Girl, this pandemic has changed my whole vibe. Before 2020, I was that mom who would get up at 7am on a Saturday to get the kids ready for a day of back-to-back activities. One Saturday we went to an indoor playground, birthday party, and water park all in one day. We followed it up with a walk through Gulfstream Park and some ice cream at night. You just know bedtime in my house is the easiest, most rewarding part of my day. 8pm on the dot!
New Normal
When the government said stay home, I realized how exhausted I was. It was a lot of work keeping my little bugs entertained every week. So I took full advantage of the lockdown and adapted to my new normal. Days and nights in front of the tv and daily movie nights.
Thankfully, we have a huge yard and the kids really enjoy being outdoors so we quickly switched to many nights swatting mosquitoes and eating coconuts while the kids wore out their Powerwheels Jeep.
Family Fun Sans Screens
Our family has chosen to not own tablets or phones for the kids so we’ve become experts in family fun without screens. Want to hear how we do it?
Night under the stars.
We brought out cushions, yoga mats, and sleeping bags and laid on the grass to look at the moon and stars. This entertained my kids for a lot longer than I thought it would. Of course, pull out the bug spray and this can only be done during a cold front or a cool night, cause Miami heat is real. Bonus if you do it on a night worthy of hot chocolate. You get extra brownie points with that.
Board games.
My kids love to know specific days are for specific things. They will hold us to it. So once we started game nights once a week, they looked forward to it. We rushed to the store to grab our favorite age-appropriate games and had a blast beating the kids (we don’t let kids win in this house *buahaha*). Just kidding we let them win sometimes.
Camping.
Have you ever rented an RV? What a fun experience for our little ones. I’m sure any age would enjoy this. Getting out of the house into a camper and enjoying the road is such a great time. Every second of this gave us amazing memories. Plus it’s safe travel for anyone still nervous about hanging out with too many people.
Sidewalk chalk art.
Our driveway constantly looks like a giant mural. We use it to play games my husband and I played as kids or we let them make amazing drawings. Something that gave me hours of alone time was making geometric shapes with painters’ tape in a huge square. They had to color each triangle a different color before we removed the tape. It was fun for them and gave me some time to cook.
Walk on the beach.
My family loves the beach. Being able to be out walking the boardwalk, eating ice cream, and playing in the sand is one of our favorite pastimes. We live in the perfect place to enjoy this activity.
We’ve pretty much gone back to normal. But now we enjoy spending our Saturdays doing some of the things we started last year. Instead of exhausting ourselves, we’ve learned that our kids truly enjoy outdoor activities like riding bikes, skateboards, and skates. And that we don’t need anything fancy to keep them entertained.
We don’t have them in any extra-curricular activities yet and don’t have many planned events on our calendar. And we’re thankful that without much effort, they’ve learned to entertain themselves.
Of course it helps that my husband and I enjoy the outdoors. We encourage a lot of independent outdoor play without screens. My 7-year-old learned to open her own coconuts and taught herself to skateboard.
