Entertaining Kids in a Covid-19 World

To state the obvious, things are really weird right know. In the course of one month nearly every one of us has had our lives turned upside down due to the restrictions of social distancing. Children who are natural creatures of habit have found their usual routines completely disrupted and parents who rely on an entire village to help raise their children have become teachers, nurses, librarians, entertainers and tech wizards overnight.

This new paradigm has completely disrupted everything we know about entertaining children as well.

With movie theaters closed for the foreseeable future and parents desperate for new ways to entertain their kids, studios are scrambling to reassess their release strategies. While most of the blockbuster films aimed at older viewers have been postponed to the fall, some studios are moving their all family releases to digital platforms. Trolls World Tour was the first major studio release to premier on streaming and it quickly broke every record in the book for opening weekend digital platforms. Disney will soon follow suit by premiering the new film Artemis Fowl on it’s Disney+ streaming service.

With nearly 90% of all students around the world practicing distance learning, there has also been a huge surge in educational programing for children, led by YouTubers like Mark Roper with his weekly live science classes and KidsBop where their daily dance alongs are replacing PE for many students.

For families seeking out more robust STEAM based opportunities The Rube Goldberg Foundation has moved their annual Rube Goldberg Machine competition online with a new challenge tailormade for fighting Covid-19, dropping a bar of soap into your hands.

Burger King is encouraging kids to keep learning by offering free food to students who can show off what they’ve learned by answering math, history and science questions on their App.

As parents scramble to keep their kids entertained during the many hours a week when they are not in online class, sales of toys and education materials have taken a huge leap.

According to the NPD Group, for the week ending March 21st sales of games and puzzles rose by 228% and building sets and arts and crafts kits both rose by more than 70% as parents stock up on ways to keep their kids entertained without setting them in front of a screen.

One of the hottest selling items was the Nintendo Switch, which is now sold out at nearly every retailer across the country with prices from resellers going through the roof.

According to a survey by SuperAwesome, kids screen time has shot up more than 50% in the past few weeks, with kids spending many hours a day using multiple screens for everything from online school to video games to watching YouTube videos and their favorite streaming shows.

Another increase in screen time comes from the rise in kids using mobile devices to Facetime or Zoom their friends for virtual playdates or to keep in touch with grandparents.

Book sales have also increased significantly over the past month and Audible has made many of their children’s stories free to download.

For parents that can’t bring themselves to read Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus for the 10,000th time or for those that just need to keep their kids occupied for 10-minutes while they take a shower, the nations celebrates have got your back.  Many celebrities have taken to Instagram and YouTube to share a reading of their favorite books in order to give parents a much-needed break.

That’s not the only way celebrities are connecting with their fans. Nightly DJ sets by Quest Love on Instagram and live streaming concerts by some of the biggest bands in the world show how celebrities are using social media to make personal connections with their fans like never before.

They are also inviting us into their homes through big production television event. Several of which have been aimed directly at kids like Disney’s recent Family Singalong on ABC and Sesame Street’s special Elmo’s Playdate which saw Elmo setting up an online playdate with his friends.

Sesame Street has emerged as a leader in helping parents and kids cope with the uncertainty of Covid-19 with they’re Caring For Each Other site, which was one of the earliest sites dedicated to providing information about Covid-19 for kids and free resources to keep kids entertained.

Possibly the most remarkable thing about the world’s response to Covid-19 is how quickly we have all adapted to our new reality. Creators from individual authors to global studios around have found new ways to connect to their audiences in unique and personal ways. It will be interesting to see how these discoveries continue to influence the entertainment landscape once we emerge from social isolation.