How is your staying at home going, parents?
Slowly losing the will to live? I know the feeling. However, I have decided that I am going to take these coming weeks and have as much fun as we can with the situation as it stands – while also, you know, take the opportunity to deeply clean and organise my entire home and life (I'm not the only one re-watching Tidying Up with Marie Kondo on Netflix, surely?)
Anyway, back to the having fun bit. One idea I came across yesterday sounded like the perfect activity for your neighbourhood/street WhatsApp group.
Say hello to the social distancing scavenger hunt.
What the heck is a
social distancing scavenger hunt, I hear you ask?
The idea is super-simple.
All the kids in the neighbourhood make a drawing or some art, like for instance a rainbow, a puppy, a virus (very fitting), and stick it up in a window in the house – facing outwards towards the street.
Then, later on in the afternoon, families can take a walk around the 'hood' and see how many they can spot. Bring a notebook and write down which house you spotted the artwork in, which window etc. See? Now you are also doing a bit of writing practice and spelling and can give yourself a big pat on the back for your home-schooling skills too.
Since the new reality of life has set in (What has it been? Three days? Four days? It feels like a year!), the concept of how to engage our children and how to interact with our community has rapidly changed. We are all feeling it, all of it. This is uncharted territory, and to most of us, this can be a very isolating time.
Which is why I think we all just need to make the best of it. And this activity sounds like just that. Some arts and crafts, some fresh air, some fun – and the opportunity to wave and smile to our neighbours from a safe distance.
The concept? Simple. The payoff? Huge.
