How to entertain the kids at home?

Classes are over and many children stay at home all day with little to do. In this article, we bring several suggestions of activities to keep them busy!

Home cinema - Netflix, HBO, Google Play, Apple TV

Make some popcorn, turn off the living room lights, and turn up the TV volume! Staging a home movie night is a great way to entertain the little ones(and more!) for a few hours. If you have a projector, connect it to the computer to watch the movie on a wall, in a large format. There are several streaming services available in Portugal with a quite varied selection of movies: Netflix, HBO, Google Play, or Apple Tv. And there is also plenty to choose from on the box at home.

Online museums

Taking a virtual tour of a museum was already a global trend, as it allowed access to places we couldn't otherwise visit. With the effects of Covid19 on tourism, many museums reinvented themselves and adopted this online model. This is a different way to entertain children, while also educating them. 

In Portugal, many monuments have adopted this version. Discover here some that you can visit with your family on the computer, without leaving home:

   - National Coach Museum

   - Tile Museum

   - Belem Tower

   - National Palace of Mafra

To go further, you know that some of the most renowned international museums also offer virtual tours and now they can even be an alternative to the trip you had planned this summer. Here are some good examples:

   - British Museum, in London

   - Louvre Museum, in Paris

   - THE Metropolitan Museum of Art, andm New York 

   - Smithsonian National Air And Space Museum, Washington, D.C.

   - The Acropolis Museum, in Athens

   - Smithsonian National Museum Of Natural History, Washington, D.C.

Online classes 

Currently, there is nothing that cannot be learned online, whether through courses, tutorials, open classes, live streams... Do you want your child to learn to play an instrument at home? Or a new language? Nothing is more practical than having online classes!

Here are some suggestions:

   - Guitar lessons - https://www.ricardomata.net/ // https://www.superprof.pt/aulas/guitarra/online/

   - English classes - https://www.britishcouncil.pt/ingles/cursos-criancas-jovens%20/verao-online-2020

   - Yoga classes - https://www.sunshineyoga.pt/aulas-yoga

PC and console games

We all know how much kids love video games and how it keeps them glued to the computer, tablet, or console. It's a good way to pass the time and keep them entertained for a few hours. However, don't forget to set up parental controls(if you don't know how, see here) so they can have fun, yes, but always in security while playing online!

Listen to a story

Children love to hear a story. But we can't always stop what we're doing to pick up a book and read it, in a dedicated way, to the little ones. The network of municipal libraries of Lisbon has a project called“A story a day does you good” and comes to help parents at storytime. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, at 11am, on the Facebook of the Libraries of Lisbon, a new story comes out for children to listen to!

https://www.facebook.com/BibliotecasdeLisboa/

Applications

Finally, we suggest some recommended applications, perfect for the little ones to have fun on the tablet, mobile phone or computer!

   - Children's coloring games 2-6 -  (iOS, Android and PC)

   - Coloring Online - https://www.colorir-online.com/ (PRAÇA)

   - YouTube Kids - multimedia content aimed at the youngest, mostly very educational and pedagogical (iOS, Android and PC)

   - BinGo Recycle -  the most environmentally friendly app! Games and missions that encourage children to recycle.  (iOS and Android)

   - Panda World - the Canal Panda App with many series, games, music, videos, and cartoons! (iOS, Android)