ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS (OR FAMILIES TO DO TOGETHER)(Scroll down for activities that apply only to adults)
OUTSIDE
1. Camp out in your back yard (or even inside, if you have space!). Kids love tents, wherever they are, and even when they aren't sleeping in them. I've noticed my kids like reading in them (especially with flashlights)...so it's a bonus if it motivates them to read more!
2. Create a fairy garden/home. Gather any outdoor materials (leaves, sticks, rocks, moss, flowers, pine cones, nuts, etc.). You can use home materials too.
3. Build a teepee with sticks. If you have access to trees, you can do this. Take three sticks to form a tripod, and then continue building around it.
ARTS/CRAFTS
4. Tie Dye. Use food coloring and vinegar to tie dye white socks, shirts, or pillow cases.
5. Recycle crayons. Find all your broken crayons, rip off the wrapper, and melt them in the oven to form large crayons.
6. Dye hard-cooked eggs (using food dye and vinegar). It doesn't have to be Easter to do this!
7. Paint clay pots. If you have any boring orange-tone clay pots, give them some new life with craft paint.
TOGETHERNESS
8. Use conversation starters to get to know your family better and have meaningful talks. It's such a primal, but not-so-used form of using our time these days! Use open-ended questions and be creative. Here are some examples: If you had a time machine, what period of time would you go back to, and why? If you could do anything, knowing you wouldn't fail, what would it be? What makes you feel better when you're upset? What would you do if you received a million dollars today? There are lots of websites for ideas; you can google them.
9. Dust off old photo albums and view them together. We make albums and photo books to relive memories, but we so rarely break them out and enjoy them. It's especially fun to show kids photos that predate them, tell them stories of your own childhood, and introduce them to people they may not have ever met.
10. Make pasta from scratch. It takes a lot of time to make tortellini, especially, so it's a great activity for multiple people and keeps hands busy. Plus, it's an activity that's productive and yummy. Pasta Fresca: 2.5c of pasta flour (50% durum wheat), 4 room-temperature eggs, pinch of salt, 2T of olive oil. Mix flour and salt in a bowl, with a well in the middle. Beat eggs with oil and pour them into the mixture, gradually adding flour from the outside. Add an extra egg if the dough is dry. Let it rest for 5-10 minutes. Roll until the dough is consistent thickness and somewhat transparent. Use a circular cookie cutter, or small tin can to cut out two-inch circles. Add a spoonful of filling. Fold in half, and pinch ends together. Once finished, Add all pasta to boiled water (with a pinch of salt). Cook for 2 minutes. Serve with tomato sauce.
11. Create a gratitude list. The whole family can contribute to it. Maybe put it up on a whiteboard/chalkboard, if you have one. Or post a paper on the refrigerator. Start it off with "I'm thankful for", and let everyone continually add to the list.
12. Exercise together. Even if you don't have gym equipment or large yard/space, you can always do calisthenics. Tabata style is fun, and keeps kids' attention. Do a 15-20 minute workout, with 50 seconds of activity, followed by 10 or rest. Take turns coming up with each exercises (round robin style), or make a list beforehand. There are several tabata timer apps you can download to help.
KINDNESS
13. Write letters to elderly folks who need some extra cheer. This Facebook group posts addresses of those who would appreciate your love.
14. Check in with anyone you know who is sick, in a nursing home, or possibly in a hard financial situation. Offer to deliver them food, or help with any needs they may have.
CLEANLINESS/ORGANIZATION
15. Have kids go through their toys. Toss anything that is broken, and create a pile of things they no longer play with for donation/selling.
16. Give younger kids a bath with some of their well-used/never cleaned toys (that are washable, of course). Let them have fun while helping clean. Then give them a real bath. ;)
SCREENTIME, but much better than watching Frozen 2 on repeat:
17. Use FaceTime/Skype/other video call system) to socially interact with friends. Some board games can be played virtually. If both friends have the game Scattergories, it's one that can work.
18. On a video call, have kids create collaborative stories. The first child will write down a beginning sentence to a story, and then the other child comes up with the second sentence. You continue taking turns until a full story is developed.
19. Take a virtual field trip.
ADULTS
1. Organize photos (physical or electronic ones). Go through and delete duplicates. Tag the people in them. Create albums for trips, holidays, birthdays, and activities.
2. Make that baby book for your second (or third, fourth, fifth child - or maybe even your first!)...finally. If you're like me, you saved the first hair clipping and first lost tooth and documented every milestone of your first child, but failed to do the same for the subsequent kids. Now is the time!
3. Write/update your will. This one is not fun, but it is necessary. Legal Zoom offers advice and templates.
4. Do your taxes yourself. Also, not fun. Unless you have any really complicated situation, websites like TurboTax make it really easy with their step-by-step process.
5. Purge, room by room. Tackle one cabinet, closet, shelf, or dresser at a time. I like to take everything out, and only put back what we truly need and/or love, and then organize the rest into the following piles: trash, donations, items to sell, items that need relocated in the house (and I keep those in laundry baskets for further sorting).
6. Get creative with cooking. Find the most random thing in the back of your pantry, google recipes for it, and make something new.
7. Have a cook-off with your spouse. Pick a few ingredients and each of you make something different with it. Let kid(s) be the judge(s) of which dish is best.
8. Clean out your email inbox. Let's be honest, we all need to do this.
9. Take a an online course. Here is a list of Ivy League courses you can take for FREE.
10. Organize kids' drawings. Go through any gigantic stack of "kid papers" you may have. For the masterpieces you really love, add their names and ages, and either display them or put them in a file or box. Maybe take photos of their best work (for a photo book or for security, in case the actual ones are ever lost or destroyed). You could save a few that you don't wish to keep and send them to grandparents or folks in nursing homes who could use some cheer (Go back to #13 above). Toss the rest.
11. Sell your higher quality, unwanted items on Ebay or another resale website/app. If you've never done it, it's really not hard, especially once you get a good process going. My advice is to gather all things you want to list first, take photos, and then try to list all at the same time. This way, you can ship off all items that sold all at once (saving trips to the post office). The typical listing time frame is 7 days. Shipping can be paid online, and labels printed from home, so all you have to do is drop off the packages at the post office.
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