ANTI-BOREDOM KIT IN RESTAURANTS

 

With the holidays and good weather, come meals in restaurants and the famous “afternoon and night terrace.” With the new normal, we must not forget to be careful so that our food, ice cream or dinner is not a point of contagion:

 

·         Pay attention to the disinfection of the table by the restaurant or bar staff.

·         Use hydroalcoholic gel and clean children's hands well, before and after sitting at the table.

·         Remove and store the mask at the appropriate times and in the correct way.

·         Entertain the little ones so that they don't start fiddling... or invading other people's tables...

 

For the last point, we bring you a trick that will help you with or without Covid lurking so that any outing and meal outside the home is entertaining, so that the possibility of anger or tantrums around the table is reduced.

 

 

 

What should we prepare?

 

A bag (if it is made of fabric, better) in order to store our anti-boredom kit. This bag must be presented to the child with the use it will have when we leave the house. If it is also decorated by the little ones, it will have greater meaning for them.

 

 

What material do we select for our kit?

 

·         A bar of folded white paper or a small notebook

·         Small paintings in a zip bag.

·         2 small strollers

·         2 small dolls (for example: rubber duck)

·         Puzzle in a can or bag

·         Small format games like quiz questions.

·         Cards with photos of family members, animals, illustrations...

·         Stickers and settings

·         Small unstructured elements (4 ice cream sticks, pompoms, bottle caps, laces, colored straws...)

·         4 or 6 construction tiles (wooden or nestable)

 

 

With this material they will be able to: draw, create routes and houses for the dolls, play questions and answers, play with you collaboratively, create scenarios and stories with the stickers... insert, create constructions... as you see they will be able to create as far as their imagination goes. .

 

Take it whenever you go out. To avoid forgetting it, you can place the bag at the entrance next to the house keys.

 

Before leaving, you can ask the little one or little ones to collaborate to review the material together. Has any item been lost? Are the leaves gone? do you want new stickers? Do we change the dolls for others?

 

In this way, you anticipate that the boy or girl knows the items they are carrying and avoids tantrums due to some used-up wax, not having the stickers they wanted or having forgotten their little friend. You can even add a surprise depending on the age and interest of the boy or girl, so that the kit always offers something new.

 

Use the kit when waiting for the menu, keep it during the meal. And take it out again when the little one has finished eating or when waiting between meals.

It is a way to entertain children, even have fun as a family, reducing the use of screens and facilitating family communication and bonding.