KIDS AT HOME? WHAT TO DO!

SCHOOL IS OUT...WHAT NOW?

School is out until next fall. Your kids? At home --but confined to staying around the house. Their friends are not close by due to physical distancing. And the familiar whine, “There’s nothing to do,” is rearing its ugly head.

Let’s go back in time, way back to when I was a kid in the 50’s. TV barely existed and the internet was not even on the horizon. Can you imagine? Cell phones were in the distant future, usually related to a 2-way wristwatch worn by Dick Tracy, a favorite cartoon character.

Want a few suggestions for a blast from the past? Here you go!

• Ride a bike or roller skate

• Play musical chairs

• Place a narrow-necked flower vase on the floor. Turn a dining room chair around and kneel on it. Hold a clothespin suspended over the vase. Drop as many clothespins into the vase as you can. The one with the most inside the vase wins.

Play chess or checkers, either physically or online.

• Play I Spy. Take a drive with the family and have everyone watch for license plates from different states. “I spy Alaska.” “I spy Illinois.” Or this can be the Alphabet Game: “I spy an A.” “I spy a B.” (This can get tricky when you get to a Q.)

Some more fun things to do are found online at Indy’s Child: 70 Things To Do with Kids Now That We’re All Stuck at Home. Here are just a few of them:

• Play indoor hide and seek.

• Make and blow bubbles (instructions in the article)

• Design and go on an indoor treasure hunt

• Play charades

• FaceTime or Skype with friends

• Create a nature scavenger hunt in your own backyard

• Play 20 Questions

• Make a time capsule (so your kids can share with future generations what this time was like.)

Have an a spiring writer at home? If they’re from ages 6-10, a free step-by-step guide for young writers is available online at Young Writer’s Blueprint. This is a wonderful program created by award-winning author Alice Kuipers of Children’s Book Insider. The program, “Write For Kids,” is chock full of information: from gathering ideas and creating characters to developing story lines and editing. You may have a budding author in the works by the time the Coronavirus isolation is over.

Audible.com is featuring free audio books for kids. As Audible says, “Stories help. They entertain. They teach… For as long as schools are closed, we’re open. Right now, kids everywhere can instantly stream an incredible collection of stories…that will help them continue dreaming, learning and just being kids.”

Stories read online? Just go to Storyline Online which features celebrities such as James Earl Jones, Kevin Costner, Betty White, Wanda Sykes and more reading children’s books to inspire a love of reading in millions of children online. The Indianapolis Public Library also has a website, 100+ Free Video Read Alouds --for any age group.

In these uncertain times, I think all of us want to shine. It’s a time to slow down; a time to reflect on what really matters and let that creative self flow freely. May these ideas from the past and present help you to shape some positive memories during this space in time.

Having over 35 years of experience, Joan Courtney is a clinical hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner. Her practice, Unstuck Living, helps people end old patterns and get unstuck. Joan writes for Outdoors SouthWest as well as twice-weekly Facebook posts about Duff, the Canine Executive officer (CEO) of Unstuck Living.

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