CALM AND CONNECTED - EPISODE 69
A social distancing summer looks super different, right? Back in January, I had major plans to go to museums and take day trips with my kids. Most of that has gone out of the window.
What are we doing instead? Instead, we're choosing to explore outdoor spots that are new to us and close by. Last week, we went on a hike to a place we'd never been before, and they were limiting how many people were going in, so that felt safe in terms of our ability to keep the appropriate social distance.
I wanted to hear ideas from others with unique ways to keep kids busy this summer, and I got a ton of responses. I highlight six in the podcast episode, but to read a compilation of some fantastic ideas, take a look below!
MORE IDEAS…
Dr. Nekeshia Hammond - Psychologist, author, speaker
Have an indoor/outdoor scavenger hunt
Bake cupcakes together (try it from scratch!)
Have a dance party (put on your favorite music!)
Build an indoor fort
Play hide and seek
Do yoga poses (even a few poses counts too!)
Put on a puppet show (have fun with different themes)
Play catch (indoor and outdoor)
Enjoy a paper airplane contest (see who can fly their plane the farthest)
Have an indoor bowling competition (get creative with the objects for the pins)
Use sidewalk chalk to tell a story with drawings
DeeDee Moore - morethangrand.com
Do a Family History Project
DeeDee explains further: Younger kids may need parents or grandparents to lead, but older kids should be able to act as the interviewer. Dig into what life was like when grandparents were younger, who the notable or notorious family members were, etc.
Depending on the child’s age and interest, they can create a book, movie, photo slide show or art project about their family. This could be an activity for an afternoon or one that stretches all summer!
Rachel Ritlop - theconfusedmillennial.com
Set up a DIY backyard field day to keep your kids occupied throughout the summer. You could do it once a week, with different activities each time to keep things fresh.
DIY colored pasta. Rachel says: It's a great sensory experience for young toddlers and is part of teaching a valuable life skill to elementary aged kids (making pasta!). You can have the kids sort of the colored pasta, make pictures with it, feel the different texture when it dries out or by adding more water.
Racing down wall tunnels. Rachel explains a bit more: This is a activity for kids that will require some creative problem solving while teaching about cause and effect. Essentially you can give kids tubes (think the middle of toilet paper, paper towels, wrapping paper, etc) and some painters tape to create a race track on the wall. Whoever's ball hits the floor last, without stopping, wins!
Lorne A Jenkins - Mini Money Management App
Teach Kids about Money and Budgets
From the CEO: Mini Money Management is an app that helps make parenting fun and easy while also teaching the importance of financial literacy through everyday experiences. MMM helps parents instil important qualities in their children like self motivation, critical thinking, and responsibility. Children will be motivated to ask parents for extra chores to do around the house, not the other way around.
Using a household economy, Parents can help their children learn about money through experiential learning, and MMM creates a safe space for children to make their financial mistakes and experience those consequences at the age of 8, not 18, or 28.
Parents are the CEO of their households, and their children are now the employees. Children receive a salary, and then pay for household expenses such as rent, utilities, laundry, and food. Parents can use bonuses and fines to directly impact a child’s behavior. Children will have access to the MMM app where they can manage a checking and savings account, pay bills, purchase items from the household shop, and even apply for a loan! Parents can get MMM set up in their households in under 10 minutes and manage their child’s finances from our easy to use parent app for 5 minutes a day.
Marisa Donnelly - Momish Moments
Here’s what Marisa had to say:
For anxiety: An empowering way to calm your child’s nervous system is to encourage him or her to speak the emotions aloud, rather than holding them in. Encourage your child to say, “I’m feeling stressed” or “I’m feeling confused” when he or she first recognizes symptoms of stress. This can not only help with self-awareness, but it can encourage self-regulation, too!ii.
For fun: Quarantine has created a sense of imbalance with technology in our house (and I'm sure many others!). Rather than feeling guilty about how much time your child is spending on a screen, try to embrace it.
Something we've implemented as a family is time together to create funny (and kid-friendly) TikTok videos. Rather than fighting my son on being on the app (and thus creating more of a desire for him to rebel and be on it) I've made my own account and will film silly videos of him, his dad, and our dog. It's created a bonding opportunity that shows him technology is okay as long as we're being safe and appropriate about it. I have also the app as an opportunity to talk about difficult topics, like bullying, "stranger danger," depression, and body image issues as well.
Along the area of technology, I've also embraced video games. My son loves playing video games but I've always fought him on it - lately, I've just tried to engage. It's created a fun (and often embarrassing for me!) experience for us to bond and for me to learn alongside him. Now, rather than me feeling frustrated and triggered with him wanting to play, we can play together and create time limits together.
Resources from Janine Halloran
Calm & Connected Podcast Episode 34 -
Can Video Games Help Families Connect?
