COVID-19, Social Distancing, Homeschooling, and spending most of my time rescheduling EVERYTHING is beginning to look like the new normal around here.  I’m really missing seeing friends and clients and although I can’t really do much with my professional photography at the moment, I can assure you this new “normal” has forced a lot of creativity.  So while I’m taking a break from photographing couples, families, and newborns at the moment, I did want to share some of the creative indoor activities we’ve come up with to do while participating in social distancing at home.

My daughter’s in kindergarten and although I know some schools have gone to homework only or just cancelled all together, our daughter’s school DID go to an online format which includes video content that I think has been really helpful for her to still feel connected.  This is taking some of the pressure off of me. But the actual schoolwork part of our day  only lasts an hour or two and we’re still left with the rest of the day to do other things.  She’d be happy to watch TV all day, and while I can’t say there isn’t a good bit of screen time going on at the moment too, we are *trying* to get creative with some fun indoor activities that are just perfect for her kindergarten sized brain.

I spent a good bit of this week cleaning out my studio, which I generally try to do at least once or twice a year whether it needs it or not (laughing – ha!).  But this time I did it to help convert my drafting table + an antique high chair in my studio into a make-shift desk for her.  She’s (so far) loving it.  AND I’m able to at least do a little work in between answering school questions.

We’ve also been working on a number of creative indoor projects that use all stuff we happen to have laying around the house.  If you’re looking for indoor project for your kids and would like to try a few of ours, Read on….

• Invisible Ink Project

Okay, so it isn’t *really* invisible ink, but my daughter was impressed!  This week she opened a new box of crayons and asked “What is the white crayon for?”  It’s a good question and one I asked as a kid too.  Crayons are waxy and if you write on a piece of white paper with a white crayon, you can reveal the “secret message” by going over it with watercolor paint.

We used my watercolor tubes, but any set of kids watercolors works just fine too!  The wax resist process is fun using colored crayons as well.

Indoor Activities to do with Kids – Crayons and Watercolor Wax Resist

• Hey there gold bug wherever you are!

Quarantine time means a TON of book reading at our house and we are pretty big Richard Scary fans.  “Cars and Trucks and Things That Go” was one of the hit titles this week, so last night I brought Gold Bug to life with a couple sheets of construction paper and a black magic marker.

• Colored Bath

This isn’t really a new idea per se, but my daughter isn’t overly excited a baths these days.  She was begging for a bath bomb to make her more “special,” which we didn’t have and while I’d love to try making them at some point, I didn’t prepare by getting any of the ingredients ahead of time.  So that will have to be for a different time.  She did however, get super excited when I added a little food coloring to the water.  The duck enjoyed it too.

Colored Bath Water with Ducky

Indoor Activities to do with kids while Social Distancing

• Bread Bears and other Critters

I realize that this does take a few more ingredients than what everyone keeps around their house, but it is stuff we tend to have around here.  THIS is the recipe I used.  We used the same recipe a few months ago and the bread came out tough.  ….but thanks to a tip from my friends over at Liberty Baking Co, I let it rise an extra 10 minutes longer than the recipe called for on the first rise and it worked wonders! I also only baked our critters, which were smaller than the example bears for 17 minutes instead of 20+.

• Marshmallow and Noodle Towers

I can’t for the life of me remember where or when I tried this for the first time, but it’s something that’s been very popular since my little of probably 4-ish AND I actually find it pretty fun as an adult.  The towers end up being pretty sturdy and in the past, I’ve been able to build them pretty much as high as I’d like — somewhere in the 4’-5’ range…..but there is no need to go that big unless you just have a lot of extra time AND noodles. Ha!

Marshmallow and Noodle Towers

Marshmallow and Noodle Towers

BONUS quarantine idea of adults here in the Alexandria area!  This week, my friend Rachel Gang from Helen Olivia Flowers is doing an online flower arranging class.  I’ve always wanted to try flower arranging and this is my chance.  Rachel & her crew will be delivering fresh flowers and a vase to all of the participants on Wednesday and then we can all join for an online class on Thursday evening.  I figure it’s going to be a great way to only learn something new, but to also spruce up my home, which has now also turned home office/school for the entire family.  I’ll post about this social distancing activity after the event and let all of you locals if she plans on doing it again.