Self Isolation plan
Hi family and friends.
As promised, here is my plan for what we will probably do each day. I find that one of my coping mechanisms is to plan. It doesn't mean that we will meticulously follow each plan and mostly they're loose plans. What it does mean, is the headspace needed for thinking up at least one fun activity, is spared because I sat down and thought it out beforehand.
Let's me honest mums, a month (at least), is a long time to not be able to drive the kids out, play with friends and change the scenery. I hope and pray that as we all share resources (as I myself have copied and adapted other clever mums ideas), that we will have exactly what we need day to day, to ride this thing out.
Daily routine for school holidays (this will look different in 2 weeks time when we switch to online school)
7 - 8am (Bible, breakfast, get dressed, brush teeth, make beds)
(I find if I allow the kids to wake up and watch TV in PJ's they wake up at the crack of dawn and watch. If I make the TV time at 8am, they stay in bed later).
8 - 8.30am - chores (unpack dishwasher/ load washing etc)
8.30 - 9.30am - TV time
(This is when I will usually cook dinner so it's done and dusted. Also while that's on, I can prep any activity that needs to be done)
9.30 - 10.30am - physical exercise
(This can be walking the dog, a bike ride up and down our road, a jump on the trampoline etc but will most likely be a workout app from the gym that I'll work out with and the kids can join in. Win-win)
10.30 - 12pm - EDUCATION
(worksheets I printed for the kids, puzzles, creative things like Art tutorials on Youtube, creative writing, timetables practise, reading, piano lessons with Abby, learning & practising Spanish etc)
12pm - LUNCHTIME
1pm - 2pm - FUN ACTIVITY (see details below)
2 - 3pm - cleaning and chores
(if they're done early they can go play)
3 - 5pm - Free time
5pm - DINNER & bath
6pm - family walk
(get some fresh air and out of the house before bed)
7pm - story in bed and BEDTIME
(and early bedtime works for us. My kids do NOT cope being tired. They're ratty and short if they haven't slept and let's be honest, us parents need time out too)!
Fun Activities Day by Day
EVERYDAY - Lego Challenge
This is such a neat little activity where you can have a small 'segment' of each day dedicated to completing the Lego challenge.
Thursday - Day 1
Sort and declutter the house.
This sounds super boring but it is one of my most favourite things to do with the kids. We empty out toy baskets from each of their rooms and go through every toy. Littler kids enjoy sorting, making sure dinosaurs all go in one big container together and all cars in another. We have a box set aside for all toys we have outgrown or finished with. The kids end up finding toys they didn't know they had!
We all end up with a cleaner house. Win-win. Because of the longer days to fill, I'll be giving them all a draw from the kitchen or a cupboard like the plastic container cupboard. They'll all have a 30 min timer and have to do their best job sorting and making it amazing. Here's hoping they totally get into this!!
Friday - Day 2
Shopping list and budgeting activity
This clever idea was something my friend, Cat Kendon did with her littllies this morning. She took the mailers from the week, gave them to the kids to cut out and told them to cut out and paste their 'shopping list' on a blank piece of paper. This was such a fun, clever idea! My kids love doing this with the toy mailers, they circle toys they want for Christmas (all throughout the year. Dreams are free, haha)! So this grocery list will be great for Jed (5 years old).
For the bigger kids, I'm adapting it slightly. I'm going to make and give them some fake money as their 'budget' for the week. They'll cut out and paste a shopping list for the (fake) week BUT they'll have to write prices and add them up and make sure they can afford it all. Budgeting, home economics, business studies and maths all in one creative activity!
Saturday - Day 3
Make a restaurant
This can also range in being age appropriate. I will set the task for the kids to come up with a restaurant that we can visit. They'll need to think of a name, make a sign for it and the bigger kids can come up with and design a menu. The second part of it is to use play-dough to make some of the dishes (I think Jed will enjoy this part). When anything is a 'surprise for mummy', they'll spend ages sorting and organising and not asking for too much help... so that's what I'll do. Teamwork, creativity and all round fun.
Sunday - Day 4
Church ONLINE! So, so grateful for this. Our church will be online and our amazing Kids Church is also going online so I can lifestream our Pastors message and the kids can be in another room enjoying their own version of church.
I have decided that to 'debrief' church, I want to make Sunday's, 'baking days'. I'm hoping that getting kids rolling cookie dough or mixing batter will be a good opportunity to chat about what spoke to them out of the morning's teaching.
I know most big churches are online now, but if you want another great resource to replace TV time on Sundays, my kids really love Superbook and Konnect HQ.
Monday - Day 5
For us, this is Noah's birthday. he is turning 8! So we will bake a cake and celebrate with him.
One of his favourite things to do is to make a fire in our outdoor fire pit. I bought some marshmallows so after dinner we will do S'mores and let him poke the fire to his hearts delight. Another great idea (given that there isn't a fire ban, obviously), if you have a fire pit. Make an evening of it. Grab some marshmallows, go for a family walk to find good sticks for it, sit around with blankets and outdoor chairs and chat.
Tuesday - Day 6
Chalk wall art.
I saw a cool activity online for chalk on wooden wall. You use tape to make the initial design, then the kids colour in the triangles and when you peel off the tape, it makes a really awesome pattern!
Thursday - Day 8
Making cards for family and friends.
Let's be honest. By day 8, not only will we be missing all our loved ones, but the kids are bound to be missing friends and family. Help them work through this by selecting a couple of friends or family members that they'll make a card for. I have a few bits and pieces so they cards can be decorated nicely. You may also have a selection of coloured pens, stamps, stickers etc. This should take some time and they can make and decorate their cards. Then they can spend some time writing to each of their 'people' about what they've been up to. I'm not sure that we will be able to actually even post anything at the moment but even sending photos to family and friends of the cards the kids made, would brighten up their day, I'm sure.
Friday - Day 9
Balloon- ice excavating
This was another clever idea my friend, Cat Kendon tried with her lot. It will mean preparing balloons the night before, just filling them with a small toy and a whole lot of water and popping them in the freezer. I imagine you could do this with smaller ice-cubes in an ice-tray too if you had small enough toys.
On Day 9, grab them out the freezer and let the kids take them outside to smash and break to try dig out the toy. If you want to be really educational, maybe you want to do a small teaching on what archeologists do, how they dig up fossils and the whole, careful process. You could put a dinosaur in the kids version for fun to play with afterwards.
Thursday - Day 15
Kids Scavenger hunt for the family
For this activity, the kids are going to be charged with making a fun scavenger hunt for the rest of us to do. They'll have to plan clues and be stealthy in putting them in place without us realising it. They'll have to think of a prize for the end, it could be lollies from their own treat stash or 'coupons' for chores they'll do for the other person.
Friday - Day 16
Dreaming of a pet...
The kids will be asked to think about ANY pet they wish they could get. It can be anything. They'll have to come up with a presentation to show the family all about that pet. This includes drawing a picture of the pet they want and then doing some research on the computer (or out of a book if you have that resource available ), on how to take care of this pet and interesting facts about this pet.
If you have older kids, I am planning to teach Abby and Noah (ages 10 and 8), to use Powerpoint. It's so super simple and this way they can practise typing and some computer work to create a presentation they can show us all later that day.
Saturday - Day 17
Games Day!
The activities on this day will be ALL about fun as a family, not just tasks we set for the kids and they do alone.
I'm planning on getting some of our family boardgames out (my kids love Life, Kids Charades, HeadBands, Candyland, to name a few), and to actually jump in and play with them.
Another few ideas I thought was to get cardboard, cut out some holes and to label certain holes with higher points than others. The aim is to get the beanbag or tennis ball in the holes with the highest points and you see which family member gets the most points each round.
I also saw another big game of O's and X's on the floor, making the grid with tape on a floor. You use paper plates as the markers.
Sunday - Day 18
Church and baking!
Monday - Day 19
Knitting and sewing
One thing I have at home is knitting needles, wool, cotton and needles. Now I went and bought knitting needles and wool but most of us have cotton and thread. I'm going to cut up an old towel or sheet and teach the kids how to do hand stitches. I remember learning how to knit at school as a young girl although I can't for the life of me remember how to do it now! I'll look up some Youtube tutorials and let Abby try her hand at that. For the boys, sewing 2 squares and making a pillow case, will probably be the extent of their activity.
Tuesday - Day 20
Make a TV
This was one of mine and my siblings favourite things to do as littlies at our family holiday house, when we had no technology. We would make a TV out of a box, draw on all the buttons, make the remote and cut out a screen where our heads would poke out. We would then take turns changing the channels, performing for one another, turning the volume up and down and doing adverts.
Hopefully the kids will get into this. Some things are timeless... I guess we will soon find out...
Wednesday - Day 21
Make a boardgames
The kids are going to be given paper, cardboard and craft stuff to come up with a boardgame. Whether they replicate the usual snakes and ladders type game or come up with something totally new, it's up to them. After creating it, we will all have a turn at trying out their games.
Thursday - Day 22
Where in the World
This activity is geography in disguise. We will get out the Atlas (if you have a globe that's even more perfect).The kids will each choose a random country and we will discover together (using the atlas, books or good old Google), everything we need to know for that country.
I will get the kids to draw a suitcase and based on our discoveries, they will need to draw what we may need. For example if we find out it's a hot, tropical climate, they will draw togs, if there are Malaria carrying mosquitos, they'll draw mosquito repellant).
You can search up currency and work out which country would be better to shop in when you take $1 to each of those countries. You can search up where you might go, what attarctions are there? What language do they speak?
Then after researching the 3 countries, the kids all vote on where our family would go. Maybe you could even take a 'virtual trip' and look up a travel show to show the kids what it's like to visit there?
Friday - Day 23
Time Machine Trip
This activity is history in disguise. Make a time machine together out of cardboard boxes (yes, we will be using cardboard boxes almost everyday). We will probably spend some time decorating it.
The kids will 'press the buttons' and the time machine will take us to different times in history. Whatever decade or century they choose (you may want to decide for them), you can look up some interesting things that happened. I want to take the kids 'back in time' to when I was younger and explain how different life was, then go back to when Oumie was younger and show the even greater differences (things like no aeroplanes, no fast food), then go back even further and chat about medicine (in light of this virus) and how far we have come with medical breakthroughs. I will research some other major health pandemics and plagues and talk to them about how blessed we are to have modern conveniences like social media, technology, internet, understanding of how virus' spread etc.
Saturday - Day 24
Creative Writing
This will probably be my favourite day. I LOVE writing. I'm so blessed Abby does too. I will read the kids a few short stories to get the creative juices flowing. Then we will make blank books out of printing paper, stapled down the centre. The kids will create a front cover, write a story and illustrate their books. Then we will do story time and they can video call their little cousins and read their stories to them.
Sunday - Day 25
Church and baking
Monday - Day 26
Sports Day
This will be an easy one for us because my kids are sports mad. You may need to come up with sports challenges that suit your resources. We have a trampoline with high nets so one of our challenges will be to see who can kick the rugby ball into the trampoline from a tee. Another idea will be to see who can shoot the most consecutive basketball hoops without missing. You can do a number of sports related challenges, all for points and see who wins at the end.
Tuesday - Day 27
Lego Dream House
The aim of this activity is for the kids to design their ideal room or ideal house. They can go crazy with dreaming of a pool, having three stories, having a spa in the bedroom, having ponies in the garden... They will have 1 hour to create and build a dream house out of Lego. After 1 hour we will all give each other a 'house tour' and go through all the cool functions of the house.
Wednesday - Day 28
This will be the last day of self isolation unless this doesn't work as it should. Here's hoping and praying that it will be the last day!
If it is, I think this would be a great day for a party. Maybe the kids want to help you plan a menu for a special dinner. They can help you write a shopping list for ingredients, all be involved in different aspects of cooking. They can set the table all fancy, make place cards and use your special glasses for a special drink with dinner.
This would be a great day of preparation and a great chance to reflect and chat over dinner about what the kids learnt, what they liked, what they found frustrating and how you all grew as a family team.
My prayer is that as we join together in supporting one another, especially us mums, in praying for one another and sharing resources, that we will come out of this with a stronger community of support than ever before.
Lots of love all you incredible people. If you've read this through, this far, it's because you are one amazing, dedicated mama who is wanting to do the best job at creating a home that is fun, full of memories, laughs and quality family time. Let's plan ahead but only worry about one day at a time. Today, we have all the grace, strength and resource we need to get through. Tomorrow will worry about itself.
Be present. Reach out if you are having a tough day. Be there for someone else when you're winning.
Lots of love xx
As promised, here is my plan for what we will probably do each day. I find that one of my coping mechanisms is to plan. It doesn't mean that we will meticulously follow each plan and mostly they're loose plans. What it does mean, is the headspace needed for thinking up at least one fun activity, is spared because I sat down and thought it out beforehand.
Let's me honest mums, a month (at least), is a long time to not be able to drive the kids out, play with friends and change the scenery. I hope and pray that as we all share resources (as I myself have copied and adapted other clever mums ideas), that we will have exactly what we need day to day, to ride this thing out.
Daily routine for school holidays (this will look different in 2 weeks time when we switch to online school)
7 - 8am (Bible, breakfast, get dressed, brush teeth, make beds)
(I find if I allow the kids to wake up and watch TV in PJ's they wake up at the crack of dawn and watch. If I make the TV time at 8am, they stay in bed later).
8 - 8.30am - chores (unpack dishwasher/ load washing etc)
8.30 - 9.30am - TV time
(This is when I will usually cook dinner so it's done and dusted. Also while that's on, I can prep any activity that needs to be done)
9.30 - 10.30am - physical exercise
(This can be walking the dog, a bike ride up and down our road, a jump on the trampoline etc but will most likely be a workout app from the gym that I'll work out with and the kids can join in. Win-win)
10.30 - 12pm - EDUCATION
(worksheets I printed for the kids, puzzles, creative things like Art tutorials on Youtube, creative writing, timetables practise, reading, piano lessons with Abby, learning & practising Spanish etc)
12pm - LUNCHTIME
1pm - 2pm - FUN ACTIVITY (see details below)
2 - 3pm - cleaning and chores
(if they're done early they can go play)
3 - 5pm - Free time
5pm - DINNER & bath
6pm - family walk
(get some fresh air and out of the house before bed)
7pm - story in bed and BEDTIME
(and early bedtime works for us. My kids do NOT cope being tired. They're ratty and short if they haven't slept and let's be honest, us parents need time out too)!
Fun Activities Day by Day
EVERYDAY - Lego Challenge
This is such a neat little activity where you can have a small 'segment' of each day dedicated to completing the Lego challenge.
Thursday - Day 1
Sort and declutter the house.
This sounds super boring but it is one of my most favourite things to do with the kids. We empty out toy baskets from each of their rooms and go through every toy. Littler kids enjoy sorting, making sure dinosaurs all go in one big container together and all cars in another. We have a box set aside for all toys we have outgrown or finished with. The kids end up finding toys they didn't know they had!
We all end up with a cleaner house. Win-win. Because of the longer days to fill, I'll be giving them all a draw from the kitchen or a cupboard like the plastic container cupboard. They'll all have a 30 min timer and have to do their best job sorting and making it amazing. Here's hoping they totally get into this!!
Friday - Day 2
Shopping list and budgeting activity
This clever idea was something my friend, Cat Kendon did with her littllies this morning. She took the mailers from the week, gave them to the kids to cut out and told them to cut out and paste their 'shopping list' on a blank piece of paper. This was such a fun, clever idea! My kids love doing this with the toy mailers, they circle toys they want for Christmas (all throughout the year. Dreams are free, haha)! So this grocery list will be great for Jed (5 years old).
For the bigger kids, I'm adapting it slightly. I'm going to make and give them some fake money as their 'budget' for the week. They'll cut out and paste a shopping list for the (fake) week BUT they'll have to write prices and add them up and make sure they can afford it all. Budgeting, home economics, business studies and maths all in one creative activity!
Saturday - Day 3
Make a restaurant
This can also range in being age appropriate. I will set the task for the kids to come up with a restaurant that we can visit. They'll need to think of a name, make a sign for it and the bigger kids can come up with and design a menu. The second part of it is to use play-dough to make some of the dishes (I think Jed will enjoy this part). When anything is a 'surprise for mummy', they'll spend ages sorting and organising and not asking for too much help... so that's what I'll do. Teamwork, creativity and all round fun.
Sunday - Day 4
Church ONLINE! So, so grateful for this. Our church will be online and our amazing Kids Church is also going online so I can lifestream our Pastors message and the kids can be in another room enjoying their own version of church.
I have decided that to 'debrief' church, I want to make Sunday's, 'baking days'. I'm hoping that getting kids rolling cookie dough or mixing batter will be a good opportunity to chat about what spoke to them out of the morning's teaching.
I know most big churches are online now, but if you want another great resource to replace TV time on Sundays, my kids really love Superbook and Konnect HQ.
Monday - Day 5
For us, this is Noah's birthday. he is turning 8! So we will bake a cake and celebrate with him.
One of his favourite things to do is to make a fire in our outdoor fire pit. I bought some marshmallows so after dinner we will do S'mores and let him poke the fire to his hearts delight. Another great idea (given that there isn't a fire ban, obviously), if you have a fire pit. Make an evening of it. Grab some marshmallows, go for a family walk to find good sticks for it, sit around with blankets and outdoor chairs and chat.
Tuesday - Day 6
Chalk wall art.
I saw a cool activity online for chalk on wooden wall. You use tape to make the initial design, then the kids colour in the triangles and when you peel off the tape, it makes a really awesome pattern!
Wednesday - Day 7
Bird houses
I was fortunate enough to grab these little wooden birdhouses for the kids from The Warehouse for $4.99. I'm not sure if they're still doing online shopping or deliveries? If so, worth grabbing some! So cheap and they're so, so cool. You could also try your hand at making one out of wood or cardboard just for fun?
I'll let my kids paint theirs and they can spend some time putting feed in it and seeing what birds visit their birdhouse.
As kids, we also used to do the old 'string attached to a stick, propping up a washing basket' bird-catching trick. You tie a string to a sturdy stick and use it to prop up a box or washing basket. You put some bread underneath and when an unsuspecting bird comes to grab the bread, you pull the string, the box or basket fall down and should trap the bird! It hardly ever works because kids reflexes (and their ability to sit quietly nearby) are both lacking. But they have fun trying.
Thursday - Day 8
Making cards for family and friends.
Let's be honest. By day 8, not only will we be missing all our loved ones, but the kids are bound to be missing friends and family. Help them work through this by selecting a couple of friends or family members that they'll make a card for. I have a few bits and pieces so they cards can be decorated nicely. You may also have a selection of coloured pens, stamps, stickers etc. This should take some time and they can make and decorate their cards. Then they can spend some time writing to each of their 'people' about what they've been up to. I'm not sure that we will be able to actually even post anything at the moment but even sending photos to family and friends of the cards the kids made, would brighten up their day, I'm sure.
Friday - Day 9
Balloon- ice excavating
This was another clever idea my friend, Cat Kendon tried with her lot. It will mean preparing balloons the night before, just filling them with a small toy and a whole lot of water and popping them in the freezer. I imagine you could do this with smaller ice-cubes in an ice-tray too if you had small enough toys.
On Day 9, grab them out the freezer and let the kids take them outside to smash and break to try dig out the toy. If you want to be really educational, maybe you want to do a small teaching on what archeologists do, how they dig up fossils and the whole, careful process. You could put a dinosaur in the kids version for fun to play with afterwards.
Saturday - Day 10
Make a shop to play with!
If you were in the parenting game a few years back and collected the New World tiny food collectables, those will be perfect for this activity! If not, the kids will have heaps of fun kitting out their 'shops' with toys they already have or even some of your non-breakable groceries from the cupboard like tins of food.
I have cardboard boxes in my garage (you could probably get some from your next grocery store visit if you don't have some). We will design and make a shop out of boxes and duct tape. The kids can paint it, put shop items in it and make little signs for each item with prices. The part that will turn it into an educational game is to get them a calculator or go old-school and give them a piece of paper, to tally up each shop I do at their store and see how much I need to pay them.
Sunday - Day 11
Church and baking day
Monday - Day 12
Get to know your family
This is one activity I am most excited about. Each of the kids is going to think of questions to ask people in our family. I will also prompt them on certain things. The aim of this is for the kids to practise writing but more importantly, to get to know things about they family that they didn't already know. I will get them to ask people like my gran, their Ouma, what sorts of games she playes as a child. What countries she has visited. What her best memory was with her mother. What is one thing they are really good at that no one knows about, etc.
Each child will have a chance to face-time the relatives they chose to interview and will present back to the family, all the cool information they learnt about our family. This is another great way to keep kids connected to our extended family, especially our older family members.
Tuesday - Day 13
Cardboard Box Houses
This was a hit as an activity at our last holidays. the kids use cardboard boxes to create houses or cars and spend time designing and paining them with poster paint. Easy peasy, no-brainer activity that they spend ages working on and then ages playing in. This time, to up the level of stimulation, I'll google some fun designs they can try and copy.
Wednesday - Day 14
Halfway Mark - Spring Clean and Celebration
Being 2 weeks into our 4 weeks in isolation, we would surely have a house that feels really 'lived-in'. This day will be set aside for cleaning, sorting, packing piles of washing away, gardening (pulling weeds) and basically resetting the house for the last leg of our 4 weeks. I like to move furniture away from walls, take mattresses out to air, the whole hog. The kids actually enjoy climbing in and out of couch pillows that are piled up and discovering toys that had fallen between the bed and the wall...
And just because you can't have a whole day of just cleaning, I suggest we spend the morning preparing special desserts like jelly and custard, both easy ones for the kids to make themselves. This will be a fun way to end the evening after a day of hard work and something for the kids to look forward to after working as a team and getting the house clean and tidy.
Thursday - Day 15
Kids Scavenger hunt for the family
For this activity, the kids are going to be charged with making a fun scavenger hunt for the rest of us to do. They'll have to plan clues and be stealthy in putting them in place without us realising it. They'll have to think of a prize for the end, it could be lollies from their own treat stash or 'coupons' for chores they'll do for the other person.
Friday - Day 16
Dreaming of a pet...
The kids will be asked to think about ANY pet they wish they could get. It can be anything. They'll have to come up with a presentation to show the family all about that pet. This includes drawing a picture of the pet they want and then doing some research on the computer (or out of a book if you have that resource available ), on how to take care of this pet and interesting facts about this pet.
If you have older kids, I am planning to teach Abby and Noah (ages 10 and 8), to use Powerpoint. It's so super simple and this way they can practise typing and some computer work to create a presentation they can show us all later that day.
Saturday - Day 17
Games Day!
The activities on this day will be ALL about fun as a family, not just tasks we set for the kids and they do alone.
I'm planning on getting some of our family boardgames out (my kids love Life, Kids Charades, HeadBands, Candyland, to name a few), and to actually jump in and play with them.
Another few ideas I thought was to get cardboard, cut out some holes and to label certain holes with higher points than others. The aim is to get the beanbag or tennis ball in the holes with the highest points and you see which family member gets the most points each round.
I also saw another big game of O's and X's on the floor, making the grid with tape on a floor. You use paper plates as the markers.
Church and baking!
Monday - Day 19
Knitting and sewing
One thing I have at home is knitting needles, wool, cotton and needles. Now I went and bought knitting needles and wool but most of us have cotton and thread. I'm going to cut up an old towel or sheet and teach the kids how to do hand stitches. I remember learning how to knit at school as a young girl although I can't for the life of me remember how to do it now! I'll look up some Youtube tutorials and let Abby try her hand at that. For the boys, sewing 2 squares and making a pillow case, will probably be the extent of their activity.
Tuesday - Day 20
Make a TV
This was one of mine and my siblings favourite things to do as littlies at our family holiday house, when we had no technology. We would make a TV out of a box, draw on all the buttons, make the remote and cut out a screen where our heads would poke out. We would then take turns changing the channels, performing for one another, turning the volume up and down and doing adverts.
Hopefully the kids will get into this. Some things are timeless... I guess we will soon find out...
Wednesday - Day 21
Make a boardgames
The kids are going to be given paper, cardboard and craft stuff to come up with a boardgame. Whether they replicate the usual snakes and ladders type game or come up with something totally new, it's up to them. After creating it, we will all have a turn at trying out their games.
Thursday - Day 22
Where in the World
This activity is geography in disguise. We will get out the Atlas (if you have a globe that's even more perfect).The kids will each choose a random country and we will discover together (using the atlas, books or good old Google), everything we need to know for that country.
I will get the kids to draw a suitcase and based on our discoveries, they will need to draw what we may need. For example if we find out it's a hot, tropical climate, they will draw togs, if there are Malaria carrying mosquitos, they'll draw mosquito repellant).
You can search up currency and work out which country would be better to shop in when you take $1 to each of those countries. You can search up where you might go, what attarctions are there? What language do they speak?
Then after researching the 3 countries, the kids all vote on where our family would go. Maybe you could even take a 'virtual trip' and look up a travel show to show the kids what it's like to visit there?
Friday - Day 23
Time Machine Trip
This activity is history in disguise. Make a time machine together out of cardboard boxes (yes, we will be using cardboard boxes almost everyday). We will probably spend some time decorating it.
The kids will 'press the buttons' and the time machine will take us to different times in history. Whatever decade or century they choose (you may want to decide for them), you can look up some interesting things that happened. I want to take the kids 'back in time' to when I was younger and explain how different life was, then go back to when Oumie was younger and show the even greater differences (things like no aeroplanes, no fast food), then go back even further and chat about medicine (in light of this virus) and how far we have come with medical breakthroughs. I will research some other major health pandemics and plagues and talk to them about how blessed we are to have modern conveniences like social media, technology, internet, understanding of how virus' spread etc.
Saturday - Day 24
Creative Writing
This will probably be my favourite day. I LOVE writing. I'm so blessed Abby does too. I will read the kids a few short stories to get the creative juices flowing. Then we will make blank books out of printing paper, stapled down the centre. The kids will create a front cover, write a story and illustrate their books. Then we will do story time and they can video call their little cousins and read their stories to them.
Sunday - Day 25
Church and baking
Monday - Day 26
Sports Day
This will be an easy one for us because my kids are sports mad. You may need to come up with sports challenges that suit your resources. We have a trampoline with high nets so one of our challenges will be to see who can kick the rugby ball into the trampoline from a tee. Another idea will be to see who can shoot the most consecutive basketball hoops without missing. You can do a number of sports related challenges, all for points and see who wins at the end.
Tuesday - Day 27
Lego Dream House
The aim of this activity is for the kids to design their ideal room or ideal house. They can go crazy with dreaming of a pool, having three stories, having a spa in the bedroom, having ponies in the garden... They will have 1 hour to create and build a dream house out of Lego. After 1 hour we will all give each other a 'house tour' and go through all the cool functions of the house.
Wednesday - Day 28
This will be the last day of self isolation unless this doesn't work as it should. Here's hoping and praying that it will be the last day!
If it is, I think this would be a great day for a party. Maybe the kids want to help you plan a menu for a special dinner. They can help you write a shopping list for ingredients, all be involved in different aspects of cooking. They can set the table all fancy, make place cards and use your special glasses for a special drink with dinner.
This would be a great day of preparation and a great chance to reflect and chat over dinner about what the kids learnt, what they liked, what they found frustrating and how you all grew as a family team.
My prayer is that as we join together in supporting one another, especially us mums, in praying for one another and sharing resources, that we will come out of this with a stronger community of support than ever before.
Lots of love all you incredible people. If you've read this through, this far, it's because you are one amazing, dedicated mama who is wanting to do the best job at creating a home that is fun, full of memories, laughs and quality family time. Let's plan ahead but only worry about one day at a time. Today, we have all the grace, strength and resource we need to get through. Tomorrow will worry about itself.
Be present. Reach out if you are having a tough day. Be there for someone else when you're winning.
Lots of love xx
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