players receive 10 points. If the players get a common answer, each is rewarded 5 points. If an answer is not accepted by all players (e.g. if the name of the answer does not exist) or if the answer is blank, the player gets 0 points.
C. The second round starts with the second player and proceeds exactly as the first round did.
D. At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins!
E. You can also act as a moderator here by helping to total the points.
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