If your like me you might be looking for some fun activities during quarantine? I would like to invite you to check these out: If you have other things you have done with your family leave me a comment and I will add them to the list. Because it doesn’t look like things are going to go back to normal for a while.
● Visit Virtually
Use a web virtual map with photographs, to do a virtual walk from your childhood home to your childhood school and tell your children the memories that come up for you. You can also “explore” places you might like to visit, or have already gone, like a theme park, a different neighborhood, or where your grandparents live.
● Try Parent-Child Plank Pose
It strengthens your core — abdominal, back, hips and pelvis — which can help you avoid pain in your back, shoulders, knees and other areas. Lie facedown, raising yourself up on your forearms. Keeping your body straight and gaze down, holding for 10-30 seconds. How many times can you repeat?
● Have an Alphabet Day
Have your child choose a letter in the evening — any letter. The next day, create activities surrounding things that begin with the chosen letter. For example, if the letter is “L”, you may include a lemon in something you eat that day, think about animals that begin with “L”, and think of silly phrases where each word begins with “L”, like “Lovely Little Leopard”.
● Create Your Own Workout
Create your own “high intensity” workout with your family. Each person chooses their favorite moves, such as lunges, jumping jacks, squats, or even hops.
Using a timer, do each workout move for 20 seconds, then take a 10-second break. Do four sets of each move, then take a 30 second break. This “interval training” is fun, fast-paced and really gets hearts pumping!
● DIY Paper Beads
Make beads using just old paper — catalogues, magazines or even wrapping paper — glue and toothpicks. Cut a strip of paper as wide as you wish the bead to be. (Cut your paper an even width all the way down, or have it get narrower, so that the bead has more texture.)
Wrap the paper around the toothpick tightly. (If you are using angled paper, start rolling the wider end first around the toothpick.) Glue the end of the paper to the rolled bead and let dry. If you wish, coat the bead with more glue to make it strong and shiny.
With just a glass jar with a lid, hot water, ice and matches (or hairspray), you can teach your child about how clouds form. Put a couple inches of hot water into the jar. Put ice into the jar lid. Light a match, blow it out and place inside the jar (or spray a little hairspray) to help make the vapor more visible. (Water vapor sticks to smoke or hairspray and serves as a cloud “seed”.)
Quickly place the lid, ice up, over the jar opening. Soon, vapor will begin to form over the water. The ice-filled lid on top cools the warm air in the jar, causing it to condense on smoke or hairspray, forming a cloud!
These tips are not only great past times, they are budget-friendly too.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
