Every year, between the months of May to October, hazy days fall upon Singapore affecting our air quality. This year, we hit record highs in the Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) readings and the haze in Singapore looks set to stay if the dry spell continues.
To protect your children, we all know that it’s best to stay indoors with the air purifier and air-conditioning turned on. But it is still the holidays after all and kids being kids will be aching for some fun things to do, to expend all that boundless energy.
So what can you do to keep them safe at home and still engage in some fun activities indoors? Your home can be much more than a place for their regular toys, computer games and homework. Little Day Out put together some haze-themed ideas and activities for many a fun little day in within your very own home sweet home.
Haze-themed Fun Indoor Activities for Kids in Singapore
Bring The Outdoors Indoors
So what if we can’t be outdoors? Let’s bring the outdoors in! Create a campsite right in your living room or in one of your bedrooms. Don’t worry if you don’t have a tent. Make one by tying a rope across the room, spread a bed sheet over it and tie the four corners to chairs to ‘peg’ them down. So for once, the kids will be sleeping under the bed sheet instead of on it and the whole family can cosy up together in the ‘tent’.
Campfire Time
At night, create a ‘campfire’ by lighting a small scented candle or just switch on a torchlight while all the rest of the lights in the house are off, do some shadow play, sing some silly songs and narrate stories of your own family to your children off the top of your heads. Stories of your family will help to give your children a stronger sense of identity and belonging.
Face a Fan and Talk Like a Robot
Remember putting your face in front of the fan and talking through it when you were a kid? Let your kids have fun making up all sorts of voices and narrating various phrases together with them. Ask them to imagine themselves as the voice of the big giant fan that will blow away the haze and if so, what would this robotic fan and champion of the environment say and do?
Paint a Rainbow
While the outdoors may look like winter time in some other country, it certainly isn’t. What better way to brighten up a hazy day than to paint it in all the colours you like? Here’s how you can actually make paint. Simply mix 1 cup of salt, 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of water and add food colouring. Let the kids have fun creating the colours and stirring the paint themselves. Store the paint in clear jars, line them up like the colours of the rainbow and they’ll be a decorative statement and a conversation piece for sure. Now that you know how to make paint, you’ll never have to buy paint again for the kids.
Water Bottle Bowling
Half fill 10 water bottles with water and place them like pins in the bowling alley. Roll up some towels lengthwise and let them serve as bowling ‘lanes’. Get a ball ready. And with this, your home becomes a bowling alley! The only rule is that everyone needs to drink up after the game. After all, it’s good practice to keep well hydrated to wash out the toxins during this hazy season.
Hotspots Treasure Hunt
Create several hotspots in the house and let the kids find out where they are! Hide some coins or sweets all over the house and send your kids ‘out’ to hunt them down. Finders keepers!
Little Day Out Activity Sheets
We’ve saved the best for last. If you do not already know, Little Day Out has created uniquely Singaporean activity sheets that features places in Singapore. There are colouring pages, mazes, puzzles and more.
Your kids can also bring some colour to hazy, grey skies by designing and colouring these N95 masks!
