Photo | Courtesy of the Girl Scouts of Central & Western Massachusetts
Kathleen Wilson
April 9, 2020
10 Things you can do with your kids while you juggle working from home
By Kathleen Wilson
With Gov. Charlie Baker’s mandate to close all non-essential businesses in Massachusetts, most people find themselves working from home. Throw in the closed schools, many are stuck trying to juggle work obligations while keeping their kids entertained. Here are 10 things to do with your children to help beat cabin fever.
1. Build a fort. Give your kids a designated area to build their own sanctuary where they can read, do their school work, play games, or just have some alone time. Everything is better from inside a fort.
2. Go for a walk, but make it fun. Plan a scavenger hunt for your walk – find a non-traditional mailbox, locate five red cars, find six different color front doors, etc.
3. Host your own Olympics. With the summer games postponed this year, there are still gold medals to be won in your yard. Who can cartwheel across the length of the yard? Who is the fastest in your family? How many three-point shots can you make in four minutes?
4. Travel, from your living room. Have your kid pick an international place they’d like to visit and set them up with a passport to travel. Many cultural attractions are offering virtual tours – take a tour or two. Have them research what foods that location is known for, popular tourist locations, and some historical facts. Older kids can even help plan the trip by finding transportation costs, best time of year to go, and hotels.
5. Help plan your family vacation. While they’re on a travel kick, have them brainstorm a list of places they’d like to travel to this year, it could even just be day trips, and then pitch the trip to the whole family during dinner.
6. Cook. You could use the smaller set of hands to help make dinner. Or, you could set up cooking competitions where you give your kid five ingredients and let them create their culinary masterpieces.
7. Become a kitchen scientist. Using ingredients commonly found in your kitchen, your kid could explore the scientific method through edible (ice cream in a bag) and non-edible (slime) creations.
8. Take your kid to work. Chances are your kid really doesn’t know what you do for work. Let them sit in on a conference call or virtual meeting. Have them help you create a presentation, take notes for you, or even do some filing.
9. Connect with loved ones. Now is a good time to bring back letter writing. Send a loved one a weekly letter or homemade card.
10. Check out what other organizations are offering. Is your kid missing their after-school program, extracurricular activities, or even the zoo? Many organizations are offering virtual tours and programs. Take advantage of these free opportunities.
Kathleen Wilson is the program specialist for the Girl Scouts of Central and Western Massachusetts.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
Anonymous
April 9, 2020
Nice article, Kathleen. All the best.
- Cousin Ruth & Tom
1 Comments