I am so grateful for the opportunity to be living at this time. While that may seem a strange thing to say right now, I truly believe that through all these trials we are going to see amazing blessings and miracles happen. Our faith is being tested and we will (hopefully) come out on the other end much stronger as a person and a family with even greater beliefs.
Now that we have all been told that the school closures will last until May 1, I'm sure there are many out there wondering what they are going to do to fill the time. Well look no further we have been brainstorming to come up with some fun ways to pass the time while safely practicing social distancing.
The first thing that came to mind that will also help your family be a little better prepared and is an invaluable skill to have is GARDENING. My kids absolutely love to garden. They love to help get our garden ready to plant and then plant their favorite things and new things they want to try. That way they each take ownership of a part of the garden and help it grow and keep it weed free. Plus it also gives them a chance to taste new foods they might not have otherwise. Right now is a great time to start the cold weather vegetables such as: asparagus, peas of all varieties, carrots, spinach, radishes, chard, etc. While it is a little late in the season you can also try your hand at doing some starts of your own such as peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc., so that around May you will have more things to plant. Check out the gardening section of the blog for more tips on what to plant, when to plant and if you are a novice gardener some useful information in general for gardening. If you don't normally start a garden now it also has a month by month guide of things to be doing to get your garden ready to plant. Don't have a place for a garden? Use planters. Not only will they make your yard or balcony beautiful but they will also smell incredible. With all that is going on around us being able to produce your own food is such an incredible blessing. President Kimball said: “We hope you are making this [gardening project] a family affair, with everyone, even the little ones, assigned to something. There is so much to learn and harvest from your garden, far more than just a crop itself”
Some other activities that have come to mind are: teaching kids new crafts and skills such a baking, cooking, drawing, sculpting, sewing and any others that you have always "wanted" to teach but "never had the time". I know there are lots of people out there talking about sewing masks for the hospitals and people. If you are wondering about how to do it click here (I liked her's because it was fairly simple and straight forward but there are lots of others) and what to do once you have made them. There was a post from Intermountain Healthcare on that today.
If you decide to do the baking or cooking route you can definitely use it as teaching opportunities in math and science to make them more engaging. To make it more interesting hold a family contest where everyone tries a different recipe and then vote on how well they did. For the art route, maybe hold a family art show where everyone can display their work. You could also do a neighborhood one where you draw something "inspiring" on your drive way and then have a drive-by day where people can see what everyone has done. There are also museums, zoos, aquariums, and other places out there doing virtual tours. You could also do a dance party.
If your kids are into legos and STEM there are whole hosts of resources on the internet for fun easy experiments. I like this website. She has a bunch of free stuff and is making even more things available for free. It is geared a little more toward the younger crowd but she has lots of LEGO and slime things along with other experiments that can be done with everyday household items. This is another great resource of fun science experiments. For the older(16-100) crowd there is a guy out there doing physics experiments in a fun and engaging way. Some of you may have heard of him he is a former NASA guy turned youtuber. To get outside, when it's nice, but not break the social boundaries try setting up races in the backyard such as: relay, "ninja" courses, Ship to Shore.
Lastly, we should all continue to do whatever we can to make sure our families are still getting spiritually filled. Looking for more resources for FHE's click here or here
Now that we have all been told that the school closures will last until May 1, I'm sure there are many out there wondering what they are going to do to fill the time. Well look no further we have been brainstorming to come up with some fun ways to pass the time while safely practicing social distancing.
The first thing that came to mind that will also help your family be a little better prepared and is an invaluable skill to have is GARDENING. My kids absolutely love to garden. They love to help get our garden ready to plant and then plant their favorite things and new things they want to try. That way they each take ownership of a part of the garden and help it grow and keep it weed free. Plus it also gives them a chance to taste new foods they might not have otherwise. Right now is a great time to start the cold weather vegetables such as: asparagus, peas of all varieties, carrots, spinach, radishes, chard, etc. While it is a little late in the season you can also try your hand at doing some starts of your own such as peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc., so that around May you will have more things to plant. Check out the gardening section of the blog for more tips on what to plant, when to plant and if you are a novice gardener some useful information in general for gardening. If you don't normally start a garden now it also has a month by month guide of things to be doing to get your garden ready to plant. Don't have a place for a garden? Use planters. Not only will they make your yard or balcony beautiful but they will also smell incredible. With all that is going on around us being able to produce your own food is such an incredible blessing. President Kimball said: “We hope you are making this [gardening project] a family affair, with everyone, even the little ones, assigned to something. There is so much to learn and harvest from your garden, far more than just a crop itself”
Some other activities that have come to mind are: teaching kids new crafts and skills such a baking, cooking, drawing, sculpting, sewing and any others that you have always "wanted" to teach but "never had the time". I know there are lots of people out there talking about sewing masks for the hospitals and people. If you are wondering about how to do it click here (I liked her's because it was fairly simple and straight forward but there are lots of others) and what to do once you have made them. There was a post from Intermountain Healthcare on that today.
If you decide to do the baking or cooking route you can definitely use it as teaching opportunities in math and science to make them more engaging. To make it more interesting hold a family contest where everyone tries a different recipe and then vote on how well they did. For the art route, maybe hold a family art show where everyone can display their work. You could also do a neighborhood one where you draw something "inspiring" on your drive way and then have a drive-by day where people can see what everyone has done. There are also museums, zoos, aquariums, and other places out there doing virtual tours. You could also do a dance party.
If your kids are into legos and STEM there are whole hosts of resources on the internet for fun easy experiments. I like this website. She has a bunch of free stuff and is making even more things available for free. It is geared a little more toward the younger crowd but she has lots of LEGO and slime things along with other experiments that can be done with everyday household items. This is another great resource of fun science experiments. For the older(16-100) crowd there is a guy out there doing physics experiments in a fun and engaging way. Some of you may have heard of him he is a former NASA guy turned youtuber. To get outside, when it's nice, but not break the social boundaries try setting up races in the backyard such as: relay, "ninja" courses, Ship to Shore.
Lastly, we should all continue to do whatever we can to make sure our families are still getting spiritually filled. Looking for more resources for FHE's click here or here
Comments
Post a Comment