15 things to do with kids during a quarantine
While we’re all being responsible and practicing social distancing, what are we going to do? Especially with school cancelled, how are we going to keep the little ones busy. Here’s some ideas.
Establish a new routine.
Kids love stability, predictability, patterns. No need to be rigid or too detailed, but just a simple flow that the day will usually follow can help these strange days feel less chaotic and random.
For example:
Breakfast
Read / quiet play
Dance party
Watch a show
Lunch
Take a nap
Play a game
Get outside
Dinner
Take a bath
Read a book
Teach children about germs.
Talking to kids about covid-19 can be hard, so we wrote a script that may be helpful for you. But also take this time to teach children about what germs are, what they do, and how to prevent their spread. The CDC provides this cute little object lesson you could do on your kitchen table right now.
Dance party.
Just a guess here. You probably don’t dance with your kids as often as they’d like you to. Turn on the stereo, I mean really crank it, and rock out to kids bop, or 90’s era boy bands, or the Who, or ya know, just whatever. They’ll remember it for weeks.
Call someone you would normally see in person.
Not today, but in two weeks or so, everybody is going to be lonely. The acquaintances you normally bump into but haven’t seen in several days, they’re lonely too. Why not give them a call? Focus specifically on the loose connections, the people you don’t usually talk to on the phone. Times like this can be an opportunity for acquaintances to become friends.
Delivery groceries to an elderly neighbor.
Your elderly neighbors are most at risk for covid-19, and are probably the most isolated during this time. This is a great opportunity to teach your children about service by helping someone on your block get the food and supplies they need without having to risk a trip to the grocery store.
Bake something together.
Again, just guessing, your kids would LOVE to help in the kitchen more often. But usually it’s a giant pain. They spill. They fight. They slow the whole thing down. But for the next 6+ weeks, you’ve got time to spare. Why not let them do the baking & cooking? And go easy on the supervision. Let them really do it themselves. Nevermind the mess.
And your neighbors will almost certainly appreciate an unsolicited gift of baked goods on their doorstep.
Introduce them to a show you watched when you were their age.
My toddler has been really into Star Trek lately. He loves the space action shots best, so we spend an hour or so each day cruising YouTube and looking for clips of scale-model space battles. It’s reminded me of my love for it along the way.
Ask Alexa to tell you a story or a joke or a fact.
You probably have a robot in your house who can help you entertain kids for a while. Alexa has a modest repertoire of dad jokes, stories, and random facts she can provide on command.
Jimmy Fallon recently played an Alexa-centric game that could be fun with older children.
Have a picnic and/or campfire.
Eating outside is close to pure joy. If it’s too cold for a proper picnic, light up the fire pit and bundle up. It’s a little extra work, but again . . . you ‘ve got the time.
For those wanting to raise their level of difficulty on this quarantine, try eating all of your meals outside for a whole week. Why you ask? Why not?
Tour a Museum (from your couch)
There are 12 famous museums who have virtual tours including the Guggenheim, National Gallery of Art, and the Van Gogh Museum. One a day, and you could be two full weeks into this before you run out of new museums to visit.
Play board games.
Some of my fondest childhood memories are huge games of monopoly and risk during snow storms and hurricanes. Family game night is the kind of tradition that many attempt, but few maintain. Semi-mandatory social distancing may create just enough space in your life to get it started. Your grocery store probably has a decent supply of board & card games.
Plant a garden.
In most parts of the country, March/April is the perfect time to put plants in the ground. You’ll need to do some research about what grows well in your area and which pests you’ll need to keep away from your garden. But you could rent a tiller for just a few bucks and have vegetables sprouting in your yard before Easter.
Get a pen pal.
Letter writing is a great way to learn many things—communication, spelling, civics, geography, and of course English composition. This is a great time to get started. You could pick someone local, maybe a friend from school or church. Or you could go bigger and connect your child to a child in another country. There are several services that make finding a pen pal easier than you might expect.
Read books.
Since your library is probably closed, start with this giant list of free online picture books, then go looking for a little free library in your neighborhood. If there’s not one in your neck of the woods yet, maybe you could build the first? As of this writing, Home Depot is still open.
Listen to audiobooks.
Nothing helps a child’s reading comprehension quite like regular multi-mode reading, I mean “they read, they get read to, and we all read together.” But reading to children can be really exhausting, especially if you’ve . . .ahem . . . got an upper respiratory virus or something. So, audiobooks are a great stand-in for you, and Audible is quick and easy. Many children can enjoy books way above their own reading level when they are read aloud or when heard via audiobook.