10 STAY HOME IDEAS FOR TEENAGERS TO BUILD THEIR INTELLECTUAL CAPACITY WHILE AWAY FROM SCHOOL

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, most schools have been forced to shut down to reduce its spread thus causing school students to stay home. You are probably one of such students who have been affected by the pause of physical schooling be it at the secondary school level or at the university level. Questions that would continually plague your mind at these times include “how long before school begins again? What do I engage myself in while I stay indoors?” As you might have heard persons say, the idle mind is indeed the devil’s workshop and sitting home and doing nothing profitably engaging can be mentally draining, boring and could negatively impact your intellectual capacity.

It is with you in mind that we have prepared these top 10 stay at home ideas at these times to help build your mind and intellect while we pray and wait for these times to be over. Who knows? You just might be next student who would be recognised for doing something worthwhile during this time or the student who undergoes great personal development so much so that the improvement is noticed by family, friends and teachers. The ideas include the following:

1. ONLINE LEARNING: One way to stay ahead at these times is to take online courses and skills to build yourself or a skill. More so, it is dedication to learning that will distinguish the wise from the foolish after the pandemic comes to a halt. You could learn skills and get certifications that is internationally recognized. This would help you get internship and jobs when school resumes fully. . University of Leeds also have free online courses that can teach you innovation and critical. You can also take online courses from the Young African Leaders initiative by the US Department of State. You will find below a list of free sites where you can learn digital marketing skills, content marketing, email marketing, time management, personal development, team management.

• https://academy.hubspot.com/
• https://alison.com/
• https://www.futurelearn.com/
• https://www.leeds.ac.uk/info/130503/online_courses/660/online_courses_for_academic_skills

Start a course, aim to finish it, write the exam and get the certification before moving on to another course. It is tempting to want to get started with different interesting courses at the same time but stay discipline and stay true to the end. No fees attached, just your dedication and consistency.

2. READ UP YOUR COURSE WORK: Now would just be a good time to finish up courses that you are flanking on. It could be physics, chemistry, mathematics or English. This might just be a great time to finish your text book and watch learning videos for the course that seems difficult. Becoming a guru in that subject before this pandemic is over is very possible, it only takes giving yourself to learning.

3. DEVELOP THAT TALENT OR SKILL: There might be one skill that you have that you are an expert at or seeking to be an expert at. It could be writing, singing, playing the instrument. This could be just the time you could commit to developing that skill. There is enough time to practice, practice and practice.

4. LEARN A DIY SKILL SUCH AS COOKING, KNITTING, BAKING, CRAFTS: Simple Do it yourself such as craft, baking, knitting could be very useful. You could also learn how to bake or cook. Though caution should be taken as to usage of ingredients since most shops are in lockdown, so you can assist while your parent or guardian cooks or bake and learn faster that way.

5. WRITE A BOOK OR DO BOOK REVIEWS: You know that story that has been roaming in your head for a while, well this might just be the time to build that story and take it from your head to a book. If writing a book seems too hard or a really long-term plan, you could read lots of books both non-fiction or fiction and write a review on the book or your thoughts on how you feel it should have happened. You could publish this at a friend’s blog or site or simply have a blog dedicated to just book reviews.

6. START A YOU TUBE CHANNEL: If you have a passion for videos, journalism, talking, well you just could start a you tube channel. You could do music covers if you have a really great voice or discuss books or movies and give life lessons to it. Starting a you tube channel is very easy and if you stay committed and get lost of views and subscribers, you just might start making a fortune from it.

7. START YOUR OWN BLOG: If you love writing but do not now want to commit to writing a book just yet, you could start a blog and document your journey and experience during this corona virus pandemic, how you, your family and your nation have been coping through it. You could capture daily events and write it in a real yet interesting way to get readers to read it. A blog would be great at this time because more persons would be online and would long to read people’s experience too so they can feel connected and not alone at this time.

8. LEARN ANOTHER LANGUAGE OR YOUR NATIVE LANGUAGE: How about whipping up some French lines or German or even your own native language. you could take these classes online. Start by learning words, simple phrases and then songs in that language and before you know, you are having a conversation with that language.

9. WRITE THE BUSINESS PLAN FOR YOUR DREAM BUSINESS: Who says you cannot start writing the business plan for your dream business. You could start doing little research on target market, competitions, your unique selling point and downloading business plan templates. Starting to work on your business plan early would keep you accountable to not forgetting the idea as time goes on.

10. WORK FOR YOUR PARENTS FOR SOME TIME:  What better way to learn office skills and having an idea of how working seems like than working for your parents? Most likely, your parents would be working remotely and it would be great to assist them as they are at home. Most likely, your ideas would be of great value to them and you get to build on real work experience too.

Conclusion:

 It is possible to define who you want to be at the end of this pandemic even if you are a teenager. You can decide to be better and grow or decide to be idle. Take one idea, work on it and who knows, you might come out of this pandemic having started a great idea that would change the world. Don’t underestimate the power of your ideas at this time. most importantly, whatever you chose to do, learning should be at the core because as Henry Ford, anyone who keeps learning stays young.