Spring break. It’s definitely a mixed blessing this year. On the one hand, I’m looking forward to just being “mom” for a week as opposed to juggling the role of “teacher” as well. On the other hand, without all that e-learning material it’s going to be totally on me to come up with the daily activities.
Yikes.
Fortunately, we have a few big family projects planned. Like getting our garden planted (maybe we’ll make some of these easy garden markers). And my younger son (the environmentalist) has been bugging me to start a compost heap for months now. We found this easy tutorial and it seems like a good time to get it going with the abundance of yard debris, kitchen scraps and grass clippings.
I was also inspired by this photography blog post to start taking pictures of the kids’ artwork in hopes of one day creating a keepsake photo book and being able to part with the ever-growing pile of projects that is taking over our basement. The boys have been helping me sort through and keep their favorites.
A few good spring cleaning projects couldn’t hurt either. Keeping the pantry in order has been a priority so we make sure no food is going to waste. I recently reorganized our pantry using this basket method and it’s made a huge difference. The baskets featured in the blog post are available for shipping from Target. They come in a variety of sizes (we mostly used a combination of the “half medium” bin and the “medium” bin).
In kid activity news, this week we continued with the Perler Bead crafts–we now have a lovely set of six colorful drink tops! We baked our favorite banana bread. We did some sidewalk chalk. We made some found object art. Oh, and Little Miss finally learned to ride her tricycle!
Board and card games are popular in Mandy’s house. Right now her kids are loving Uno Attack, Skipbo, and Sequence. Plus they like to drag out Monopoly, Battleship, and Guess Who from time to time as well.
Meanwhile, like every other parent of young kids on the planet, I’m trying to find little moments for self-care. I’m currently a bit too obsessed with the new headband trend (maybe it’s nostalgia for my 80’s childhood?). If I can’t get a haircut, at least this little beauty will make it look good as it grows out. Being able to smile at yourself in the mirror (even if no one else is going to see you) is a serious mood booster!
Our advice for the week ahead: do whatever it takes to stay sane! And hopefully find a lot of great ideas to keep busy in our latest weekly edit: Staying in with Out and About Mom. Don’t forget to check out WEEK 1 and WEEK 2 for even more suggestions!
One day at a time…
Stay well!
Local online events:
- The Mandell JCC continues to offer a wide variety of virtual classes and events for kids and adults. They even have special “vacation programming” for next week’s school spring break!
- Beardsley Zoo is hosting live videos on their Facebook page. You can also check out their You Tube page for additional videos and their Panda Cam that streams a live feed of the Red Panda habitat from 8:30AM-6:00PM.
- Stepping Stones Museum for Children is sharing virtual learning activities on their Facebook page as well. Sing songs with Dan, Dan the Music Man, do Robot Yoga, and more.
- Killingly Public Library has storytime and craft videos available on their Facebook page. Need to be on a conference call and would love to have someone read to your little one? Let the sweet librarians at Killingly library help you out!
Other online learning events:
- Author and illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka aka JJK (the Lunch Lady series) is posting 20-to-30-minute draw-along videos on weekdays, live on YouTube at 2 p.m. ET and then archived on YouTube and his website. JJK also has printable activities — coloring pages, picture book templates, and illustration prompts — available on his site for ages pre-K to second grade or third grade to sixth grade. You can find a list of other authors and illustrators keeping kids busy with online content HERE.
- Learn to draw Mickey and some of his friends through FREE access to classes hosted by Disney artists. Find all of the classes here.
Websites with activities for kids:
- Today in Connecticut History provides a daily 30-second audio teaser accompanied by a post about an interesting and important event in Connecticut history. The posts feature added detail and historical context about that day’s featured event, along with vivid imagery and a list of links for further reading and resources.
- The Boston Children’s Museum is working hard to provide fun activities for kids and families during this time. On their Facebook page learn to make butter at home and other fun experiments with their #kitchenscience series or play with ice through their #STEAM series. Plus, they have curated a large collection of at-home learning ideas on the website as well.
- Mystic Seaport Museum has released tons of digital content on their website. Check out the Narwhal tusks in their cabinet of curiosity, go on a behind the scenes boat check, and more!
- I could spend hours watching the Sea Otter Cam at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Those little guys are so cute! The live feed streams from 10:00am-10:00pm Pacific Time.
- Take a virtual safari with the live streaming videos on Africam. You never know what might pop into view!
Games, crafts and things to do at (or near) home:
- We included Glazed to Go pottery painting kits in this list before, but with vacation week coming up for many, it seems worth a reminder!
- The Little Green Tambourine is offering “Vacation Camp Activity Boxes” for delivery next week. Find more info here.
- Urban Air Adventure Park is offering games, challenges and ideas for active at-home activities on their Facebook Page.
- Get a new craft-at-home idea every day from JOANN Fabric and Craft Stores on their You Tube page.
- PicMonkey, the same photo editing website we use to make our blog pictures fancy would also be a fun and creative activity for kids to use to enhance their own photo creations with text, borders, overlays and more!
- With the school stay-cation next week, this might be just the time to start your 7-day free trial of Disney+.
This week in photos:
Want to keep up with things to do with kids in Connecticut?
Check back every week as we dish up more Momsense for getting out and about staying in (for now at least!) with your little ones. Don’t have time to check back in? Let us send you an automatic notification of new posts straight to your email inbox by signing up here. Also, you can like us on Facebook and Twitter or follow us on Instagram to keep up with the latest posts and get some extra tidbits we share only through those sites.
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