Quarantine Week 11: Five Activities to Get You Through the Weekend!

Although we are in our 11th week of quarantine, it is with great hope that it will be our last. Summer is just around the corner and with it comes more outdoor activities! Until then, I have a new weekly list of activities to keep your family entertained! 

1. Obstacle Course Walk: Why not turn your next walk into an obstacle course? This is a great way to get kids moving while having fun, without the element of turning the yard or house into a mess that is waiting to be cleaned up! On this walk, create different and fun rules for kids to do at select stops. For instance, maybe you want your course to have 7 obstacles and mention this to the kids before starting the walk. First, you might want to walk for five minutes and then have the obstacle be to jump over the cracks in the sidewalk until they reach the next stop sign. After the next five minutes or so, you might have them run 4 circles around a bench you’ve come across. Maybe for the next obstacle, you see who can touch 10 trees the fastest! See a STOP sign at the end of the sidewalk? See who can run the fastest to reach the sign. There are so many ways to turn a simple walk into a fun and engaging activity such as an obstacle course. Your kids might even want to make up their own obstacles for YOU to try on the walk! 
   
2. Backyard Festival: As the weather continues to show sun and warm temperatures in the forecast, it is important to soak up that vitamin D as much as possible. In doing so, you can bring indoor play activities outside, which make for a backyard festival! Set up different activities on the patio or in the yard that the kids enjoy doing. They can roam freely from each activity as though they are stations. Some ideas to bring hours of entertainment to your backyard festival: set up a sprinkler, hose, or slip-n-slide for kids to splash and play in the water; grab some bubbles and wands for the kids to fill the air with a plethora of bubbles; another water related activity on a hot day is to have a water gun fight; bring out the chalk for creative drawings on the driveway or sidewalk; or set up a tent with your favorite board games inside (so pieces don’t get lost in the grass). There are multiple ways to personalize your backyard festival that aligns with your kids’ interests. For the older ones, task them with using their creativity to make their own! Your festival can last for hours or days depending on how engaged the family is. 
   
3. Arts & Crafts: Once again, it’s time for an arts and crafts project. This one is Rolled Paper Beads. When I was a kid, I used to love playing with beads and making all kinds of necklaces and bracelets. However, when I ran out of beads I didn’t know what to do! This project is great because it allows kids to make homemade beads for necklaces (and saves money too.) Here’s what you’ll need: small pieces of paper (origami paper or magazine scraps work great), a skewer (or something similar), glue and string. First, cut out some long isosceles triangles (great math lesson!) Next, wind the paper tightly around the skewer and add a dab of glue at the end to secure it. Once secure, you just pull them off! Simple enough, right? Feel free to have the kids get creative and experiment with beads of different shapes and sizes. Grab some string and make some colorful bracelets or necklaces! Make it your own and add personal touches — you may never have to buy beads again!
   
4. Harry Potter Marathon: Okay, so I know you may have already read the Harry Potter series to your kids, they read them, or you have watched the movies. However, I invite you to revisit the magic as a family and alternate reading the books together and watching the corresponding movie (they’re all up on HBO Max currently). You can do this for the entire series. If you have never read or watched Harry Potter before, there is no better time than the present. This series is a classic that kids will hold onto for years to come — I am still a fanatic and have re-read and watched the movies countless times just to relive the magic! In a time that is so uncertain, it is refreshing to have a fictional world to get lost in, and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is the perfect place for that. Whether this is your first adventure with Harry, Ron, and Hermione or your second, you will enjoy having a Harry Potter marathon as a family. Who knows, maybe one day when we are able to travel again and go to amusement parks, your kids will want to plan a family trip to Harry Potter World at Universal Studios! Don’t forget your Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans and Pumpkin Juice before embarking in this magical journey. 
   
5. Indoor Hopscotch: Normally, kids would play hopscotch outside on the driveway or sidewalk with some good old fashioned chalk. However, in the event of a rainy or chilly day, you can play hopscotch indoors with a little painter’s tape! Using any type of painter’s tape, have the kids design how they would like their hopscotch to look. They will choose how many double and single squares they want for the game. Then, lay out the hopscotch grid on the floor using the tape. Cut the appropriate size squares to place on the floor and add numbers inside each of them. It can be as simple as having an 8, 10 or 12 squares for the kids to hop on — the choice is theirs! See who can do it the fastest, try it backwards, or with one eye closed. There are multiple ways to turn this classic into a timeless game!