A self-quarantine can be tough for families with young children. It can also be a time of intentionally creating memories that will last for a long time. Here are twenty things (besides Netflix and Frozen 2) you can do with your kids during this season to invest in them and make your extra family time special.
- Go for a walk outside.
- Go to the park or Olbrich Botanical Gardens–The outside trails are free and open to the public. They’re a great place to enjoy spring and let some kids run off extra energy. Check their website before you go to make sure they’re still open.
- Build forts with couch cushions, blankets, tables, clotheslines, and sheets. Get creative, and let your kids sleep in it!
- Cook together. Make something special or take the opportunity to start teaching your littles how to prepare meals and even help clean up.
- Do art projects (make a collage by cutting up magazines, string noodles or beads on yarn or pipe cleaners, make a diorama, put paint in a Ziploc bag and let the kids mix the colors, paint on icecubes with water colors, color pictures and cut them into puzzles, or make musical instruments out of recyclables!)
- Draw with sidewalk chalk. Leave encouraging notes and pictures on the path for cyclists and walkers.
- Get a head start on your garden. Plant some seeds and care for them over the next couple of weeks. Watch them sprout, and learn about how plants grow.
- Clean together. Little kids can help, too! Paintbrushes and water or magic erasers turn dirty walls into a fun cleaning project.
- Play games! If your kids are older, play board games, telephone, kick the can, hide and seek, and capture the flag, charades. For little kids, try ring around the rosy, Pictionary where the adults have to guess, balloon volleyball, duck duck goose, London bridge, or build an obstacle course.
- Read together. If you didn’t have time to get to the library before they closed, you can still get new reading material via their e-reading apps, Libby and Overdrive.
- Sing together/have a dance party. Sing karaoke and learn some new music!
- Memorize Scripture together and maybe even put it to music. Download the New City Catechism app and listen to the songs.
- Potty train your toddler, if you have one.
- Cut up cardboard boxes or throw pillows on the floor for lava. Create an obstacle course and avoid the lava!
- Plan a first day of Spring party and look outside for evidence of new life.
- Many organizations are creating and putting out free content to help families have fun and learn during the quarantine. Here are just a few of the options:
- Prepare a skit or memorize a poem or a verse. FaceTime with grandparents and share it with them!
- Set up a treasure hunt. Let your kids use your phones as walkie talkies during the hunt. Bonus points, they’ll learn your phone numbers dialing each other! (Tip for parents with iPhones—ask Siri to turn on Guided Access, which allows you to lock the user into a single app so your kids can’t delete important things or text random people photos.)
- Create a list of things you’re thankful for. Post sticky notes of thankful things all over your wall and see if you can cover a whole wall. Or make two lists—“God is…” and “Therefore I am…” and fill them out as you learn about God’s attributes through your family devotions.
- Tell kids stories about when you were young. Recreate a favorite meal or moment from your childhood.
Joel and Michele Flage