Staying Home With Children: Get Your Creativity On

Are you and your kids getting a little (or very) stir-crazy? Here are some ideas for keeping busy:

Engage Their Minds

• See our lists of activities, opens a new window and learning ideas , opens a new windowfor children ages 0 to 5.
• Coloring book pages from Every Child a Reader., opens a new window
• Stimola Life, opens a new window streams drawing videos every day from authors and illustrators.
• The Spanish Experiment, opens a new window has children's stories in English and Spanish.
• Ideas from real moms:
  • Car wash! All that's needed is a bowl of water, shaving cream (or soap) and a cookie sheet.
  • Have an old bag of balloons from a party long ago? Blow them all up and have a balloon party!
  • A plastic bin filled with shredded paper, popcorn kernels, sand, water beads, etc. Bonus: hide toys for them to find.
  • Add food coloring to water and voila! Watercolor paints.
  • Tape toilet paper or paper towel rolls to the wall and let them put their toys through the tubes.
  • Drive past construction sites in your city.
  • Look at pictures of babies. Find friends in your social media feeds who have children, too. Babies love looking at other babies!
  • Let them "help" fold laundry. Not much actual folding will get done, but they'll have fun.
  • Baths. My friend always says, "When in doubt, add water."
  • Damp towel + many surfaces = a busy toddler.
  • Grab a colander and thread pipe cleaners, yarn or ribbon through the holes.

Engage Their Bodies

• Dance and get silly with GoNoodle, opens a new window videos.
• Playfull on Buzzfeed, opens a new window made a list of 27 indoor activities.
• Playfull, opens a new window also has 10 crafts that won't stress out the grownups.
• Today's Parent, opens a new window features 10 games for toddlers.

Travel Through Time and Space

• Get out of this world with NASA's Space Place, opens a new window!
• Take a virtual field trip, opens a new window!

Get Some You Time (Screen Time)

Let's face it, there will probably be screentime involved. IT'S OKAY TO USE SCREENS TO TAKE A BREAK. Just like on airplanes, you need to make sure you're taken care of before you can care for others.

• The Education Development Center has created a handy how-to, Using Technology to Support Early Learning at Home, opens a new window, for selecting quality apps and using them at home.
• Check out our list of developmentally-appropriate apps, opens a new window.

Remember, we're all in this together and there's no judgment! You do you, parents.