Watching Kiddos During Quarantine

2 Different Households, 3 Kids, 4 Days a Week

With most of the world shut down due to the Coronavirus, I was out of a job, and some dear professors of mine were out of childcare for their kids. One household was a 7 year old girl and the other was 2 year-old twins, one boy and one girl. For the sake of this post I will call the twins, just that through out and I will call the older girl 'M' in order to keep their names private. There are also no images due to keeping the kids private, but please still read!

From the end of May to the beginning of August I spent a few hours a day, Monday -Thursday at either house. It of course was work and I was often worn out, but it was also an amazing experience with some of the best kids I've ever met. However, being stuck in the house all the time and only really getting to see a handful of people can be hard on anyone especially kids.

The twins were easier to entertain than 'M' as they are younger and are completely happy playing with anything or reading books all day. They also have a built in play partner since they have each other. Where as 'M' who is older and used to going to school and seeing friends and talking to them was really missing out on the fun of playing with friends. So I tried to play a few fun activities for us to do during our time together.

With the twins I slowly introduced them to some Korean things as I am learning the language and have studied there before. They loved dance parties to K-Pop and the book on 100 Korean words for Toddlers. I also introduced some Korean into 'M's life as she already loves K-Pop it was really easy to get her interested in the language at least a little bit of it, haha! I got her these cool flashcards that introduced simple vocabulary. She got a big kick out of learning "Omma" which means mom and "Unni" which means older sister which she calls me! It was a fun little thing to add to our time together.

I tried to bring things with me to do different activities so that it was something she had not seen before or was at least different from what she had. The first planned day was a movie 'night' in the middle of the afternoon and I brought twizzlers and Popcorn buckets so it felt like we were at the movies. We also made unicorn popsicles one day with a mold my mom had found.

Both things made her smile so wide! It doesn't have to be a big deal it can be a simple thing to make a kid in quarantine feel excited. We did do a big activity one day when we had a tea party using my moms china (my mother owns a tea party business) and we both go dressed up and made crowns and wands and had ourselves a little princess party! It was such a special day for us to bond and create and be fancy! We also had a 'sleepover' which was just me wearing my pjs one day when there and bringing sleeping bags. We played games and watched a show.

Since the twins are little and don't get the concept of a tea party or a movie night, we just played a lot. I was often a jungle gym but I wore my bruised like medals haha. We danced, did puzzles, read book, colored, played hide-and-seek, and watched a lot of cloudbabies which I can honestly say is not something I will miss watching everyday!

It was cute but.... the voices! One of their favorite activities though was an app on my phone called "Snow" which is a Korean filter app which has lots of animal filters. They always wanted to be kitty cats or bears. They would ask for kitty cats the moment they saw me some days. I have an abundance of cute filter pics now!

I am truly grateful for what both families did for me as well. My birthday was during the time that I was with them. I felt so loved on that day by everyone. I went home with an amazing cake and delicious vegan cupcakes! It made feel like I wasn't just a babysitter but a part of their families.

Anyways, we played hard, laughed loudly and enjoyed our time together. All of the kiddos just wanted to play and be active and have some fun when stuck inside their homes due to quarantine. I learned a lot from my kiddos this summer. I of course worked on my patience which I think everyone learns from being around kids often, but I also saw the world through kids eyes for the first time in a long time. They are innocent and hopeful and I want to protect them all of myself, so I can only imagine how their parents feel.

These kiddos will forever be a part of my life, no matter where I am in the world.