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If you are quarantined in your home, you may be feeling a little stir crazy, especially if you’re like me and you have a house full of kids. Prior to this, you may have been feeling overwhelmed and that there’s never enough time. I think this is God’s way of telling us to step back and make time for what’s important. So, now that you have plenty of time, it’s time to make the best of it. It’s a great time to reconnect as a family and make some fun memories while doing it. I’ve come up with a list of activities that I think everyone will enjoy and will facilitate active, engaged learning for your child(ren).
1. A Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt – Feel free to download our free printable for a neighborhood scavenger hunt. For younger kids, it can be modified to include things found specifically in your yard.
2. Water days – Kids love water! They love getting dressed up in their bathing suits and splashing around. I’ve found several great water stations that I’m sure they will love! There’s even options for mom and dad!
3. Backyard sports activities – This is the perfect time to play a game of badminton, horseshoes or cornhole.
4. Go on a Bear Hunt. I’ve seen this all over facebook and several people in my neighborhood are doing it, so we thought it would be fun to give it a go as well. In our neighborhood, a bear hunt usually involves riding around looking for black bears but this is fun too. Social distancing can easily be obtained by either walking, riding bikes or driving thru the neighborhood.
5. Have a family game night every night after dinner – If the kids have done their homework for the day and helped me out around the house, I like to reward them with a game each night. It keeps them busy and it’s certainly much better than sitting around watching tv all day.
6. Teach your kids to cook – My daughter has always been very interested in cooking and loves watching cooking videos on youtube, so I’ve decided that it’s time for her to start helping me out in the kitchen. I’m hoping that she will enjoy it as much as I do.
7. Teach your kids how to garden and grow their own fruits and vegetables – This is the perfect time to be planting a garden. So take advantage of this free time and start your own garden. With food in short supply, it’s nice to know that you will soon have some fresh veggies to chow down on. Plus, they taste even better when you’ve grown them yourself.
8. Look through old photo albums and show your kids photos of your childhood, relatives and past vacations – My kids are younger so they tend to be more interested in photos of me as a child.
9. Create a vision board for all of the fun things that you want to do on summer break. When this is all over, the kids are going to want to get out of the house and explore, so we are in the midst of making a vision board with all of the fun places that we want to go this summer. We are hoping to explore places of historic significance as well as places that have hands-on educational value.
10. Set their tablets up with links to museums that are offering virtual tours and wildlife facilities that are offering live webcams, and other educational channels that will stimulate their minds.
