There is a lot of anxiety and stress out there, there’s no doubt about that. There are also a lot of opportunities to use this time to build relationships with your kids. Remember how you said a few weeks ago that things would settle down in a couple weeks? Well, things just settled down in a big way. Do some things that you haven’t had time to do (i.e., work on relationships with your kids). The memories you make with them at this time will stay with them forever.
- Watch YouTube origami videos & make cool things out of paper.
- Teach your kids how to properly make a bed & then compete to see who can do it the fastest.
- Write letters, notes of encouragement, and draw pictures for those in rest homes since they can’t receive visitors right now.
- Play 20 questions with questions from The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock (found on Amazon).
- Build a family economy & allow kids to earn extra money while they have extra time at home.
- Teach them how to make homemade bread.
- Deep clean the bathroom.
- Go on a walk.
- Create & build your own game.
- Play board games. Tsuro, Machi Koro, Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, Zooleretto are some of our favorites.
- Do a puzzle.
- Watch episodes of Mr. Rogers neighborhood. Several seasons are available on Amazon Prime.
- Do cosmic yoga (especially for kids) or regular Yoga. Found on YouTube or Amazon prime.
- Tell stories of when you were a kid, or get your parents on the phone/Facetime & have them share stories of when you were young.
- Write letters to neighbors & ‘doorbell ditch’ when you drop them off (note: although homemade treats are usually welcome, it’s best right now to avoid chances of spreading germs).
- Start a practice of Journaling with your kids.
- Put on a Readers Theater. Find scripts here >> http://www.teachingheart.net/readerstheater.htm
- Listen to the Podcast What if World: Stories for Kids & then discuss what they think would happen, & if they agree with the host.
- Make teddy bears for Dolls of Hope. See their Facebook page for instructions & how to donate when complete.
- Stay positive, but also validate all feelings & allow yourself & kids to be worried/fearful/anxious.
- Plan an indoor scavenger hunt.
- Take micro pictures of tiny things around the house (a corner of bookshelf, or a portion of a spine of a book, etc) & have them try to find them.
- Make a new recipe together.
- Make sure & take care of yourself so you can be extra patient & present.
- Recite positive affirmations together each day.
- Find funny YouTube videos, have a made up award ceremony for funniest video, most clever video, best script, best actor, etc.
- Do karaoke — lots of options on YouTube.
- Meditate with your kids. Check out the calm app.
- Join in the games your kids like to play on their phone, some examples include: pokemon go, brawl stars, Mario kart. Surprise them by telling them you downloaded the app!
- Concentrate on making really good eye contact while you talk to each other this week.
- Pull out your nice dinner ware or china & surprise everyone with a special meal, maybe even by candlelight.
- Have a read-a-thon.
- Build a fort.
- Do the science experiment where you put cooked rice in 2 different jars & each day you say happy/positive words to one jar & negative/mean words to the other jar. See what happens in 2 weeks.
- Pick a book & read to them while they color, play Legos, do a puzzle, etc.
- Subscribe to Color Happy on www.radandhappy.com (just $5/month) & immediately download coloring pages that are fun for you & the kids.
- Go to your local elementary (or anywhere that has an outdoor hoop) and play HORSE.
- Make friendship bracelets.
- Tell a story round Robin style — where each person tells a bit & then the next person adds to it & continue on around the circle. Do it in the dark while holding flashlights.
- Go on a car ride & have your kids just say ‘left’ or ‘right’ whenever you get to an intersection & see where you land.
- Go on a hike.
- Watch upcoming movie trailers & decide what ones you want to see together.
- Carve something out of wood with a pocket knife, aka whittling.
- Have your kids look through this list & have them decide which activity they want to do.
- Teach them basic cooking skills.
- Go through the house & fill a bag with items to donate to goodwill. Challenge each kid to find at least 12 things.
- Drive somewhere after dark where you can see the stars & do some star gazing.
- Teach them principles of healthy eating & then have them plan a balanced meal that you’ll buy all the ingredients for.
- Play minute to win it games. See Pinterest for a bunch of ideas.
- Practice lots of 8 second hugs! None of us are getting enough physical touch & it’s so reassuring in stressful times.