Winter Break: How to Keep Kids Engaged and Enriched During the Pandemic, A Mom's Top Tips
“In today’s fast-paced world, we parents grapple with balancing work, children, home, and making time for ourselves among a myriad of competing priorities.” With schools going virtual, and companies extending their work from home timelines, the home has never been busier! As winter break is around the corner, today’s woman dreamer, Anuja Das, a software development manager at Oracle, shares her expertise on how she keeps her kids engaged and enriched during the pandemic. From family outing ideas and activities to encouraging device-free time, Anuja’s tips are for every busy mom, planning for this year’s school break! She writes, ”we are raising citizens of the new world - values such as inclusion and empathy should be ingrained in them”
1) Tell us about your background; childhood, family and how your upbringing made you who you are today?
I was born and raised in Kolkata, India in an extremely permissive and supportive family. My dad is a marine engineer and my mom, a child phycologist which made for a very fun and interesting childhood with a plethora of experiences. The trust my parents placed in my sister and I went a long way into shaping who we are today - we learned early on to be responsible for our own actions and drive towards the results we want in life.
2) How have you and your family dealt with the current pandemic?
Keeping busy with positive causes and projects, staying connected with family and friends, counting our blessings and helping those around us who are not as fortunate have been key in tiding us over these extraordinary times.
3) During this pandemic, mothers struggle to keep their kids engaged. You have twins and do such a great job on keeping them engaged. Can you share some ways and ideas, tips and tricks, to engage kids globally, while keeping them enriched and educated?
In today’s fast-paced world, we parents grapple with balancing work, children, home, and making time for ourselves among a myriad of competing priorities. It’s easy to get overwhelmed, and internalize the feeling of not being good enough at any of those responsibilities, each of which could be a full-time job in its own right.
How then can we satisfactorily fulfil our duties of raising stellar, mentally and emotionally healthy human beings who can become resilient, positively contributing members of our society? Like any challenge at hand, it helps to simplify, identify and prioritize our goals. I ask myself what my primary child-rearing goals are and it distills down to this: I would like to raise happy kids who can in turn help others be happy. That’s really it. It’s easier to spread happiness if you are a happy, content individual. So, ensuring our kids’ buckets are full enables them to be bucket-fillers for others. Now, what has helped me be and stay fulfilled in my life is having a trusted network of supportive family and friends, staying passionate about causes, having creative outlets, indulging in music, exercising my body and mind, being close to nature and the instinct to make lemonade when life gives you the proverbial lemons. So I assumed my kids would benefit from the same. With our busy schedules, I find keeping my kids engaged is easier if we cultivate common interests.
When I am motivated to go out for a bike ride, I will more likely make it happen. Gently steering them towards what is feasible also helps - for example, instead of buying expensive toys every weekend or playing video games, we find great pleasure in exploring new parks, neighborhoods, taking long bike rides or discovering new hiking spots. With the twins, I find customizing my approach to meet the individual needs of the child is essential as well - identifying their strengths and honing them further serves both the child and the parent better than trying to force a square peg into a round hole.
We also need to be cognizant of our generational differences. While we have traversed the analog to digital world, our centennials, our digital natives, were born into times where technology is part of their daily lives. Though this comes with its own set of challenges, we as role models can demonstrate healthy habits to discourage constant device use and encourage direct human interaction. During the pandemic, we have found ways to safely interact and stay connected with friends and neighbors keeping ourselves emotionally healthy and happy.
We are raising citizens of the new world - values such as inclusion and empathy should be ingrained in them, so I ensure we spend a considerable amount of time cultivating these positive character traits. At the end of the day when I ask my kids what they would like to do next, and they request making sandwiches for the homeless or go tree-hugging, I smile knowing we are headed in the right direction.
4) What are some differences in keeping a boy versus a girl entertained? How much is the gender difference at their age, play a role?
So far we have not experienced significant differences based on gender with the twins. Fortunately and conveniently, they have similar interests and strengths - karate, music, math, computers, hiking, biking, travel and most of all, connecting with friends and family. They have always been extremely close and are happier being together than apart, so we have not had any noteworthy bifurcations as far as entertainment, education or activities are concerned. In the rare case there is one, they end up partnering together - when one started exploring voice lessons and the other gravitated towards guitar, they created their 2-person band Twynphony which provides them hours of fulfillment and relaxation.
5) How do activities change as the kids grow older? How do you keep yourself informed of these ever changing activities?
As the kids are evolving, I find their interests narrowing down to a few that they are passionate about. I go with the flow for the most part, allowing them to carve out their path on what they would like to pursue. That being said, it’s definitely beneficial to explore and get exposed to new activities. For example, this year they started tennis lessons and are enjoying them thoroughly while getting some much-needed exercise and social interaction. The community around us (teachers, friends, well-wishers) seem to be our best source, keeping us informed and guiding us on activities. I have not really had to proactively search for activities, rather just keep up with the guidance provided by these mentors. I do see a growing passion the twins have for participating in causes, events and projects - this is probably just from association but it makes me very happy.
Due to the pandemic there are a lot more options / access locally and nationally (museums, classes etc.) of remote learning / entertainment. How has this pandemic changed the activities your kids have access to? local museums etc on zoom
Most of the activities the twins are into work better with safe, in-person instruction and with school being online they spend a significant part of their day on their computers. So we are striving to stay away from screens and enjoy the outdoors as much as we can. I believe a child can learn as much or more with unstructured, real world experiences as with instruction based activities and so we try to find a balance between the two.
6) What are your’s and the kids’ plans for the holidays?
The holidays will for sure be different this year. We are working on a new Twynphony video that should be ready for viewing during the holidays and we are also looking forward to hosting our third online quiz with our friends. There is no better time to focus on those less fortunate than us and help out with as many causes as we can. We look forward to having a positive and constructive holiday season and wish for joy and peace for all.
Thank you Anuja for the lovely tips! We are excited to have you in our global women’s network!
Bio: I am a software development manager at Oracle Corporation, with over 22 years of experience in pharmaceutical software development and the Life Sciences and Healthcare industries. My interests include travel, fitness, music and philanthropy. I am passionate about people and projects and am always looking for opportunities to collaborate and create interesting results.