Covid Isolation with Kids

Take a moment to take a deep breath in and slowly breathe out…

That’s my current advice to myself and my fellow South Africans.

We’re all dealing with Covid, effects of post Covid, friends and family with Covid and fear of getting Covid so it’s important to remember to breathe.

And now, with all these strikes and riots… It is difficult to not feel terribly anxious…It feels like a zombie apocalypse! Breathe and be strong. Like my brother put on Facebook this morning: “It might be stormy now, but it can’t rain forever.” Take deep breaths in… and out.

We completed 10 days of isolation. Here’s the post about our First 5 days of Covid Isolation. My lungs are still recovering. Marcus is now Day 14 since the start of symptoms and his taste has come back a bit.. He can taste extremes… Like really sweet chocolate, very bitter coffee and when food has been plastered with salt. (like after Natey got hold of the electric salt grinder.)

Thank you so much to people who went shopping for us and who brought us food! If you are wondering how to help someone in isolation, meals are a great idea. It really helped a lot! It was also really nice to get messages and phone calls.

It was quite tough to feel sick while looking after the kids. During the last 5 days of isolation I used a train track as a sort of schedule which the kids really enjoyed. I motivated (bribed) them with prizes after every 5-10 tracks(activities) were completed.

“Prizes” included small treats like fruit sticks, a cookie, a glass of chocolate milk, a episode of a TV show, popcorn, bubbles etc.

Activities included getting dressed and brushing teeth, feeding dogs and chickens, playing while I clean something, exercising with me- they actually did some squats and sit-ups with me.)

Every day they did some type of drawing/ colouring-in activity. We did a lego challenge every day. We went outside to get some Vit D daily.

I cut out some hearts out of cardboard and hid them in their room. Then they had to find the hearts while I got to drink some tea. The heart game was minimal effort on my part and kept them busy for quite some time.

I also did silly stuff like told them they had to crawl to the kitchen and back 5 times. Another activity which allowed me to sit for a bit was telling them to go and pick 5 lavendars or find 3 stones.

Another way they could get “a tick” was to play with Chilli and Rex. They (the dogs and kids) really enjoyed this! And I could once again sit down and have some tea. Or, when I had the energy, do some cleaning or laundry folding.

We bought Leo a trampoline for his 2nd birthday. His birthday is in the middle of winter so we set it up indoors… And it’s been indoors for almost 3 years now! It’s a really good investment. They play on the trampoline every day!

I involved them in a lot of my lung exercises like blowing up balloons and medical gloves. Balloons also keep them busy for long. Blowing balloons and bopping balloons around the room is a fun activity.