Keeping Our Kids Sane
My girls and I are officially 3 weeks into self isolation and I am proud to say the transition to being at home all the time hasn’t be too painful. We’ve worked together to instill a little bit of a flexible schedule and found a few really great tools to lean on for extra entertainment. I know there are lists abound out there rounding up great resources, websites, free services, etc - that are available right now. But to be quite frank, I have found those lists too long and too overwhelming. So I have put together our top 5 things that have been helping us stay sane, from electronic resources, to around the house things.
Marco Polo - this is a video messaging service which has been great for me to continuously connect face to face with friends, but not having to have the time commitment of a live FaceTime call. On top of that, my oldest daughter has been recording herself reading books out loud to send to her younger cousins and family friends.
Go Noodle - This is such a fun app for the kids and honestly, the whole family. There are lots of fun videos for getting moving, but our favorite are the NTV ones!
Art with Crystal - a local artist, who just happens to be my neighbour’s sister, has been posting a new free printable every week day. Everything ranging from colouring pages, to puzzles and gratitude activities. My girls have loved them all!
Get Crafty - I will admit, I am not a very crafty person. I’m fairly mess adverse this one has been a challenge for me, but we’ve been collecting various recyclables and searching Pinterest for really fun crafts to make with them. Yesterday we made toilet paper roll bunnies for Easter.
Journaling - There' is certainly no denying this is an incredibly important time we are living through right now. One that I think will be fascinating to look back on in the years to come. So we have been making sure to keep journals of what we each perceive is happening in the world and what we are doing to look back on. If journaling from scratch seems too daunting for your kids, this is a really fun journal we have been using for the past couple years. For younger kids, you can read the questions out to them so they can answer too!
