How We Plan to Survive Social Distancing

I’ve been following COVID-19 for quite a while as it hit China in January. I’ve been slowing preparing for a long stint at home. I stocked up on groceries, I started gathering materials for activities to keep us busy, and I started to mentally prepare for the reality that life might look a bit different for a while.

So most are likely thinking how am I going to keep us (I mean me) sane at home. First off I know in order to be my best self, I need to exercise. Over the next few weeks, I will be continuing to use my Beachbody on Demand membership as I have been for the past 9 months. I will also be throwing my kids in the jogging stroller to get in a quick neighborhood run and I am also going to be utilizing some of the Instagram fitness/wellness bloggers I follow for some new ideas to keep things fresh since being home every day from here on out is going to get pretty mundane fast. Here are some of the people I recommend:

@heymomma_cam she just posted an easy 10-minute workout anyone can do!

@ashleywiseman her programs have helped me stay accountable in my postpartum weight loss journey and she often shares workouts you can do from home

Next, I'm sure you're wondering well what are you going to do with your kids?! Since we homeschool I do already have a whole slew of activities planned already. However, since we will not be supplementing with field trips or any other activities, I've been collecting ideas on Pinterest and Instagram and collecting supplies as necessary or digging them up from my craft bin or tweaking them to utilize what I have in the house. I suggest going and following the following accounts to keep ideas flowing:

@busytoddler If you have a toddler you NEED to follow her. I get so many of my ideas from her. I sometimes tweak them for what we have on hand or what my kids are into but they are awesome activities! Here is one we will do with all of the amazon and diaper boxes I have: RAMP ROLL

@dayswithgrey Her breakfast invitations are amazing. I use them for post-nap/pre-dinner time but I foresee them being used during every portion of our days moving forward. We will be doing this one soon: Transportation Toys

@letsplayschool Homeschool mom and curriculum creator - We subscribe to her Fundamentals course which we will be working on in the coming weeks!

@theworkspaceforchildren She has a killer play space for her kids. They are practicing very strict social distancing already and providing support for how to keep your kids occupied by still having two parents working from home.

There are so many more and I'll continue to share these on my Instagram feed over the next few weeks.

There are also a ton of online classroom resources. Teachers Paying Teachers is my favorite resource. I typically search for free activities. Scholastic Classroom has a 20-day curriculum for grades PreK-6+. And this local list has been circulating social media Cincinnati Kids To-Do-List During Coronavirus "Spring Break". There are so many more free resources out there!

We also plan to watch more TV than normal. We typically only have about an hour of screen time a day but I can tell that this will be extended a bit over the next few days. Thankful for Disney Plus! If only Frozen 2 was streaming, we could all go "Into the Unknown" together! After all, Elsa went into the "Unknown" and it saved Arendale.

It's also approaching Spring and warmer temperatures. You bet we will be playing outside a ton, going on walks, riding our bikes/power wheels around the neighborhood as long as we are healthy of course! Maybe this is a good time to practice some of the fundamentals of sports. I'm thinking of really teaching my 3-year-old how to hit a baseball or getting our soccer goal out and working on some kicking practice or maybe even playing a little one on one.

For myself, I also have a long to-do list of things I would love to get done like clean my car out, clean my closet out and create quiet time boxes for my son who is starting to drop his nap!

I'm not sure how long this will last but I will continue to post the fun stuff we are doing to over here and hopefully, this phase of life will be over sooner than we think AND we will look back and learn a few things about ourselves.

#socialdistacing #colvid19 #toddlers #momlife #kidactivities