The stay-at-home order is a realy bummer to everyone. In an effort to get creative, here’s a list of some of the things we’ll be doing while stuck at home. Maybe some of these ideas inspire you too.

Self-Care and Fitness
- Set a generic schedule for your day, but be forgiving and flexible if it does not happen as you “plan.”
- Take a long warm bubble bath.
- Join in Planet Fitness’ free FB live classes.
- Do a yoga program with your family.
- Change your felt quote board to a new inspiring quote or scripture.
- Learn how to jump rope.
- Meditate to relax.
- Stop reading the news for an entire day.
- Get off of social media and stay off of it for as long as you can.
- Take a nap or sleep in late.
- Take a 10-15 minute walk up and down the street.
- Sit down and listen to your favorite music. Just listen.
- Talk to distant family or friends everyday.
- Read scriptures to stay inspired.
Socializing at home and from a Distance
- Play a new board game or card game. Or play your favorite one. Here are some of our favorites.
- Send a postcard or letter to family members and friends . . . even people who live near you!
- Call friends and family members and be goofy.
- Send surprise messages to family and friends through Duo or Skype.
- Write and send thank you notes to emergency personnel, doctors and nurses, and others who must keep working.
- Set up a “mail delivery service” in your home and send letters to each other.
- Send a note to survivors of the USS Indianapolis disaster.
- Play a game with friends or family via a Google Hangout.
- Have a group show-and-tell time on google Hangout or a Zoom classroom with family or friends.
- Write collaborative stories from a distance. Each person writes a page (or a certain number of words). Then the next person must continue the story.
- Post pictures in your windows, tell your neighbors to as well, and go for a neighborhood walk to see everyone’s creations.
- Send photographs to friends and family.
- Write encouraging chalk messages on sidewalks as you take a walk.
Skills and Talents to Develop
- Practice your sewing skills. Make something to wear or use.
- Try a new recipe. Prepare dinner or a dessert! Join Raddish kids with some limited-time free recipes.
- Learn how to play the piano or guitar, or learn about music in general.
- Try an art project with an online art class.
- Learn a different language for free.
- Learn to program in Scratch.
- Make a stop-motion video.
- Do “lunch doodles” with Mo Willems.
- Try reading a book in a new-to-you genre.
- Design something new with perler beads.
- Take a hammer, nails, and wood and make something.
- Weave plastic bracelets with the Craz-loom.
- Learn how to take photographs of people or places around you (yes, even in your home). You can use a phone camera.
Things to Try
- Do arts and crafts with CreativeBug.
- Make something with LEGO bricks. Join a Challenge group for fun.
- Hold a family “Olympics” or “circus” in your basement, backyard, or garage.
- Dress in costumes and have a lemonade “tea” party or hot chocolate party.
- Race matchbox cars across a smooth (wooden) floor and see how far they go.
- See how far plastic frogs jump.
- Put on a puppet show. Make sock or bag puppets if you don’t have any.
- Make a Bozo buckets or beanbag toss game.
- Make a name puzzle out of cardboard (use a box cutter to cut the lines). This is for an adult to do for kids. Decorate it with markers.
- Make your own colorful playdoh and get playing.
- Wash your dolls. Wash synthetic hair with fabric softener and be gentle!
- Do puzzles. Start a really big one!
- Build a blanket fort.
- Make paper airplanes and have a race.
- Make a tower out of paper cups or index cards and toss a ball to knock it down.
- Paint rocks that you find in your yard.
- Set up a zoo with your stuffed animals and lead a guided tour for a video (or family member).
- Make a paper doll (see my weather bear).
- Try recycling paper and making new paper.
- Write a message in a secret code.
- Revisit old family pictures and videos.
- Have a photography scavenger hunt.
Educational-ish Fun Stuff
- Take your learning digital with Boom Cards.
- Read a book you’ve been waiting to read.
- Write in your journal.
- Find what online services your library offers and sign in to see what they offer. Check out audiobooks, ebooks or maybe even movies through your library.
- Watch educational videos via streaming services.
- Listen to audiobooks via Audible. See my favorites audiobooks or sign up for a trial if you don’t yet have a membership.
- Print paper puppets and make habits for them.
- Learn about history by searching the database at Homeschool History.
- Act out being a butterfly.
- Be a hermit crab.
- Do activities from Scholastic’s Learn at Home.
- Work on learning to read with Logic of English’s free-for-a-limited-time supplement online.
- Watch an opera with free online streaming!
- Listen to a symphony.
- Watch a Broadway play or musical from home.
- Learn about the history of music or musicals.
- Sign up for a class at Outschool.
- Meet the animals at the Cincinnati Zoo.
- Learn about natural history with the Burpee Natural History Museum.
- Tour the Louvre.
- Color famous paintings in a famous paintings from museums around the world coloring book.
- Tour the Shedd Aquarium.
- Visit National Parks from home.
- Make mini-straw rockets.
- Do a citizen science project from home.
- Design a bird cage.
- Look for animal tracks in your backyard.
- Try learning with Boom Cards.
- Have a word-filled egg hunt.
- Learn about the biomes of the world with a game.
- Search famous places in the world via Google Earth.
- Write a story and illustrate it.
- Make something out of LEGO bricks, then write a story about it.
- Write your name with an ink pad and stamps.
- Write a letter written with an ink pad and stamps.
- Make a story with stickers.
- Get out the paints!
- Cut and paste ripped colored paper to make a collage.
Boring but Good Stuff
- Do a house project. Put up a shelf or fix a blemish you’ve been meaning to correct.
- Polish the silver.
- Iron the table clothes.
- Wash the duvet covers.
- Dust the ceilings and walls. Get the tops of cabinets cleaned off.
- Clean your kitchen cupboards inside and out. Get rid of appliances or dishes you don’t use anymore.
- Sort your clothes closet and get rid of clothes that don’t fit you anymore.
- Mop your mudroom thoroughly.
- Sweep out your garage and wash it down with the house, if possible.
- Reorganize your bookshelves and get rid of books you no longer need or want to read.
- Update family pictures in your living room or on your family walls. If necessary, contact family to send you a new picture to print!
- Dust all blinds and window ledges.
- Dust fan blades.
- Replace all broken or burnt out light bulbs.
- Test fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors and replace batteries as needed.
- Paint a wall that you’ve been meaning to paint.
- Sort through items in your storage and downsize or re-gift items as needed.
- Teach children basic home ec skills.
- Reorganize your pantry. Toss items that are expired.
- Wash all your doorknobs and faucets. All the time.
