Things To Keep The Family Busy During Self Quarantine
While a majority…
of businesses, schools and other places are shut down, causing people to spend much more time at home, some might be wondering how to fill those hours while following the rules to to keep the coronavirus disease at bay. So here are some suggestions:
Spring cleaning
While most people are spending time in the house to keep from coming in contact with the coronavirus. Certainly, there's a need to keep the germs at bay, but why not start spring cleaning a little early? Spring cleaning is an age-old tradition, rooted in both religious and cultural traditions. According to CountryLiving.com, the cleaning is rooted in multiple religious cultures.
Good Housekeeping recommends spring cleaning for those chores that don't need an everyday touch, but certainly need a once in a while refresher.
Clean all the door handles, stairwell rails, window sills and other areas where we often put our hands.
Wipe down electronic devices or remotes that are handled by everyone in the household with disinfectant wipes or spray.
Sweep away those dust bunnies that have made a home under the couches and chairs.
If you have a garage get a jump start of cleaning some of the clutter that has collected throughout the winter.
Throw all those reusable grocery bags into the washing machine for a good spin.
Yes, throw that plastic shower curtain in the washer too.
Run a cut side of a lemon over all your cutting boards, to remove food stains and smells. (Sprinkle with salt or baking soda first for a stronger clean.)
Wipe down the interior of your refrigerator, and all the shelving; white vinegar is a good option.
Clean out and organize that junk drawer (use those empty butter dishes as organizers.)
Yes, throw that plastic shower curtain in the washer too.
Vacuum the furniture (don't forget to remove the cushions)
Reorganize the bookshelves.
Wipe down those ceiling fan blades.
Wash all the kids toys, a good method for many is put them in the dishwasher on the quick cycle and skip the heated dry.
Don't forget the dishwasher and the washing machine; there are a number of products out there designed to give them a good cleaning.
Check off the "honey-do" list
If you're married or have a significant other, you probably have a list of things they want completed. Here are some options:
Clean out the gutters, removing leaves that collected there in the fall.
Finish those remodeling projects that were put off over the winter.
Clear out the dryer vent that collects lint over time.
Keeping the children occupied
Younger children have an amount of energy that adults wished they still had, so how can you keep them busy while they're stuck inside?
One thing that will help kids get used to their “new normal” is an official schedule so that kids won’t be knocked off their routine. Toddlers or younger elementary school kids will enjoy drawing pictures of the day’s or week’s activities; older kids can create a written one with times and activities. Try mapping out the next day’s activities the night before, or the week’s activities the Sunday before.
Some of those activities should be educational, regardless of whether your child’s school is doing formal structured education. Plan those out as well, integrating blocks of academic time into the regular routine. For ideas, check out the website Amazing Educational Resources, which maintains a spreadsheet of education companies offering temporarily free subscriptions during the pandemic; National Geographic Education for educational activity collections; and National Geographic Kids for quizzes, videos, and animal profiles.
And though it will be tempting to stay up late or sleep in, don’t shift too much from the school-night schedule. (That means you, too, Mom!)
Go outside:
Go play in your backyard, or on the sidewalk in front of your house. Get those kids some sunshine and fresh air on days where it’s nice enough to do so. Let them play on their own and create fun activities to engage their little brains.
Quite Time Is Key:
This is a trying time for everyone, and no one should expect to be entertaining, teaching or engaging their children all day long. Implement a daily quiet time to calm things down and give both parents and kids a break.
Other Ideas:
Organize a movie theater adventure via streaming (or DVDs) in your home with lights out and popcorn.
Have them work on paintings, drawings and collages for an end-of-the-week art show.
Break out LEGOs, Play-Doh, Kinetic Sand, Magna-Tiles and other building tools for some peaceful construction.
Dust off those forgotten board games or pull out a deck of cards
Learn to dance, play a guitar or build a robot through Youtube videos.
Let little ones get their hands dirty in the kitchen by helping with cooking or baking.
Facetime or Skype with family members.
Below is a list of websites that offer online lessons, fun games, printable’s and videos to keep children from getting bored during the time schools remain closed. Also included are a few sites that offer parents tips on structuring their children’s day.
Activities, learning:
123 Homeschool4me: Get printable worksheets and other resources for homeschooling.
All Kids Network: Get worksheets, craft ideas, printable dot to dot, hidden pictures and more.
Animals are amazing: Learn all about animals from the Switcheroo Zoo.
Arcademics: Games are aimed at students from kindergarten to eighth grade.
Ascend Math: Ascend Math offers math instruction for kindergarten to 12th-grade students. The platform will be free until the end of April.
Beaverton School District: Math, reading and many other activities for students pre-K through 12th grade.
Bedtime Math: See math as part of your child’s daily routine.
BeeLine Reader: BeeLine Reader helps students of all ages and skill levels improve their reading skills.
Belouga: Get a free account for K-12th grade students for resources such as math problems and social science videos.
Big History Project: Get free access to a social studies course. It is focused on high school students but works for most of the rest of us.
BlocksCAD: Build math and computer science skills by using specialized 3D CAD (computer-aided drafting) software.
BrainPOP: Want to make a movie? BrainPOP lets students make movies out of images, build maps and develop their block-based coding skills. BrainPOP focuses on K-12th grade children.
Classroom cereal: Work on your grammar by learning to proofread short stories.
Club Oasis: A free STEM club offers DYI STEM labs, live classes, coding lessons and lives pop-ups.
Crash Course: Courses in sociology, computer science, film history and mythology are offered for starters.
Desmos: Students can use online tools to visualize math problems, create interactive tutorials and play math games with kids from all over the world.
Discovery K-12: Pre-K to 12th-grade lessons and activities in these areas: language arts, reading, math, science, history/social studies, performing arts and physical education.
Dr. Seuss to the rescue: Who doesn’t want to read and play games with Dr. Seuss?
DuckDuckMoose: An app for tablets for preschool to kindergarten students.
Duolingo: Learn a new language while you are stuck at home.
Fun Brain: Activities, games, reading and more are available for grades pre-K through eighth grade.
Games, videos and math: ABCya offers activities for students grades pre-K through sixth grade.
Giant list of Ideas for being home with kids: It is a pretty giant list of all kinds of ideas for kids to do from art projects to making ice cream to gardening.
Go to the museum, virtually: Get a virtual tour of 12 museums.
Going for the record: The folks at Guinness World Records have some ideas for kids who want to be record setters. How many balloons can you burst by sitting in 30 seconds?
GoNoodle: GoNoodle has games to get your child moving.
Into the Book: Elementary school students can practice reading comprehension.
Into the Map: For the world traveler, a way to create maps and explore the world’s geography.
It’s Epic: The Epic! reading app is free to parents for the rest of the school year if you can get a digital invitation from a teacher or school librarian. They can sign up free to provide access to their students.
KiwiCo: KiwiCo “helps kids think big and act like creators and producers instead of just consumers” Great activities and DYI science projects.
Little Twisters Yoga & Emotional Wellness: Don’t forget your child’s emotional health. What about yoga?
Mathcelebrity.com: Check your math with Mathcelebrity.com.
Minecraft Education Edition: If you like coding, math and problem-solving try Minecraft way.
Mystery Science: Video lessons science lessons that will inspire kids to explore our world.
NaNoWriMo: If your child is looking to write the Great American Novel, here’s a website for you.
National Geographic for Kids: Look for games, videos, lessons and “cool stuff.”
New American History: Learn from history materials aimed at grades 4 and up.
PBS KIDS daily newsletter: Sign up for a free daily newsletter from PBS KIDS.
ProjectGutenberg: A free library where kids can download or read online more than 60,000 free eBooks.
Readworks.org: Reading comprehension is the goal of Readworks.
Scholastic Learn at Home: Scholastic Magazine is offering four learning experiences each day.
Science Friday: Elementary to high school students can get lessons in physics, chemistry, earth science and biology.
Star Fall: Math, reading, art and music is available for students in kindergarten through third grade.
The Activity Mom: Get the printables kids love to work on.
The FAB Lab: Watch STEM videos with Crazy Aunt Lindsey.
Toy Theater: A fun website with math, art and reading games.
Vizzle: If you have a child on the autism spectrum you can get specialize lessons from Vizzle.
Wonderopolois.com: Learn about 2,000-plus wonders of the world.
You can draw: Jarrett Lerner is posting activity pages on his website which you can print out and enjoy. Lerner is the author of "EngiNerds and “Revenge of the EngiNerds,” as well as the forthcoming “Geeger the Robot” early chapter book series and the author-illustrator of the “Hunger Heroes” graphic novel series.
Don’t want to feel “trapped” while being trapped indoors? Take a tour through one of these 12 Famous Museums from the comfort of your own couch.
British Museum, London
This iconic museum located in the heart of London allows virtual visitors to tour the Great Court and discover the ancient Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies. You can also find hundreds of artifacts on the museum’s virtual tour.
Guggenheim Museum, New York
Google’s Street View feature lets visitors tour the Guggenheim’s famous spiral staircase without ever leaving home. From there, you can discover incredible works of art from the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary eras.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
This famous American art museum features two online exhibits through Google. The first is an exhibit of American fashion from 1740 to 1895, including many renderings of clothes from the colonial and Revolutionary eras. The second is a collection of works from Dutch Baroque painter Johannes Vermeer.
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
You can virtually walk through this popular gallery that houses dozens of famous works from French artists who worked and lived between 1848 and 1914. Get a peek at artworks from Monet, Cézanne, and Gauguin, among others.
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul
One of Korea’s popular museums can be accessed from anywhere around the world. Google’s virtual tour takes you through six floors of Contemporary art from Korea and all over the globe.
Pergamon Museum, Berlin
As one of Germany’s largest museums, Pergamon has a lot to offer – even if you can’t physically be there. This historical museum is home to plenty of ancient artifacts including the Ishtar Gate of Babylon and, of course, the Pergamon Altar.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Explore the masterworks from the Dutch Golden Age, including works from Vermeer and Rembrandt. Google offers a Street View tour of this iconic museum, so you can feel as if you’re actually wandering its halls.
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Anyone who is a fan of this tragic, ingenious painter can see his works up close (or, almost up close) by virtually visiting this museum – the largest collection of artworks by Vincent van Gogh, including over 200 paintings, 500 drawings, and over 750 personal letters.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
European artworks from as far back as the 8th Century can be found in this California art museum. Take a Street View tour to discover a huge collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, manuscripts, and photographs.
Uffizi Gallery, Florence
This less well-known gallery houses the art collection of one of Florence, Italy’s most famous families, the de'Medicis. The building was designed by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 specifically for Cosimo I de'Medici, but anyone can wander its halls from anywhere in the world.
MASP, São Paulo
The Museu de Arte de São Paulo is a non-profit and Brazil’s first modern museum. Artworks placed on clear perspex frames make it seem like the artwork is hovering in midair. Take a virtual tour to experience the wondrous display for yourself.
National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City
Built in 1964, this museum is dedicated to the archaeology and history of Mexico’s pre-Hispanic heritage. There are 23 exhibit rooms filled with ancient artifacts, including some from the Mayan civilization.