How celebs like Fann Wong and Zoe Tay keep their kids occupied at home

Like many kids, Joanne Peh’s children are also fans of Lego. Such toy bricks are great to stimulate your child’s mathematical and problem-solving skills as well as spatial awareness, creativity and experimentation.

Beyond just building the model on the box, encourage your child to build something different and allow them to be excited to create something they imagined.

Besides using the laptop and iPads for home-based learning and games, online education platforms and language apps are also a productive, useful way to engage your kids. For example, Kate Pang’s daughter Avery is using LingoAce here, an online Chinese learning platform for kids.

Other language apps you can consider are Duolingo and Rosetta Stone.

Music is often an overlooked education medium in favour of math, science and language skills prized in our meritocratic society. Music lessons are great to develop social and physical skills, rhythm, patience, discipline and boost self-esteem.

And who knows, you might have a talented drummer like Fann Wong’s son Zed, who adeptly played the tune of lion dance music. PS: We recommend doing this activity on weekends so it doesn’t disrupt anyone who is working from home.

If you’re trying to get your kids more aware of where food comes from, try gardening together with them. Here, Jamie Yeo shows her daughter Alysia harvesting kang kong, or water spinach, from their home garden. You can also inculcate in them the importance of not wasting food, and climate change.

With just crayons and paper, you can easily have your kids entertain themselves while flexing their creative muscles by getting them to draw and colour. Or, you could take it a step further and have them make cards to express gratitude for the tireless help we get daily like what Cheryl Wee did here with her kids Marc and Emma.

It can be difficult to pry the screens off your children but Eelyn Kok professed that she’s going to try, no matter what. Here, she’s trying to get her son to read more books to foster his creativity, and does so using a carrot-and-stick approach.

Six-year-old Brooklyn, with her own Instagram account managed by Daddy, is a star in the making. Staging a solo concert with natural lighting and belting out a Disney favourite looks like a good start.

Remember how the Italians sang from balconies to keep their spirits up during the country’s lockdown?

We did a double take at Fann’s post of her son with an endangered turtle in an inflatable pool. Until we realised it was a clever shot of Zed with a virtual creature, with the trending Google 3D Animals feature.

This augmented reality experience, with a selected list of animals, will keep kids and adults entertained for hours. Zed also frolicked with an octopus and an anglerfish!

Currently back in Malaysia, Florence diligently shares her daily routine through two-week lockdown.

Her 13-year-old twin daughters help prepare meals, take online piano lessons and join her in morning workouts that she streams on Facebook Live (read also “Calisthenics: No-Equipment Workouts You Can Do While Social Distancing“).

Jacelyn’s son turned tutor at home, with Grandma his obedient student.

He makes a mighty good teacher, putting together a word list and making Grandma go through a spelling test. What an educational way to bond with seniors.

Watching Jaime and Renee do the TikTok dances makes us want to boogie!

This pair seems to be having lots of fun at home. Building a living room obstacle course, playing the guitar and singing duets are some ideas we stole from them.

School is taking a back seat for little Aden and Avery lately. Kate keeps their preschoolers occupied at home with board games and stories instead.

Source of home-based learning? Good old workbooks. Occasional workouts? Swims and walks with their celeb daddy, Andie Chen.

(Read also “5 Stress-Free Tips On Working From Home With Kids“)

Letting the sun in to warm up her place – this was one of the eight things that Stefanie posted on her social media accounts.

Other activities are doing stretching, taking selfies, growing plants, video chats, discovering new things online, playing peek-a-boo with her daughter, and reading.

Desserts never fail to bring on the smiles and homemade ones are especially sweet .

AJ and Alexa celebrated their little friend’s birthday with a cartoon character cake that mummy Yvonne baked.  Time to unearth the neglected electric whisk from your store room?

Music is inspirational and a wonderful companion. And it takes much more effort to create than to consume.

So we can imagine the hours Zoe’s talented son had put into composing this tune she shared on Instagram.

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This article was first published in the Singapore Women’s Weekly. Additional reporting by Ho Guo Xiong.