Hey Bettina,
While I am not active on social media, I can certainly weigh in on the types of activities keeping children engaged in my little part of the world in Eastern Pennsylvania. It’s been two weeks since our schools have been shut down and one week since our County's Stay at Home order. My friends and I have gotten pretty creative in trying to keep the
"stir crazy” in check - though we continually debate our success and WE REALLY look forward to getting together for dinner/drinks where we don't have to make either
- Garden/Painting Pots:
Every year, my son and I plant a garden. Mammoth sunflowers are our personal favorite as they always make us smile, and our neighbors love them as well. In the past, we haven given a few away each year. This year, we are painting biodegradable pots and giving 2+ sunflowers to everyone in the neighborhood. Which means - this year - our entire neighborhood will have their own Sunflowers which, in turn, will make everyone smile. I can't wait to take those pictures. (For reference – I attached a picture from last year to give everyone a better idea around mammoth sunflower size. My son was about 2’6” (76.2 CM) at the time of this picture.) No offense - I don't do social media because of my son - hence - the black out of of his face.
- Go Shopping/Rummaging
In Mom’s Closet: My friend got creative with her daughters math/finance education by setting up a shop in her closet . My friend put price tags on a certain subset of her clothes, gave her daughter a budget (which was $2.64) and the requirements on what she needed to purchase within that budget. For this use case, I hear that my friend's daughter was pretty creative in her shopping! I imagine that this can also be translated into a In Dad’s Closet use case.
- Community Service/Support:
Environment Support: Chrissy lives across the street from a reservoir (her front, not her back, yard!). In a combined civic support/outdoor engagement activity for her son, they went and collected trash – with gloves on of course - social distancing wasn't a problem!
Education Support: Kim, who is also a teacher, reached out to me about helping to develop educational content for her Home Economics class which is now being held remotely.
I did my first ever cooking video where I made Deutsche Frikadellen.
Community Spread: Funnily enough, while I was figuring out what I could do to help Kim out, I suggested to some other friends in Germany that if they were going a little nuts at home, they should record their cooking activities to help the effort! Long story short – one guy is now saying that he is setting up a German Cooking YouTube Channel because he is just having too much fun.
Healthcare Support: We have been receiving requests from our local health care service providers to donate provisions. While my friends and I don’t have gowns, masks, etc. – we do have in scope supplies. IME, mothers/fathers with toddlers, we tend to buy certain things in bulk - like Ziploc Bags and Hydrogen Peroxide. (aka - containers for snacks and antibiotic treatments for cuts/abrasions) We are digging into our supply closets and donating what we have. This weekend, my son and I organized (aka – I organized – he played BUT he was excited to be included in Mom's work) our available supplies. We identified what our local healthcare teams could potentially use and donations pending.
- Nature Walks/Treasure Hunt:
All of my friends are doing this. Based on the foliage in your neighborhood, create a Treasure Hunt list of items which your children can easily/reasonably find. I have heard, this is especially effective if you have 2 or more children. Depending on how you acknowledge success/achievement within your family, you can paste findings into a memory book, assign a point rating system, where the highest score gets a reward/treat, etc. Whatever works. My son just likes to complete his check list – just like his mom. Check and move on!
Anyone who is interested in hearing more about what we are doing in our small part of the world, please let me know. Always happy to share!
