Since March 13, 2020 my three kids have been doing their distance learning from home. I have a 7th grader, 5th grader and 1st grader. They each learn in different ways and are very far apart in age with what they are learning. My oldest is very structured and organized, so she is pretty self efficient with following her teachers directions for assignments. My middle daughter would rather be outside playing, singing or drawing. She has enjoyed the longer time to work on getting her thoughts out and finishing assignments. I do have to stay on top of her with organization though. My youngest, with being in first grade, does not have as much work as his sisters. He finishes it fast and then wants to know what is next as I am working with my other daughter. It has been a balance to figure out how to give them each my individual attention and also allow them moments of independence to do things on their own and succeed. 🙂 In between all the school assignments I have been trying to add in some fun and creativity! I thought I would share to give ideas. Here are a few things we have done during this quarantine.

1. Grew a Garden Inside

We were lucky enough to have already purchased most of the things you need for growing plants from seeds before we went on quarantine but you could always get curbside pick up. 🙂 The kids have been in charge of making sure they get their necessities like sun and water. We have had fun watching them flourish! Soon we will be planting them outside!

2. Bike Rides

Our neighborhood is small, so we have traveled to other neighborhoods to explore. 🙂 We play “I Spy” as we ride. 🙂 We also love the game follow the leader. The first person takes us on a fun ride as we follow the person in front of us. If they raise their hand, or take their feet off the pedals we do the same. After so long we yell “switch” and the front person goes to the back and the next in line takes the lead! The kids love it! I don’t always love going over curbs which seems to be my sons favorite thing to do when he is the leader. HAHA!

3. Target Practice

I have a small pool for our dog to play in during the summer. I used the bottom of it to make a large target with duct tape. My son has this awesome archery set he got for Christmas. We use it to shoot at the target. We set up sticks in the grass as different levels. Each area on the target gives you points to add up for the final score. 🙂 I got in on this game too! *This is an Amazon Affiliate Link, any purchase through this link goes into running this website! Thank you!

 

4. Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt

This is a great one to do now that spring has arrived! Just don’t go on anyones lawns. I have one to print but feel free to get creative and make your own. 🙂

5. Box Lockers

We used some old big boxes I had from Amazon deliveries or my Misfit Market orders. The kids then used our leftover Girl Scout cookie boxes as dividers in the box locker. They love it and it is a fun way to organize their school stuff. I put a hole punch in both doors and they close them with a string tie. 🙂

6. Magic School Bus Activities

I found this FREE site that has a full curriculum for Science using the Magic School Bus episodes with hands on activities and books they recommend. 🙂 The curriculum is 180 days worth of fun science learning experiments and activities that go along with each Magic School Bus episode. The episodes are free if you have Netflix. 🙂

7. Blind Trust Walks

It was a random day that my oldest came out of the house with her hooded sweatshirt on backwards. She laughed and then started walking with the hood up around her face. She asked me to guide her on where to go. It was hilarious! I was laughing so hard I almost peed my paints! My other two kids joined in and I was guiding them giving voice directions on where to step. Then they took turns guiding each other soon after that. My sons directions had a the girls walking all over the place! HAHA!

8. Summer Vision Boards

My chiropractor sent out an email sharing how we need to keep positive during this quarantine and stress less for our health. She gave the idea to create vision boards for when all of this quarantine is over. I sat down with the kids and we created our summer vision boards and what we are looking forward too doing. They really enjoyed talking about all the fun plans we have and it made them smile! We have the vision boards hung up around the house for them to see and get excited about. 🙂 I shared this idea with their Girl Scout troop leader and she loved it. We had all the girls do it on our zoom troop meeting call and they shared theirs together. 🙂

9. Neighborhood Zoo Walk

This was a recent one we did. I saw the idea when scrolling through Facebook and seeing a friends post about it. I shared it on our neighborhood page and others were interested. A friend and I worked together to spread the word and it turned out great! Click the link to see all the other fun creative habitats other neighbors created!

10. Indoor Fun Activities

These are activities I gathered together in one spot awhile back during the winter months and some rainy days. I thought I would share them here again for ides to do indoors. A few are dance parties, fort building and favorite card games of ours. Click on the link to see all 10 of them!

11. Streaming Dance Workouts

Being active is fun! We streamed one of our BOD Line Dancing workouts with the girl’s Girl Scout troop for one of their health and fitness badges. The 20 minute workout had all the girls smiling and sweating! We now plan to do these workouts as a family each week!

12. Disney Music Guessing Game

We have been doing this for awhile now. We listen to Disney music streaming from our Amazon Echo and see who can guess the movie the song is from before everyone else. 🙂  With doing distance learning at home, we started doing the piano Disney music while the kids are working on assignments. I did not want the music to distract them with the words. The piano music was more relaxing for them to work with in the background. The piano Disney music is an even a bigger challenge to guess what Disney movie the music is from because there are NO words!

That is a wrap! As we do more, I will add them to this list!

Do not feel you NEED to do these activities. They are just ideas for when you have some extra time. I know how overwhelming this all can be. So give yourself a hug and a pat on the back. You are doing great! Then give your kids a hug too!

To stressing less and playing more,

Melissa 🙂