A whole list of ideas for all this "free time" // What we are doing with 4 sudden weeks off school
Whatever you think about the panic of the Corona virus and the sudden closure of what seems like everything, it is here and it is happening. As a parent of young children, lets stay calm, be honest with the kids about what and why this is happening and teach them not to panic.
Now the kids are home, very suddenly, for the next four weeks. While we are supposed to continue on with school work at home, we all know there’s going to be a lot of extra free time.
Remind yourself that your attitude will set the tone for the rest of the household; try and look at this optimistically.
Will the kids drive you bonkers at times? Yes, expect it. Will they fight and whine? Absolutely. Will you get stressed about trying to keep up with working from home while you are often interrupted? Yes, that too. But breathe, lower the bar on your expectations for the next month, and lets talk about some ideas on what are we going to do with this “free time” we’ve been given.
The schedule:
Kids thrive on schedules and routines, especially the littles. Try and keep a somewhat consistent schedule. For our home, it will look something like this:
wake up and do their normal morning routine
start their schoolwork sent home from the school
do a fun activity as a break
finish schoolwork for the day
quiet time for an hour in their rooms (read, legos, and so forth)
screen time
go outside!
regular evening routine
Need some ideas on activities to do at home together? Read on!
Start your Spring Cleaning early. Involve the kids in this! Bless ‘er House has a checklist to go by to make it even easier for you to get started.
Bake your favorite cookie recipe.
Catch up on the laundry and clean out the kids’ closets/drawers for the clothes they’ve outgrown. Have them help you with folding the clothes and putting them away in tubs or itemizing to donate them.
Board and card games! Some of our family favorites that even my youngest (4 years old) can play are Monopoly Jr., Uno, Memory, Aggravation, Sequence, Go fish, Perfection, Guess Who, and Hedbanz.
Fun science experiments! This blog has an excellent selection of experiments I haven’t even seen before that both you and your kids will like.
Family movie night. Pop some popcorn and stream away. We are loving Disney Plus for the movie selection, for obvious reasons.
Do a blind taste test. Blind fold the kids and let them try samples of a variety of foods.
Make your own playdough. We love this recipe from Living Well Mom.
Bust out your DSLR camera that you never use. Practice taking photos of your kids in the house. They’ll love the attention and you can practice using something besides your phone. I have created tips on how to make this a successful lifestyle session you can do - get it here!
I know, the kids need to entertain themselves too. TRUST ME, I feel you. Here’s some ideas for when boredom strikes and you don’t want to let them turn into screen zombies for four weeks.
Build a fort. Use sheets and couch cushions.
Create an indoor obstacle course. Let them get creative and don’t mind the mess while it keeps them busy.
Have them collect rocks outside and paint them.
Make homemade cards or written notes to mail to cousins, grandparents or friends.
Legos!
Give them a theme to decorate their bedroom doors with (Spring, Summer, Beach, etc) and let them decorate it accordingly. Tape, scissors and construction paper - they’ll be good to go.
Marshmellow/toothpick engineering. Bust out those two things and see what the kids can build.
Play dress up and have a dance party. My kids love to dance to Pandora’s Kids Bop!
Sock wars. Each child gets all their socks out of their drawer to use as ammo. Let the fun begin.
Go play in the backyard!
Perler beads. This keeps my kids busy for quite awhile, and I iron them at the end once they’re done.
