So, your child’s school has sent a packet of work home and has shut down due to social distancing protocol. You’re using your precious paid (or maybe unpaid!) time off to stay at home with your child. The schoolwork only takes a couple of hours, if that (but if you’re looking for ways to extend your child’s learning, check out this post); you don’t exactly want to hang out at an indoor playground right now; and well, for the benefit of the rest of the country, you’re not making crafts out of toilet paper. AGH! What are you going to do with all this time?!
You have a few choices: You can either HATE every waking moment of this unplanned hiatus from your job and be miserable; you can set your kids in front of a screen because you don’t know what else to do with them; or you can dive headfirst into growing closer as a family with some fun activities (and thank the Coronavirus later!)
Many moms don’t get to be at home with their children very often—I’m excited for you!
Five Fun Activities for an Unplanned Week of Social Distancing:
- Get Outside and Play!—Do you still have snow? Put some colored water in spray bottles and spray away! If you get a fresh snow (we often do this time of year), make snow cream! Or, if you have warmer weather than I do, play in the mud! You can even bring some paper and some toy cars outside and allow your kids to drive through the mud and “paint” on the paper! After, they can give their cars a warm, soapy bath, and you’ll get your kids a good “handwash!” Two birds! One stone!
- Create a Family Art Project—You don’t have to be an artist for this! You can create art with basic school supplies! One of my favorite projects? First, find some random “junk” around the house or garage. Next, glue it to a piece of paper and finally, ask your child to create a picture around it (including the item in the art somehow). Here’s a great example to help you get started! You can include each of your children into one big art project by using a longer piece of freezer paper and collaborating to make one large picture!
- Bake—You probably don’t feel like going out for any specialty ingredients, but this giant cookie recipe is made mostly from ingredients you probably have on hand! I personally have made this several times and it is THE BEST cookie I have ever had! For extra fun, make a few and stack them up as a cake using cream cheese frosting in the middle! If you’re feeling really adventurous, you can let your kids decorate the cookie with frosting. (This is my all-time favorite frosting recipe because it’s not excessively sweet. It compliments without being sugar over-load.)
- Put on a family play—Mom, seriously, this doesn’t have to be difficult! Allow your children to come up with a play or skit. They can work together to write and direct it and all they have to do is tell you what part to play and what to say! (Believe me! They will love getting to boss you around!) If you want to take it to the next level, allow one of them to be the “camera man” and record the skit. (If you’re looking for an easier start, you can try this one!)
- Complete this “Quarantine Bucket List”—A more comprehensive list of activities that you can do at home with only basic household items (So you don’t have to head to the store!)
Take advantage of this time you get to spend with your kids! It will be over all too soon! You don’t have to go places or spend a lot of money. Your children will not remember the places they went, but they will remember the things they did. Imagine them as adults, telling their own children about a time in history when they couldn’t attend school because of this. Wouldn’t it be great if they were able to say, “We couldn’t go to school, but my mom made it the BEST time of my life!”? (You can be that mom!)