When you are home with the kids, and you can’t send them to school, what do you? How do you fill your time? Union County and South Charlotte Macaroni Kid have created the Ultimate Busy List, broken down into four segments:
- Homeschooling/educational
- Contests and Game Play
- Arts and Crafts
- Physical Activity / Movement
Obviously the goal of Social Distancing is to do just that - so these are things you can do without being close to other people and keep your family contained. They are also, mostly, designed to create lasting family bonds.
Homeschooling/Educational
- Give children the choice on a topic they’d like to learn about and spend 30 minutes each day on that subject
- Go through your bookshelves and read EVERY book in the house
- Bake something
- Write letters to family and friends
- Inventory the plants and wildlife surrounding your house (yard, neighbors yard) and study each
- Catch bugs and observe them
- Write stories and illustrate them - you can do this collectively or individually - and create your own “My Library” of books you’ve created
- Begin working on a garden - you can do herb gardens inside if you’d rather not have a large planter box. You can also buy some potters at any big-box retailer and on Amazon
- Study the birds that frequent your home or neighborhood
- Check out our educational website list here
- Create your own games - board games, card games, video games if your child is into coding
- Make maps or “treasure hunts” to nearby places and give each other directions on how to get there
- Scavenger hunts with site words or riddles
- Kitchen Chemistry experiments
- Study our solar system and use household materials to recreate the planets
- Design a new spacecraft or automobile out of household items or legos
- Use the local library as a resource for online activities
- Keep a journal~ give kids a daily prompt or let them free write
- Family book club
- Use phones to create stop action movies with legos or other toys
- BrainPop
- Assign a different cooking night for each family member
- Teach kids how to do laundry
- Teach the dog tricks
- Spring clean~ Clean out bedrooms, go through old papers, organize and throw out what is not needed.
- Introduce your teens to the classics, Legally Blonde, Breakfast Club, Mean Girls etc. Binge watch with your teen, Friends, The Office, Parks and rec, Gilmore Girls, Vampire Diaries etc,
- Download TV apps also, lots of great shows for free on ABC, NBC, CBS, The CW etc
- Have kids make Spotify playlists of their favorite songs and take turns playing them during the day
- Start a podcast series to listen to together during downtime
- Use Hoopla to download audiobooks
Contests and Games
- Use anything in the house to build the biggest most stable structure
- Backyard races
- Board Games
- Card games
- Lego contests
- Family puzzles
- Boardgame tournament
- Household Olympics: include chores, educational items, and funny or silly games
- MasterChef with common household ingredients - you can even do this over FaceTime or other video conferencing tools with other families you know
Arts & Crafts
- Make your own paper
- Learn to sew; make a stuffed animal from old clothing
- Start a scrapbook
- Old box structures
- Shoebox dollhouse
- Beading
- Painting
- Drawing
- Kinetic sand
- Make your own play dough
- Create your own self-portrait
- Make your own sidewalk chalk and beautify your neighborhood
- Make a puppet show - and use PuppetMaster to animate any of your creations!
- DIY sugar scrub
- Friendship bracelets
- Finger knitting
- Learn new hair braiding styles
Physical Activity
- Any kind of race
- All yard sports
- Create a family workout
- Go for a bike ride
- Yardwork
- Tackle a home improvement project
- At-home yoga
- Zumba or dance party
- Give the dogs a bath
- Go for a hike
- In-home scavenger hunt
- YouTube workout videos (there are ones for kids and teens)
- Go Noodle
- Create a morning yoga Sun Salutation routine that you do before schooling starts (here are free printables)
- Teach your kids how to have a growth mindset
Good Online Resources
- Common Sense Media
- Charlotte Mecklenburg Library
- GoNoodle
- Spotify has great study time playlists
- 7 YouTube Channels to get kids moving
Spotify Playlists for School time
- https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3RuPVnubE7AQSrVZHVRYWp
- https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7Gkv0bT4kfayMM7XAqjuVX
- https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0UmZ7JiX8h3RIYgjIKEWpi
- https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2yqQcjGwefCjnAHsfVT4hw
- https://www.weareteachers.com/classroom-spotify-playlist/
And when in doubt, check our website often for new ideas. We'll frequently be posting creative ways to stay busy or to help your kids through this awkward transition.
