11 Ways to Keep Your Kids Busy and Maintain Your Sanity While Quarantined!

As plans are cancelled daily due to the COVID-19 virus, we are all feeling a little disoriented. I truly believe that boredom can be a gift for our kids because it forces them to get creative (and get along!). It never hurts to put a few fun suggestions in front of them to get them started, so some of the following ideas kids can do on their own and some you’ll want to get involved in.

1.     Lego Masters. Break out the Legos because kids of all ages can get in on this one. Start by taking turns tossing out ideas for things to build (if you’re stuck, there are some great ideas for printable cards online). For example, you might tell the kids to build a refrigerator, then everyone tries their best to build that. Everyone’s creation will be different, so it’s not really a competition, but it’s fun seeing what everyone comes up with! Then pop some popcorn and turn on Lego Masters (Hulu).

2.     Art show. Kids love to draw and color! I have tons of artwork on my fridge, but how about REALLY showcasing their special artwork of the day? All you need is a long piece of thin rope or yarn hung from one end of a room to another. Then hang finished pictures using clothespins, pretend you’re having a grand gala opening, serve some snacks and you have an art show! (Bonus activity: get some canvases, paint and a variety of paintbrushes and you have art to hang on your wall that can be switched out with other pieces they’ve created.)

3.     Restaurant. I loooove when my kids play restaurant because I get to be the diner sitting at the table reading my book while they serve me different foods and drinks! They get to play waiters, hostesses, managers and cooks (depending on age and what they are making, of course, but what a great opportunity to do some cooking and/or baking with them as well!). 

4.     Play-dough. This one just takes a few minutes of your help and then the kids are off on their own, creating for hours. You could always just buy the stuff, but here’s a simple recipe, as well. Pair with a rolling pin and cookies cutters for even more fun!

1 cup flour
½ cup salt
1 cup water
1 T. oil
2 t. cream of tartar
Food coloring

Mix all ingredients except food coloring on low heat in a pan. Once the consistency is of play-dough, take pan off heat, let cool, then add food coloring a few drops at a time. Knead until the color is all mixed. Grab some cookie cutters and other kitchen items and let the fun begin! Store in air-tight containers or baggies.

5.     Write and illustrate a story. Kids are full of stories, but some aren’t old enough to write them down. That’s where you come in! Have each kid tell you a story that’s been running around in their mind and you can either write it out or type it. Then have your child illustrate it! If you’re creating the story on the computer, you can go to free photo sites like Pixabay to grab images for the story!

6.     Scavenger hunt. Take out a piece of paper and write down different items in the house on it (if you have two teams doing the scavenging, write the same items down on another piece of paper). Ideas include: a winter glove, a cotton swab, a doll shoe, a pie pan, etc. Now send the teams off and whoever gets back with the most items from the list first wins a prize.

7.     Board or other games. There are so many to choose from it’s insane! Depending on the ages of the kids and how much time you have, great games include: Clue, Bananagrams, Tenzi, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, Apples to Apples, Ticket to Ride and so many more!

8.     Play with your food. Break out the mini marshmallows and spaghetti noodles and have the kids construct creations like houses, bridges, towers and more! If you have rice around (and you should right now!), put a bag into a large baking pan and let the kids play around in it on the kitchen floor. Excess can be vacuumed up, and the rest can be put into a bag to play with later.

9.     Perler beads. You may know them as those things that go crunch when you vacuum, but kids recognize them as hours of fun! Using flat, plastic shapes with spikes, kids can create all sorts of things by placing Perler beads in different patterns. You can turn creations into necklaces, magnets, cool things to put inside school binders! Once the beads are in place, you’ll need to place parchment paper over them and iron on low until the beads melt together. Flip it over and do the other side, then they are stuck together and ready to go!

10.  Salon. This is another one of my favorites because I usually can get a 5-minute back or neck massage while playing this. It’s also a blast to have the kids do my makeup, wipe it all off and start again. Then I get to do their makeup or, for my boys, tattoos on their arms using washable markers. Then it’s time for a bubble bath for the kids to wash off makeup (and germs — for the parenting win!).

11.  Marco Polo. No, I’m not talking about the swimming pool game! I’m talking about the smartphone app that lets you leave video messages for friends and family. Depending on the age of your child, let them make all the video messages they want for their friends, and especially for grandparents! My own dad and grandma love to see what we’re up to each day indoors and in our backyard.

Are You Still Busy during the "Shelter in Place" Order?

Every now and then I'll interact with someone who thinks I have a lot of free time on my hands now that we are "stuck inside" due to the shelter-in-place guidelines which are in place all over the country and the world. (We are actually NOT inside all the time; we are outside quite a bit because why move to 8 acres of land with a pond and stay inside in the springtime?)

At the beginning of this whole thing, I put a lot of things on hold to make sure I was checking up on the virus numbers and checking in on the press conferences by the governors on both sides of the state line, checking in on my own city's Facebook page and county's website. I realized some things were starting to suffer and it was taking its toll on me and how I lived my life and how I was steering the lives of my children.

Teaching Children How To Be Leaders

Image Credit: Pexels, Free to Use Licence. 

Leadership is an important skill that can help your children from a very young age, through to college and long into their future careers. But just like any skill, leadership does not come naturally to everyone and in order to become a good leader in the future, most people need to first learn how to be one. 

The key characteristics of a leader

Leadership can be defined in several different ways but in general, most people agree that it involves a combination of the following characteristics. 

Good communication

Confidence

Integrity

Hard work

When teaching children about leadership a good place to start is by breaking down these characteristics and working on them independently. Here are some things that you can do to help build the characteristics of a good leader. 

Set goals 

Setting goals is an important thing to learn and will set your child in good stead for further education and their future career. Help your child to create their own goals and then encourage them to work towards them. As they reach them, tick them off, offer praise and then help them to devise new goals to work towards. Goal setting not only helps to instil a good work ethic but will also help them in the future when they need to devise goals for other people. 

Learn from mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes, but what sets a leader apart from the rest is that they know how to learn from them. If your child makes a mistake, rather than dwelling on it or getting upset help them to recognise it and then devise a plan to stop it from happening again. 

Teach them about great leaders

One way to encourage leadership qualities in your child is to give them great leaders to look up to. We’re lucky enough to live in a world of great leaders, so whether you teach them about makers of change such as Nelson Mandela or business leaders such as Aubrey Ferrao, there’s bound to be someone out there for them to look up to and to learn leadership qualities from. 

Enrol them in extracurricular activities

Extracurricular activities such as team sports are great for helping to build your child’s confidence whilst also improving their communication skills and helping them to value team spirit. Most children don’t even realize that they’re learning how to be great leaders while hitting a baseball or running with a football. 

Let them make decisions 

Decision making is another important part of being a leader and you can help your child to build the confidence they need to make strategic decisions later on in life by letting them make more decisions now. Start by letting your child choose between two options in their lunch, and gradually move on to harder or more complex decisions such as letting them choose how to spend their own money. 

Lead by example 

Finally, don’t forget to lead by example by trying to embody the characteristics of a good leader yourself. Most homeschooling parents already display these characteristics without even knowing it but it never hurts to have them in the back of your mind. 

How to Prepare Homeschooled Kids for College

Preparing any child for college can be extremely daunting, we only want what’s best for them and will do all we can to help them achieve their goals. For conventionally schooled children, their high-school will often help them to handle their college preparation process, but for homeschooled children, the task often lays in the hands of the parents. So what can we do to prepare them? 

Think about it early

In school, student counselors recommend that parents and children start to think about college and university as early as the 8th or 9th grade. There’s a lot to think about, including finances, career options, degree paths and of course which college or university your child wants to attend - do you want to pursue a Grand Canyon University accreditation or are you thinking about a bachelor degree in Finance?. Thinking about the process early will help to take away some of the stress that both your or your child may feel as deadlines start to approach.

Financial Benefits of Homeschooling

Image credit - Pixabay

If your kids are approaching school age, you are most likely asking yourself the same questions that all parents go through when they’re sending their first child off to school. Where will they go? Will they be okay? Will they do well? These are all completely valid questions. But have you paused to consider teaching them yourself from home? There is a steady rise in what was once considered to be a niche way of raising your kids, and there are several advantages to home-schooling, not least the financial benefits it might have. Read on for just a few ways that home-schooling can save you money and could be the best option for your family.

1.       Save on School Fees

You won’t be paying out thousands of dollars each year on the private school system, but your kids will have some of the same benefits that students in private schools enjoy. One of the main advantages of attending a private school are the reduced class sizes. This means the teachers can more easily cater to each child’s individual learning pace. This just isn’t going to happen in a class of thirty and upwards. When you’re teaching your children at home, you can work in the same way and tailor the lessons to suit your children so they will get the same advantages of more personalized tuition.

2.       Grants and state tax credits

This is something else it’s worth doing your research on before you take the plunge, but there may be available tax credits and grants for you in your unique home-schooling situation. the Home School Legal Defense Association offers a variety of grants for special-needs students, single home-schooling parents and families who need financial assistance to pay for a curriculum. Consult with a tax specialist who will be in a good position to tell you what you might be eligible for.

3.       Free or inexpensive resources

There is so much to bear in mind when you are selecting the school for your kids. You want to make sure it has plenty of resources and available labs, as well as confident and friendly teaching staff. All of these things are important. One of the pros of teaching your kids from home yourself is that they will be able to use the huge amount of learning resources that are available online, for free. They won’t have the same access to bigger resources (like a science lab, or basketball court) but some home-schooling parents bring their kids together for these kind of experiences so, once you start thinking outside the box, anything is possible.

Whilst it’s true that you or your significant other will have to retire, or at least drastically reduce your working hours, there are lots of other aspects to think about when considering home-schooling. Make sure you speak to fee only financial advisors before you make any decisions and weigh up the pros and cons first – you might just find that home-schooling is the perfect choice for you and your family.