MANILA, Philippines - For today's kids, 7- to 12-hour blackouts are as surreal as an alphanumeric pager. They weren't born yet during the time of former President Cory Aquino's administration, particularly her last two years in office, when there were daily Luzon-wide blackouts caused by the government's poor energy planning and management.

So when kids woke up Wednesday morning in a household with no power, no TV, no computer, no Internet, no cable, and no cellphone (unless previously charged), some of them felt disoriented.

"What am I going to do?" asked Alec, 15, a junior high school student in Manila. His cousin Daniel, a sophomore college student in Manila, called a relative's house to check if they have power but was disgruntled to know that it's not just Metro Manila, but the whole Luzon that's experiencing a blackout. (See story here.)

"Kids today are the EPIC generation," said Ardy Abello, president of Business Works Inc. and training professional, at a talk before parents early this year at Malayan High School of Science.

According to Abello, EPIC means Experiential, Participative, Image-driven, and Connected.

Being "connected," today's generation can be called techno sapiens, said Abello. The youth are on cyberspace where they are on social networks. They play computer games, chat and share photos with their friends online, watch videos on YouTube, and download music onto their iPods and mp3 players.

So a day without power leaves them with nothing to do--or so they think.

What kids can do

There are many things kids of all ages can do at home without need for power or technology.

Below are some ideas:

1. Play chess.

According to an article entitled "The Brainy Benefits of Chess" on Parents.com, Dianne Horgan, Ph.D. of the University of Memphis has done studies which showed that "chess improves a child's visual memory, attention span, and spatial-reasoning ability. And because it requires players to make a series of decisions, each move helps kids learn to plan ahead, evaluate alternatives, and use logic to make sound choices."

Other games worth playing are Chinese checkers, Monopoly, and good old jackstones.

Gather the whole family together and spend at least 30 minutes to an hour bonding over old-fashioned but still reliable games like these.

 2. Get physical.

Run around, play Frisbee in the backyard, and do a whole round of taguan (hide-and-seek) or patintero. You'll not only get kids busy, you'll burn calories get more fit, too.

3. Organize photos.

This is a great chore-cum-bonding time. Remember those old print photos still lying around in a box somewhere in your house? Organize them into photo albums (the hard copy kind) and go over each photo with your children. While at it, tell stories about where each photo was taken. Your kids will get a kick out of seeing their baby photos and hearing what life was like when they were small.

4. Read a book.

Treat the blackout as an opportunity to nurture in your children a love for reading. Young children can be read to, while older kids can be reminded to get that hard copy book sitting on the bookshelf for months and actually spend time to read it.

5. Tell a story.

At night time when you have less options, have story-telling time at home. It can be a story you just made up about a girl your daughter's age, or a real story that happened in your life. Kids are always thrilled to hear how their parents met and what life was like when they were born.

6. Make a fuss about a candlelit dinner.

Set the table in an extra special way, using your best china, runner and centerpiece. Use a candelabra and set the mood for a nice candlelit dinner for the whole family. It may be blackout, yes, but that should not get in the way of a lovely dinner at home.

7. Play with shadows.

Entertain kids at night by finding out what shadow forms you can make with your hands. Here's a link to a YouTube video of some shadow hand puppets you can easily do: http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=ckvIyNQ6bNU&feature=related.

Screenshot of some shadow hand puppets you can do at night when it's blackout.

As you can see, kids can be kept busy in so many ways even without power. Just be creative.