At Home Activities For Families

Spring Break is here for most of us, but many families across the country are cancelling travel plans and staying home due to concerns around the Covid-19 outbreak.  I’ve teamed up with Anne at My Gnome On The Roam to provide a list of at home activities with your kids and still find creativity, kindness, love and comfort during this odd and confusing time in our world. 

First, however, be sure to talk to your kids about what is going on. Be honest but realistic to their needs. Make it fun to wash hands and greet people by bumping elbows or bowing. Explain to them — without panic — why you had to cancel a trip to see grandparents or take a flight. Hug them if they’re worried and continue the conversation. And spread the love.

Kindness

• Make it an act of kindness week wherein your kids perform a new act of kindness every day. Some fun ideas:
  • Write a card for your mail carrier
  • Bake something for a neighbor
  • Write a letter to a distant friend or relative
  • Gather gently used toys and/or clothes to donate
  • Check on elderly folks on your street and others who may need extra help
• Start a gratitude list as a family.  Add at least one thing to it every day. (This is especially important to help keep everyone calm and to remind them that there is goodness all around us when we look to find it.). Take gratitude walks, take a drive to look for beautiful moments and experiences. 

Creative

• Cover your dining table with craft paper, put out markers and pencils and encourage kids to draw, play scattergories, pictionary and more
• Let the kids bake or make something new in the kitchen. Try a new cuisine or spice!
• Pull out board games and have a day of games
• Bake and decorate a cake and then paint a picture of it before you eat it
• Read a picture book and then create a short play based on the book. We love to make characters out of toilet paper rolls and then perform for friends and family.
• Play school – let your kids develop lessons, schedules, grading and more!
• Research women in history and write fun stories about them
• Create your own comic book
• Make a miniature meal (everything must be tiny)
• Create some chalk graffiti. Draw a beautiful picture on a wall or sidewalk for others to find and enjoy
• Research a city or country you’d like to visit and learn all about it. Share what you learned with your family.
• Learn 10 or more words in a new language
• Have themed dinner dress up days – Fancy, Beach Party, St. Patrick’s Day, Wacky, etc.
• Have a family book club or have a book club with friends over skype, zoom or face-time

Adventure

• Take a nature walk. Find hearts in nature (look at leaves, rocks, shadows, etc.)
• Visit a park or playground
• Create an indoor (or backyard) obstacle course
• Visit some of the greatest museums in the world from your couch here 
• Create a scavenger hunt – write a list, notes/riddles from one spot to the next or draw pictures with clues.
• Have a dance party. Try the electric slide and other fun line dances. You can use YouTube to see and try options. 
• Take family walks, daily
• Start an herb garden or grow tomatoes or other veggies on your porch or in a container
• Find a bridge to cross by car or on foot

Download the My Gnome on the Roam App ($2.99) or visit their website and instagram for daily ideas

Anne shared this by a wise friend:

“Soon after Isaac Newton had obtained his BA degree From Cambridge University in August 1665, the university temporarily closed as a precaution against the Great Plague. Newton’s private studies at his home in Woolsthorpe over the subsequent two years saw the development of his theories on calculus, optics, and the law of gravitation.”

Before this forced break, Newton was just a regular student at Cambridge, but he used this time to work on something world-changing. How utterly magnificent right?!?!

Ask yourself what you can do if you are forced to stay home? 

What magical innovation can you create?

What life-changing discovery can you make? 

How will you leave a mark on this world? 

You have magic inside…

Stay Safe, Sarah & Anne

About Anne & My Gnome on the Roam

Anne Armstrong is the Founder of My Gnome on the Roam ® educational toys which inspire a love of reading, writing and adventure for kids, families, students and educators across the globe.

After 20 years as a middle school teacher, Anne took on the role of mom entrepreneur to share her formula of small pockets of time + a simple idea for an adventure = deeper family connections in as little as 30 minutes a week

A published best-selling children’s author of the book “My Gnome on the Roam ®,” Anne strives to live by a phrase coined by her brilliant students who refer to her as the Field Trip Queen: ‘Make Your Life a Book Worth Reading.

She holds a Master’s and Ed. Specialist degree in gifted education and has been featured on NPR, Huffington Post, Treehugger.com, and the New York Times.