Minimizing The March Madness: 30 Things to do in 30 Days with Your Kids While Social Distancing
Minimizing the March Madness:
30 Things to do in 30 days with Your Kids While Social Distancing
Go Camping… in Your Backyard: Pull out the tent, build a fire and do some s’mores, or then go in and sleep in your own bed. Best of both worlds.
Go For a Country Drive: Play I spy or have a power ballad karaoke sing off with the windows down.
Nature Walk Scavenger Hunt: Grab a basket and go for an outdoor scavenger hunt/nature walk. Make a list together, or if your child can write, have them make a list for you and you make a list for them. If they are little and learning numbers, make it a counting scavenger hunt: one flower, 2 rocks, three acorns…
TP Your Neighborhood. And by TP-ing I mean share some of that toilet paper you’re hoarding by writing notes to your neighbors and telling them what you love about them and placing the note with a roll of that “paper gold.” Then ring the doorbell and make a run for it.
Christmas in March. Bring a little Christmas cheer to a rough time. Bake Christmas cookies, drink coco, watch your favorite Christmas movies. Heck, go all in and get out your Christmas lights, and string them on that tree.
Sidewalk Chalk Obstacle Course: Let your driveway become a series of obstacles like, hopscotch, then a loopy bike line to follow, then a box full of items to push then unload. Have all the kids do it and compete for the fastest time. Leave it out once you go in and then invite the neighboring kids to give it a go and try to beat the clock.
Have a Spa Day: Make fruit infused water (a fun way to get that paramount hydration), face masks, mani pedis and even take turns giving each other back massages. This is a shameless ploy for some Momma self care.
Have a Dance Party Toy Clean Up: Clean the playroom or kids rooms, or house (because the toys are everywhere) with the tunes cranked up. Offer a prize to the best dancing cleaner, like they get to pick a movie to watch when you’re done.
Learn a Fabric Craft Together: Learn to knit, needlepoint, crochet, make a baby doll sized quilt, make a sock monkey or sock monster family…
Let Your Kids Teach You Something: Let them tell you all about that toy they love or what they learned in science or that new game they know how to play. They get pick.
Cardboard Box Upcycle: Build something with all those Amazon and Target boxes. A cardboard dollhouse you paint or color, a robot, anything
Family Yoga: B R E A T H. We all need to right now. Also, savasana is basically like getting your kids to nap, and that is a win friends. Find an online class and get your om on!
Read Your Favorite Childhood Book or Novel to Your Kids: A picture book for the little ones or read chunks of that favorite book each night before bedtime.
Virtual Pen Pal: Team up with some other moms and let your kids have a virtual pen pal. Let them email back and forth each day and when this is all over surprise them with an actual playdate together. Little ones can make videos for each other to watch. A friend sent us a video of her son telling Amelia about his dog and she loved it!
Lego Making Championship. Like the TV show, make it a competition or work together as a family to build something spectacular. If your kids are easygoing have a smash party at the end.
Kid Chef: Let your kids create their own restaurant. Allow them to make a menu, and help cook. Let them make menu cards, help set a fancy table with candles and too many forks, and pick some flowers from the yard to arrange for the table. Let them play waiter and take your order and serve you.
Use This Time to Start a Healthy Family Habit: Create a better bedtime routine, eat together around the table without devices, start a family devotion. Start one of those things that you always wish you did now when your schedule and time aren’t against you. You will be more likely to keep it up after this is over if it has become a habit.
Retro Family Movie Night Outside: Use some of those “Trump Bucks” politicians are promising to buy a projector you can hook to your computer or device and show a classic movie or one from your own childhood (The Goonies, Princess Bride, Back to the Future). Enjoy a bit of nostalgia and let your kids laugh at the bad CGI. Eat popcorn (duh) and order some movie theatre style candy.
Linen Closet Pillow Fort: Marie Kondo your linen closets. Donate what you don’t need and use, but before you wash your donations go all out and build the most epic blanket fort ever. Have story time inside your “tent” and feel zero guilt about the mess because nobody is going to surprise you with a visit right now.
World Record Expedition: Let your kid’s pretend they’re Colin O’Brady trekking through Antartica and pretend thats the reason we aren’t around other people. Pack a bag and go for your record, walking through the entire neighborhood once, running around the house 100 times, whatever is a physical feat for your child that they want to try. Celebrate your new record holder at the end!
One Ingredient Challenge: Let the kids pick one ingredient out of the pantry and together find a recipe that contains that item that you have never cooked before. You can use Pinterest or the interwebs but bonus points if you actually use cookbooks and search the recipes for your chosen ingredients. Reading, research and then a chemistry lesson all in one. Parenting Mic drop
Archaeological Dig: This is a two part activity. Day one: make some salt dough (hello Pinterest again) and have your kids make dinosaur bones from the dough (or just get some clay and let it dry, bake it).
Archaeological Dig Day Two: Use a sandbox or kinetic sand in a low rubbermaid container. Pick fun tools like a spork, comb, old toothbrush, and carefully search for the bones. Let your kids dress the part in khaki cargos and vests.
Tie Dye and Donate: Clean out the kids clothes, make a donation pile, and let them pick some old shirts to tie dye. Older kids can elevate this by trying Shibori indigo dying. It might turn out so well you what to Shibori pillow covers
Zen Garden Sandbox or Make a Meditation Labyrinth: You can find designs and patterns for these online. Learn about the history of these and learn about how you people use them to pray, meditate and solve problems. Collect rocks or use whatever you have to make your zen garden or labyrinth path. Smooth the sand and let your children rake their patterns or place potted plants. For the labyrinth you can even use sidewalk chalk on the patio and decorate it if you don’t have rocks or a sandbox. Then each take a turn walking your labyrinth. These are the kind of calming fresh air activities you can enjoy for a few days in a row.
National Favorite Thing Day: Over here we are all about the stickers. So if its National Sticker Day, wear as many stickers as you want, do activities like making a zigzagging dotted line for your little one to place those neon office dots on. Eat sticky foods. Talk about the history of stickers (or whatever your kids are into). If you have more than one kid, let them each have a National “Favorite Thing” Day.
Kazoo or Harmonica Marching Band: I love that Facebook Kazoo commercial. It just makes me happy. Order a family set of kazoos, make up a song and then march down the street playing. Yes, your neighbors will think you’re crazy, but they’re the ones on their 16th hour of Netflix. What do they know?
Pirate Treasure Hunt: This can work great especially if you have more than one kid. Let them make a treasure map of the house or backyard leading to buried treasure (gummybears, cookies, sugary junk). Let them hide the treasure in shoeboxes and then trade maps. Dress up like pirates and then go off to find each others treasures. Talk like a pirate the whole time. AAARRRRE you already?
My Free Art Classes! Starting Monday I will be offering free classes via Instagram Live at 2pm Eastern Monday/Wednesday/Friday and I will save these in my stories so you can do them whenever. I taught high school art for seven years before starting my business and I love teaching! I will have modifications so lots of different aged kids and adults can participate. I will be listing supplies needed for the week ahead of time and each week will have a theme.
Enjoy Your Kids: and cut yourself a break! There will probably be days where you watch too much tv and your eyes hurt from all the screen time. There will be fights and squabbles; and I don’t just mean the kids. But this list isn’t about mom guilt or pressuring you into feeling like you have to have some elaborate itinerary. This is about having a little fun with your kids. As a mom that works from home and is watching my toddler at the same time for the majority of my work day, I get it. I know the juggle struggle all too well. But I promise that if you give them that undivided attention with some imaginative and active play that they crave, then they will be okay with and happier about playing by themselves for a little bit too. In a scary, screwed up, and unpredictable world, but they are the silver lining, not just now, but Every. Single. Day.
Remember to visit my Instagram Monday, Wednesday, and Friday starting next week, March 23rd at 2pm Eastern where I will be going live and teaching you a different art topic each week! The first week will be watercolor and I will have ways to scale this for as wide an age group of kids as possible and parents! Supplies will be listed in my Stories!
Feel free to share this list with your mom friends!
xoxo,
Mallory