Kid Crafts - Perler Beads!
There are tons of reasons to fill your house with crafts. Maybe it’s cold and wet outside. Maybe your kid is sick or has an injury. Maybe you just want them to have something to do that isn’t playing video games or watching TV!
SO you go to Michael’s Craft Store. You are all immediately overwhelmed with choice.
Do we want to make our own slime? Do we want to try out friendship bracelets? Are the kids too old for the science experiments, too young for the yarn projects?
Are these just going to end up as tiny, sticky bits of trash all over my living room?
These are all fair questions. Craft projects can be their own sources of anxiety! (Read our blog post all about Messy Science with Kids HERE) It is also hard to know exactly where to start. ESPECIALLY with something like
PERLER BEADS.
Perler beads are colorful beads with holes through them that are used to make mosaic style art pieces. You use flat pegboards of various sizes and styles depending on what you are planning on making. Once the design is made, you place a piece of wax paper over it and carefully iron it on medium heat until the beads have melted into each other firmly. I suggest also ironing the other side once you have removed the design from the pegboard, but it is not required.
Some Cons:
>You really have to do an entire project in one sitting. Leaving perler beads half done on a pegboard is not like leaving an unfinished puzzle. The slightest rumble can send them scattering which can be really frustrating.
> This isn’t really a con! It’s just something you need to know. Even at ages 5 and 7, this is not something my kids can do without supervision. It is definitely a family activity that you actively participate in. Once they learn to follow a pattern and how to fix mistakes, you can all work on your own designs together! But they will still need your help with the iron for a long time.
> The ironing is tricky: The beads can come up if you press too hard on one part. If the design gets messed up in this process it is really hard to “fix” it. Most of the time you just have to start over. Once you figure out how much heat, pressure, and time your designs need this can become a lot easier.
> The beads get everywhere. It’s just a fact. We have been pretty good about cleaning up, and this is a good lesson for your kids to be responsible with their crafts and big clean-up helpers, but colors get mixed, boxes get knocked over. I suggest doing it on the floor if you can.
Our Verdict: This Craft Medium is Fun, Clever, Thoughtful, Versatile, Timeless.
They are incredibly versatile in what you can make and you can buy as much or as little of them as you want. They are not sticky and do not go bad! If you are a beginner, there are templates for designs as simple as stars, hearts, and generic animals, or as complex as highly detailed portraits and star ships! There are perler sets for nearly any fandom your kid (or you!) participates in, including Mario Bros., Star Wars, and Minecraft!
Once we tried out a kit and decided this was really fun, we began making our own designs! My daughter decided to try out making a unicorn, and my son made his own little heart shape. You can also find plenty of designs for anything you like on artistic sites like Pinterest, where we found all of these! Once you get a feel for them, it becomes fairly simple to create your own designs.
You aren’t just making more plastic toys to clutter your house. I mean, in a sense you are, but they are so much more than that. They are something that you created together. So many toys right now are made to engage the “unboxing” excitement in kids. It’s all about the initial thrill of GETTING the toy or collectible, then it’s immediately old news.
On a sick day from school, my son and I made his favorite characters. They are a staple in the household right now. They are waterproof so they even go in the bathtub! They eat at dinner with us, we talk for them, they get a movie pick in our movie night rotation. They mean so much to us, and I think it is in no small part because we worked together to create them.
The more creative you get, the more you can do!
We have made necklace charms for my daughter’s friends. We have made Valentines to mail to friends far away. You can make key chains, name tags, picture frames, 3D figures, flower pots (with perler flowers!).
The Crafts Can Be Used In Active Games: We made an entire afternoon’s fun in the form of a Minecraft Item Scavenger Hunt! The kids had to follow clues, do mini games, and complete an obstacle course to get their proper Minecraft tools and weapons. At the end, even the PRIZE they earned for solving all the riddles was an egg made from Perler beads! It took a lot of planning and crafting, but I got to do something special with the kids and it didn’t cost anything more than the craft pieces I already had.
Have you tried these yet? If so, let us know what you’ve made in the comments!
Night Walks:Activities for Autumn
Despite the ninety degree temps we all know that the days are getting shorter and shorter! Pretty soon it’ll be dark before our littles’ bedtimes.
Whether or not you have the ever-present battle against screens in your household, it can be hard to decide what to do with your evenings, especially when adding in dinner, bath time, bed routines, and finding time for yourself to decompress.
An easy breezy add to your weeknight is a brief Night-Time Walk together! These do not require much prep, can involve kiddos of any age, and can span any amount of time you need.
Optional Materials: Binoculars, Paper, Coloring Implements, Compass, Flashlights
FOR CLEAR SKIES
Creating your own constellations: Much like looking for shapes in clouds, you can look up at the stars on a walk and ask your kids if they see any shapes! Tell your own stories about the shapes they see.
Learning the constellations: older kids may be interested in constellations and the stories they tell! You can pair this with one of these amazing constellation story books!
Moon Phase Journal: We talk about this a lot, but by having your child do observational drawings of the moon as it changes, it helps your child begin processing how time passes long term. If you do the observations from the same spot, your child will also see how the moon moves around the sky based on the seasons!
Bonus: Help them learn how to use a compass when finding the moon, the planets, and the stars so that they can begin to learn basic parts of navigation!
Autumnal Celestial Events:
Sea and Sky Events 2023 has all of the upcoming celestial events in the night sky. We will list a few of the best ones below.
September 23 - September Equinox. The September equinox occurs at 06:43 UTC. The Sun will shine directly on the equator and there will be nearly equal amounts of day and night throughout the world. This is also the first day of fall (autumnal equinox) in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of spring (vernal equinox) in the Southern Hemisphere.
September 29 - Full Moon, Supermoon. The Moon will be located on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun and its face will be will be fully illuminated. This phase occurs at 09:59 UTC. This full moon was known by early Native American tribes as the Corn Moon because the corn is harvested around this time of year. This moon is also known as the Harvest Moon. The Harvest Moon is the full moon that occurs closest to the September equinox each year. This is also the last of four supermoons for 2023. The Moon will be near its closest approach to the Earth and may look slightly larger and brighter than usual.
*EARLY EVENING* October 8, 9 - Draconids Meteor Shower. The Draconids is a minor meteor shower producing only about 10 meteors per hour. It is produced by dust grains left behind by comet 21P Giacobini-Zinner, which was first discovered in 1900. The Draconids is an unusual shower in that the best viewing is in the early evening instead of early morning like most other showers. The shower runs annually from October 6-10 and peaks this year on the the night of the the 8th and morning of the 9th. The second quarter moon will be visible in the early morning but shouldn't interfere too much. Best viewing will be in the early evening from a dark location far away from city lights. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Draco, but can appear anywhere in the sky.
October 28 - Full Moon. The Moon will be located on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun and its face will be will be fully illuminated. This phase occurs at 20:25 UTC. This full moon was known by early Native American tribes as the Hunters Moon because at this time of year the leaves are falling and the game is fat and ready to hunt. This moon has also been known as the Travel Moon and the Blood Moon.
October 28 - Partial Lunar Eclipse. A partial lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes through the Earth's partial shadow, or penumbra, and only a portion of it passes through the darkest shadow, or umbra. During this type of eclipse a part of the Moon will darken as it moves through the Earth's shadow. The eclipse will be visible throughout all of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and western Australia. (NASA Map and Eclipse Information)
For cloudy nights
Weather Journal: During a lovely evening walk together you can discuss the weather! What do the clouds look like? Who thinks it’s going to rain? Is there wind? How does the outside feel at night versus during the day? What kinds of animals are we hearing and seeing? Afterwards, you could have kids do a brief journal entry. Kids can do observational drawings, write questions, and create graphs to see what kind of weather shows up the most in a week/month/year!
“Night Sounds and Sights” Scavenger Hunt:
Night Bird Sound
Rustling of Leaves
Crickets (or other night bug sounds)
A Bright Star: Planet or Star?
The Moon: What phase is it?
Autumn Leaves in multiple colors
Moth
An Evergreen Tree: Bonus - can you smell it?
A Flickering Streetlight
A Stop Sign — Did you notice anything interesting about this sign? (point out how it’s reflective so it’s visible in the dark)
September 13 - Kids Take Over the Kitchen Day
SEPTEMBER 13TH IS “KIDS TAKE OVER THE KITCHEN DAY”
In our Screenless Activities: Quick Recipes blog post, we discussed how beneficial it is to cook with your kids, and how uncomplicated it has to be. There are A TON of lovely children’s books that even have recipes! A good example is on the READ ALOUD section of our Common Ground Youtube Channel. Blue’s Clues Read Aloud: Blue Makes Breakfast. (We will have a list of Teacher Recommended books about food with recipes at the bottom of this blog! Don’t forget to scroll down!)
There is nothing more bolstering to a child, more comforting, more healthy, than quality time with you.
In our busy lives, this can feel hard to come by. We spend A LOT of time with our children! With school, extracurriculars, work, and finding time to breathe on our own, this can feel daunting. But Conscious Discipline says that even FIVE MINUTES of undivided attention a day can make all the difference in the world.
NAEYC has an incredible list of Quality Time Tips for Meaningful Days that basically boils down to: Noticing the positive, expressing affection, special rituals for daily quality time, letting them choose your activities, and putting technology away so your attention is only on each other. Utilize this CELLPHONE PARKING in your home for meals, games, books, walks with your family.
One of the tips is to take the time to EAT with your child! Does this sound stressful because of a picky-eater? You can give them some of the power they crave in that interaction by allowing them to COOK/PREPARE DINNER with you.
Provide them choices that give them power, but are within parameters you set. If they are not fans of vegetables, give them an option of vegetables to choose from and cook. “Would you like to cook broccoli, carrots, or snow peas tonight with dinner?” “Do you want to make the bbq chicken or the meatloaf?” “Which fruit from these options could go with what you have chosen?”
It is going to take them longer, and there will be more mess. We are constantly in the current of busy-ness. Cooking may feel like it takes forever already without a kid taking forever to break an egg (INTO the bowl… with the shells… and now it’s all over their fingers…) and spilling flour all over the place. This is how they learn. Think of every shaky letter and number they’ve ever drawn that you cheered over, and cheer over their stirring, their sifting, their pouring in the same way. Maybe they never develop a true passion for cooking… but they will learn to love learning. They will know that you are their champion, and that you support their process every step of the way. *Bonus* You can teach them how to clean up their messes, and give them more responsibility!!
They may not be interested, They may not want to try the food, et cetera. This is okay! Invite them to join you, allow them to “parallel play” if they want to be in the kitchen, but not engaging. Explain what you are doing step by step. These kinds of activities almost never go as planned, and sometimes do not go as well as you hope. The point is that quality time, that expression of patience. Still give them choices over what you make, still offer them the chance in the future. Teaching them that they have autonomy and how to express their choices with strength and kindness is also an incredible lesson.
Mistakes are Science. Does your kid want to use baking powder instead of baking soda or vice versa? cut the batter in half and let them try both. Do they want to double the amount of sugar? Do they want to try to add something odd to the sauce? Our instincts are to immediately say no. Treat moments like this like improv: “Yes, and-” is your friend here. OBVIOUSLY keep them safe, don’t let them play with boiling water or eat raw chicken. But letting them have a little leeway for experimentation, especially if it’s just this one day, or once in awhile, is a positive experience.
Cooking is a chance to tell Family Stories. Family Recipes are often inextricably tied to Family Traditions and happy holiday memories. There are recipes with cultural and religious significances that tie important lessons to a tangible experience. Cooking can be a history lesson! Connect your digital-native child to their great-great-great grandfather who kept their master-chef recipes written in a water-logged journal. Humans have changed between generations… but everybody has to eat.
There are a ton of poignant children’s stories with recipes in them.
We use a lot of them in the Creative Curriculum too! See below:
Peeny Butter Fudge by Toni Morrison and Slade Morrison. There is no one like Nana in the whole wide world. She is the best. Nana knows how to take an ordinary afternoon and make it extra special! Nap time, story time, and playtime are transformed by fairies, dragons, dancing, and pretending -- and then mixing and fixing yummy, yummy fudge just like Nana and Mommy did not so many years ago....
Every Color Soup by Jorey Hurley. All you need is a pot, a spoon, an adult helper, and vegetables of many colors to make a very special soup—Every Color Soup! Learn colors and vegetable names in this bright and colorful picture book with minimal text perfect for the beginning reader. Jorey Hurley’s bright, graphic art and simple text make this vibrant book a perfect read-aloud for budding cooks and their families. This lively picture book also comes with a recipe!
Apple Sauce Day by Lisa Amstutz. Applesauce Day is here! Maria and her family visit an apple orchard and pick apples. Then it's time to turn the apples into applesauce. Every year they use a special pot that has been in the family for generations. Follow along as everyone helps to make delicious applesauce.
Kalamata’s Kitchen by Sarah Thomas. This book does not have recipes, but encourages trying new things and experiencing foods from around the world! Tomorrow is Kalamata's first day at a new school, and she's nervous! What if the kids aren't friendly? Or worse, what if they don't like alligators!? If only Kalamata and Al Dente could go to back to the Indian spice market they visited this summer, then maybe she'd remember how to feel brave when new experiences seem scary.
The Empanadas that Abuela Made by Diane Gonzalez Bertrand. A whimsical look at the making of empanadas serves up the festive fun of a family’s effort to concoct the delicious pastries, with an easy empanada recipe included.
Cora Cooks Pancit by Dorina Gilmore. Cora loves being in the kitchen, but she always gets stuck doing the kid jobs like licking the spoon. One day, however, when her older sisters and brother head out, Cora finally gets the chance to be Mama's assistant chef. And of all the delicious Filipino dishes that dance through Cora's head, she and Mama decide to make pancit, her favorite noodle dish.
Bee Bim Bop! by Linda Park. A Korean American girl celebrates food and family in this cheerful book about cooking a special meal by Newbery Medalist Linda Sue Park.
Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story By Kevin Maillard. Fry Bread is elegantly written with lovingly rendered pictures that evoke family and love on every page. It’s all about cooking to be connected to the past while moving forward together.
Star Wars: Galactic Baking. These are NOT PICTURE BOOKS. They do not have a story! But any Star Wars Cookbooks that you can get your hands on are so fun, silly, weird, and worthwhile. Star Wars is loved by so many people young and old, and it is such a fun way to connect responsibility and learning to ADVENTURE and IMAGINATION STATION.
Sesame Street Let’s Cook! These are also not picture books, but they are an EXCELLENT introduction to cooking for young chefs.
PLEASE share your experiences, your stories, and, most importantly, YOUR RECIPES with us! We will share more recipes on our social media leading up to September 13th. We would love to someday build a Common Ground Cookbook from our BIG, SHARED COMMON GROUND FAMILY.
Love Love Love,
Your CG Chefs
Screenless Activities - Springtime Fun
It is finally Spring! The days are (mostly) warmer, and our evenings are more filled with light!
Our busy lives can still make creative moments with our children challenging. Trust us when we say we understand the impulse to hand over the tv remote or the iPad so you can get the dishes done or one last load of laundry into the dryer (we didn’t say ANYTHING about folding it. That’s over the top).
We had a lot of fun with our Simple Recipes for Kids blog, so we wanted to give you some more screen-less activities to do with your kids. None of us are the perfect #PinterestParent, so we kept them simple and (mostly) pre-planning free! You can use stuff you have around the house and the local environment.
Spring Time Origami - Spring Time can be beautiful… but it can also be rainy. Sometimes getting OUT and ABOUT just isn’t possible! Here are some fun folding crafts that can lead to imaginative play and don’t involve a big crafty mess. (Unless you want to paint them, put glitter on them, attach googly eyes, etc. Be as intensive as you like once the animals are finished)
How to fold your own Frog : The timeline for Spring in Reston is defined by amphibians! In Walker Nature Center’s spring update they talk all about vernal pools and their necessity to the survival of tadpoles. They also talk about when you can hear and see certain amphibian species throughout the season. Fold your own froggies and create your own little habitat right in your living room!
How to fold your own Rabbit (Whole Body) (Head): Rabbits are a spring icon! You could make whole rabbits, you could make rabbit heads and use them as book marks, you could set up a whole spring scene or do a play with the fox puppets below. While you’re at it, check out some amazing National Geographic rabbit facts here!
How to fold your own Tulip: One of the quintessential spring flowers for any garden, the tulip is known for its wide variety of colors and dazzling beauty! You could create your own garden without the requirement of a green thumb. You can find tulip facts here!
How to fold your own Fox (Whole Body) (Head): Reston is FILLED with foxes. Fox kits are born in the spring, usually in March or April, and you'll see them emerge from the den four or five weeks after birth. Read more about foxes HERE.
How to fold your own Butterfly or Water Bomb
Moon and Stars Journal: This is one of my favorite ideas for the spring. You do not need a fancy telescope or binoculars to find Spring Constellations. Look at the pictures of them and see if you can find them in the sky! Find an open field or go on a night walk. You can also track the moon phases together! Once you’re done observing, either make some drawings by flashlight outside, or do them right from the window of your house! (We do it from our back balcony.) They do not have to be perfect, this is all about enjoying the night sky together… but you would be surprised at what your children retain.
Spring Scavenger Hunt: Find these things out in the wilderness! You do not have to collect them, just enjoy them.
A blooming flower
The sound of a frog
A bird’s nest with eggs (don’t touch!!!)
A honeybee
Three different bird calls.
A cherry blossom tree (See if you can incorporate the bridge by Lake Anne. It’s incredible)
A lightning bug (late spring)
Tadpoles (any vernal pool!)
A Fox Den
Add your own
Do you have Spring traditions? Share them with us in the comments! We love finding new and exciting things to do, especially if they can be done spur of the moment.
Love Love Love,
LJ and your CG Family
Screenless Activities - Quick Recipes
Your kid is a font of good ideas. They want to make dragon trains and have princess dance parties. They want to turn the living room into a Hotwheels rainforest! They want to cook a three-tiered cake to celebrate Wednesday! If only we could see the world through their eyes…
But you’re tired! Work is long and Covid is never ending. There are dishes to be done and laundry to fold. It can feel like it takes a huge effort to switch directions into the creative realm.
My advice to you: Do it anyway, keep it simple.
You don’t have to turn your whole house into a sprawling city scape to play Taxi like they did in Bluey, but you can pull the chairs around and put on “city noises” with youtube. (I did say screen-less… but I think we can make exceptions for excellent ambient noise apps).
You don’t have to put on full costumes for a dance party! You could just only dance a certain way if you’re a certain character/princess.
I WILL WRITE MORE ON SIMPLE DANCE PARTIES AND IMAGINATION GAMES IN A LATER POST! For this entrty I’m going to focus on one thing, and it’s because my little Imagination Rockstars have been a little obsessed with it…
Baking on a School Night.
I know. I picture it too.
Sticky bowls. Flour on the floor. Every one of our measuring spoons eventually hits the floor, and they all just end up tossed into the batter bowl.
But before you say no, think about what baking offers your child and you.
Measuring out ingredients is good for several different math essentials from number sense to subitization to fractions.
Helping in the kitchen gives them a sense of independence. It offers confidence that they are being entrusted with real tools, not toys. It gives them a chance to feel like they are contributing. Being natural helpers, this is an enriching experience for them emotionally.
Baking and cooking give the child an opportunity to experiment. Little failures with you help them become more familiar with failure as an essential part of the learning process rather than something to be feared.
You get a chance to be with them, doing something fun, no distractions. This is an incredible boost to your relationship and the trust you share. It also may help you feel enriched and emotionally boosted, because who doesn’t like licking a batter spoon? At the end of the day flour and milk are pretty easy to clean up. Having giggles and belly laughs can turn a whole day around.
All this being said, you don’t have to bake a three-tiered cake.
Simple recipes that do not take four hours to complete are key. I like to use the Star Wars Cookbooks for kids! They also have Harry Potter cookbooks, Sesame Street Cookbooks, and countless online resources for parents like who you have gone through the process.
Rice Krispies Treats: We LOVE cooking rice krispies treats at the center with our students. They are easy, fun, and full of mostly shelf-stable ingredients. They are also super easy to modify for allergies. You can cut them in any shape you like. They can be multicolored. You can BUILD with them! The possibilities are endless, and the clean-up is quick.
Banana Bread: Everyone has a fantastic banana bread recipe. We included “Big Bird’s Banana Bread” recipe because it was specifically designed with little hands in mind. It’s yummy, healthy, and perfect for breakfast and snacks!
Frozen Yogurt Bites: These are so cool because you really can’t go wrong with flavors. Fruit and Yogurt are foods for all ages, so an older sibling can make a scrumptious treat FOR a younger sibling. Silicone baking molds come in all sorts of shapes from robots to unicorns, so you can have “themed tea parties” with your frozen treats on the side!
Mug Cakes: Full disclosure, we make these in my house all the time. They’re quick, simple, and small, perfect for a little sweet bedtime bite while we read. If you are totally out of energy but still want to do something a little extra sweet with your littles, this one “takes the cake.”
No Bake Cookie Dough Balls: All the fun of making cookie dough without any of the worry about raw ingredients or messing with the oven! This is one example of a really great recipe that accommodates allergies and has healthy ingredients for growing bellies.
We are not always the parents we want to be, all patience and creativity. But you are amazing. All of you. Just as you are. At the end of the day, you’re not going to remember spotless counters. You’re going to remember the first time they cracked an egg. You’re going to remember when you mixed up baking flour and baking soda and laughed at the result. And they’re going to remember that even on a cold, rainy Tuesday, you all found a little magic together before bedtime.
Do you have recipes you and your families use when baking with kids? We would love to see them! Share them in the comments.
With love (and plenty of baking disaster stories!)
LJ and your Common Ground Family
Holidays in Covid: Keep The Spirit Despite Quarantine
*PLEASE NOTE: we will be adding more items all week long! Check for updates!*
Home for the Holidays is not such a jolly thought when it’s because of Quarantine.
That’s where so many of us find ourselves right now. With 569 new cases in Fairfax County just today (Fairfax County Health Dept. Dashboard), there are a ton of families in our community who will not be traveling to see loved ones for Christmas.
So what do you do to help maintain the Christmas Spirit if you are stuck in quarantine? Ms. Victoria and I (Ms. LJ) have been there before, and are in that situation now, and we thought we would help you get some good ideas.
Holiday Stories: You could go totally screen-less for most of our activity suggestions below, or you could have holiday specials playing in the background! But my personal recommendation will always be BOOKS AND STORIES.
Audible books has a ton of kid-friendly holiday audio dramas and read-alouds. It really puts me in a festive mood to share favorite stories with the littles.
Do you have family that you would like to visit, but you are playing it safe? You can read over zoom. Read stories to each other! Do this nightly! You could read a chapter book and parse them out chapter by chapter until the end of the year! During the day you could talk about what might happen next, send theories to each other, or just talk about your favorite part. We did this with my friend and her kids last year and the kids got to pick out picture books for each other. It was just one more gift they could give to their friends, and it made them feel like they were together even when they were apart.
We have a WHOLE SERIES of Read-Alouds! They are available HERE on our website and on our YouTube Channel! We also have a HOLIDAY PLAYLIST where we will be adding more videos!
Caroling: Spread is limited outdoors, and it is easy to socially distance. You can go to your friends’ and family’s houses and sing your favorite Christmas songs to them on your sidewalk! Sidebar: We do not advise singing together with a group that isn’t quarantined with you, even outside. You expectorate far more when singing! We advise singing to a group at least ten feet away.
CARDBOARD CRAFTS:
We know you’ve ordered just a ton of stuff from the internet for the holidays… right? No? Just us? Well if you’re like us, There’s definitely plenty of cardboard to go nuts with. When we were stuck in quarantine, we built a very interesting space ship… It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be jolly!
Do you not have enough to make a whole house? Make a mini gingerbread cardboard village! Everyone cuts and decorates their own house and can cut out little cardboard people, animals, furniture, space ships… this is something that could take up literal hours.
Holiday Recipes and Foodie Crafts:
Holiday Activities and Crafts:
Print-Outs: Sometimes a relaxing activity on a cold day can be as easy as coloring with hot cocoa. I’m serious! Sometimes we as parents think memories have to involve HUGE EVENTS. My daughter’s favorite thing is to color together with no distractions. Put on Christmas music, get out the colored pencils, make some hot cocoa, and just get goofy with it. Click the links we have to get print outs, or just google your own! Holiday Print Outs
Advanced: If your kid is a little older, use a little journal or even some stapled together pieces of paper to make your OWN. HOLIDAY. STORY. Write your family’s next classic! This activity is fun for the whole family, allows your school-ager to practice writing and drawing, and can be a real laugh riot.
CLICK HERE for a little book creation pdf!
Here’s a MINI BOOK creation PDF and instructions!
Holiday Themed Dance Party: I am so not kidding when I say that “dancing it out” helps drive away the darkness. Studies have shown that dancing helps with anxiety and depression. It boosts mood and memory, which is perfect for making new holiday traditions!
Maybe you feel like pretending you’re on stage during The Nutcracker.
Holiday Scavenger Hunts: Do you have local family that’s in the area that you can’t visit because one of you is in quarantine? That really stinks… and it’s hard. BUT there is something you can do to show that you’re around.
Chalk games:
Write loving messages on their walkway! Have them do the same for you
Write HOLIDAY RIDDLES THEY HAVE TO SOLVE BY THE END OF THE EVENING!
Draw a little game they have to play outside like hopscotch or floor is lava or dance party! If they’re little kids it doesn’t have to be too complicated, just have spaces where they HAVE to run like a reindeer or play “don’t see Santa!” freeze dance.
Write each other up a “holiday nature walk” scavenger hunt! Possible things that could go on your list:
A snowman light up structure
A unique/whacky inflatable
A singing house
A bit of frost on the ground
A wreath made of real foliage
A real Deer
A Santa Claus
People singing live music
Birdsong
A Winter Constellation, like Orion’s Belt
A moon in a particular phase
An Evergreen Tree
A squirrel/Chipmunk
Holiday Drive-Thru Lights: Ms. Victoria is a HOLIDAY LIGHT GURU. We are going to provide links for a couple of official set-ups you can buy tickets to, but we will also have QR codes available that will take you on an amazing round trip through some spectacular light shows in your area free of charge!! Make sure you go to the bathroom, pack your favorite snacks, and have some music queued up for the radio (scroll up for links to neat music playlists on spotify).
