Refresh Your Routine
Being stuck at home can feel like being stuck in a rut with the same routine in the same place every day, so we've created this list of our favorite at-home activity ideas to mix up the routine and stave off the quarantine blues! Find ways to break out of a rut below.
1. Go Living Room Camping
Set up a tent or build a fort in the living room complete with sleeping bags, flashlights, and camping snacks. You can even build a pretend fire or stream a live fire on a tablet or tv! Bonus points if you can camp out in the backyard.
2. Start a Garden
It’s the best time of year to get out and garden! Gardening is a stress reliever for kids and adults alike. Even watching potted plants grow from seed to plant indoors can be fun and educational!
3. Experiment in the Kitchen
With a little preparation beforehand, ask a child to be responsible for cooking a dish or a whole meal for the rest of the family. Cooking can be a fun and empowering task for kids to learn!
4. Rearrange the Furniture
You'd be amazed at how refreshing a simple change up to your daily living environment can be! Kids will get excited to help figure out how to rearrange the living room or even their own bedroom to make the space feel new and interesting.
5. Stage a Virtual Concert
Set a time and date for family and friends to tune in to a video call, and have everyone prepare a song to share. Bonus points if everyone can sing together for the grand finale!
6. Go on a Hike
A change of scenery always helps to shake things up, and what better scenery than the great outdoors? Many local trails are still open to the public as long as folks keep a safe distance from fellow hikers. Just be sure to pack sunscreen!
7. Pick a Theme Dress Day
Declare Tuesdays (or any day of the week) fancy dress day, or crazy-mix-match day and get stylin'! Having a once a week dress-code can help to shake up the routine and create a weekly event for everyone to look forward to. It's also a great excuse to dust off those fancy clothes that have had to take a break from rotation during quarantine!
8. Use Puzzle Pieces as Incentives
It can feel like a hopeless battle trying to convince, cajole, or flat out bribe kids into finishing household tasks. Let kids earn a single puzzle piece per task to give them a longer term goal to be working towards. Let them put it all together once they've earned all the pieces, or let them try to piece it together as they go!
9. Create a Quarantine Scrapbook
It helps to remember this is time we're going to get through and then look back on some day. Encourage that kind of thinking by starting a scrapbook chronicling the every day reality of these crazy times. Ask kids to write letters to their future selves. And maybe leave one page to tape on a precious square of TP! ;)
10. Give an Art Gallery Tour
Turn a hallway into a fresh new art gallery with drawings of friends taped to the walls. Ask friends to do the same and then set a date to give a tour of your new art galleries through a video call!