Hellobee Boards

@Mrs. Carrot: Are there any virtual camps your daughter might be interested in? Could you rally some interest from some of your daughter's friends to join the same virtual camp? Our Girl Scout council is offering a 'classic camp' one and our local parks and rec has a bunch. There are also a ton of programs online. They usually have an hour or two of activities and some come with physical stuff to work on as projects. I was in the process of enrolling DD in a pop star video camp last week (after a huge wave of anxiety hit me) when I found a cancellation in a physical summer camp spot.

@Mrs. Carrot: Hugs! I was a crying mess last week when I was hit with a sudden urgent NEED to "fix" this impossible situation. I hope you find some peace soon. It sounds like you're doing a great job.

We do have two kids, but one is 8 and the other 4 so they aren't interested in the same things and don't play great together. DH and I have tried to block an hour of our calendars every day. So I take the kids outside from 10-11 and he comes out to relieve me from 11-12. Then they have lunch and the little one goes for a nap and the older does independent things. I'm off by 4:30 and we get another solid 2 hours of interaction before dinner. This has been working ok and I feel less guilty about leaving them to their own devices... or to their actual devices... for most of the day.

We're also filling in time for the older one with online camps like this one. https://www.facebook.com/TheScienceMom/posts/2644414209129448?__tn__=K-R

Is there a lower risk camp you could sign her up for? Or one child you would feel comfortable “bubbling with” and having over for play dates?

This has all been weighing on my mind lately - the impact that this is having on my kids.
I signed my girls up for a few weeks of farm camp this summer. I honestly teared up when I saw the pictures from the first day. They were so happy - riding horses, playing tag in the barn, wading in the river ... it was so nice to see them just get to be kids again.

What I wasn’t prepared for though was the first day drop off. My oldest (7) has been to this camp many times, counts down the days until the next camp... she has always been super independent and rarely looks back when I drop her off anywhere.

But this time - we got there and as they started explaining the rules, taking out masks and hand sanitizer, taking each child’s temperature... she freaked. She lost it. I could barely console her - I finally got it out of her that she hadn’t been away from her family in “a long long time” and was scared of catching the virus. I finally got her calmed down enough so that she would stay and of course she had a blast... but ever since then I’ve been reflecting on how this is impacting our kids. And as a kindergarten teacher - how can I make our school start in September a positive non-scary experience?

Sorry... this was totally off topic and a ramble. But I think that slowly bringing back social experiences in as safe of a way as possible might be something to consider.

Is it Joey or Chandler? Lol sorry I watch waaaaay too much Friends! But to the point of your post, we have a similar situation. No childcare right now. No school since March. One kid. Two parents with FT jobs working at home. IDK if this is possible for you, but my wife and I have decided to only work 5 hours a day but do all 7 days of the week. That’s the only way our son gets enough interaction. She works 7-12 and me 12-5. The hours the other parent is working the free one spends 75% of it playing with our son and maybe 25% of it recharging, cleaning, reading, resting, watching a show on tv, etc. The no weekend thing isn’t ideal but it’s been better than the alternatives. It’s just not reasonable (to me) to leave an only child to his own devices for 8-10 hours a day. One other thing - I am doing ZERO school. I’ve read enough that says they are learning with any kind of play at all, so I’m leaving it at that. As far as ideas I come up with for him, maybe I do one a day. Take a walk, draw a note for the mailman, make play doh houses for our toy animals, etc. The rest is open ended play that he directs. Sorry for the novel!!! But I hear you and you’re not alone.

I have no idea if this would work, but maybe you could try a daily calendar with a general plan of what to expect when each day. Like maybe, 8-9 is breakfast/relax, 9-9:30 is read independently, 9:30-11 play outside (if that’s an option), etc.

Also, like others have said, if you’re comfortable with another family or two, you could expand your bubble a bit. We’re letting our kids play with the neighbors and two other sets of friends, but it’s outside so it’s not something I’m super worried about. I know when late fall/winter hit they’ll be more isolated and stuck inside, and it’ll be harder to get together safely.

We have 2 kids (6 & 8) and what works for us is a highly structured day which allows adults to know when we have dedicated working time and kids to know what to expect (which reduces their anxiety).

I start work early (6am). DH gets the kids up, feeds them breakfast, and does some sort of physical activity (bike rides, scooter ride, walk, park time, etc) then he transitions them to an activity (learning apps on their tablets) and sets an Alexa timer. When the timer goes off They have free play until I get them for lunch.

DH starts work at 9:30 or 10am, but works later and usually is on calls through lunch. I work until noon then make lunch and we have chore time (we’ve found they like dusting with the duster, cleaning toilets, vacuuming, and wiping down door knobs and switches with Lysol wipes). Then they have quiet time for 1.5 hours (reading, legos, art, magnatiles, etc), while I wrap up work and log off around 3. Then I have dedicated time with them until 5ish when I start dinner. We swim a lot (we have a pool), play board games, do crafts, bake, etc.

Of course we end up working some after the kids go to bed, which isn’t my favorite but is sometimes necessary.

We’ve also set up a summer bucket list and are working on checking things off (on weekends and in the afternoon). That makes things feel fun, even though we’re very restricted on what we feel comfortable doing.

Hope this helps give you some ideas. I think we’re all muddling though trying to figure out what works for our families.

Our son is 4 and the first month home from preschool was rough. Just him having lots of feelings. We tried just following the lead of what he wanted to do but he thrives on structure and knowing whats next so that didn’t work for is.

I’m on maternity leave so theoretically I availability to play with him but we’ve been following RIE since early on and it’s a big proponent of letting kids play independently.

Since Mid-May, we’ve had the following schedule. After breakfast, we do a homeschool curriculum (the curriculum is called Torchlight - It’s literature based so mostly it’s read a book, talk about it, some art/science/ nature activities sprinkled in and some social emotional skill building) It takes us about an hr every morning. After that he plays independently until lunch while I either tend to the baby or read a book. After lunch he gets 1-2hrs of screentime and then from 2-4pm he does quiet time in his room. After 4, he does more independent play or helps me in the kitchen (he peels/ chops all the vegetable for dinner) m.

Learning to play independently is a new skill for her so it’ll take time to develop. If he’s resistant, I’ll throw a prompt out like “can you build me the biggest robot ever out of legos” or “it looks like a dragon is storming the playhouse, go help save it”. We also have a kids table with an art supply cart next to it with markers, scissors, glue sticks, masking tape, coloring books, construction paper. A couple of times a week my couch is completely covered in masking tape because he built a car or a space station on it.

Also, sorry to spam you, if she can read well my kids did pretty well with a written list of ideas that we brainstormed together that they could do when they didn't want to play by themselves. So when they felt bored and frustrated and couldn't come up with something they had a resource that they could access independently. Of course it took a little practice to teach them to use it but it was worth it in the long run. Ours looked like this. (Most of the time they didn't end up actually using any of these ideas, but having to go look at it and read it usually sparked an idea of their own)

Similar guilt and my 7 year old has 2 little brothers to play with! What’s been keeping her occupied for HOURS the past two weeks is using her Kindle Fire to record herself playing with Barbies. It sounds so freaking dumb ha but she watches ONE thing on YouTube that is just of a person playing with Barbies in all different scenarios, so we made a list of 20 different ideas and she’s been picking a new one to play all week. She sets up these crazy scenes and then her tablet and records herself acting them out for hours. For some reason doing it for the camera makes her feel like someone is watching (spoiler alert we don’t actually post the videos she makes anywhere ha). We also make a point on our breaks to check out what she’s got setup. This is a super annoying hobby as all she wants to do at night is have us watch these really dumb videos she’s made, but she’s soooo proud of them and super engaged with it so I can’t complain about it!

@Mrs. Carrot: so this is an idea actually based on what i loved to do when i was little, but my friend's mom set us up basically every summer day with an activity we LOVED--paper doll fashion. we would draw our own characters and cut them out of cardstock and then trace their torsos onto paper and then decorate/design little outfits for them. we'd draw in tabs on the shoulders and hips so we could then cut them out and dress them up. didn't require much beyond paper, scissors, cardstock, and whatever drawing utensils you have, and it occupied us for HOURS.

i remember us doing this 8-10 yrs old so 7 may be a tad young, but just throwing it out there.

We decided to send our rising first grader to a nature day camp. It's 5 weeks, 10 kids in the group, everyone has to sign up for five weeks so no other kids will join the group, and the camp will not allow any of the groups to mix with each other (i.e., no camp-wide events). We will drive there and back so no mixing with other kids for transit purposes. Very minimal time spent inside, only for things like changing clothes for swimming, and everyone wears masks inside. Adults wear masks whenever they are less than six feet from the kids.

He has not been to this camp before, so he won't be aware of how the program has been modified from prior years.

We decided it was in his best interest to have a chance to socialize and be outside with other kids. It seems like they will manage the risks reasonably well, and it's a very small, contained group. The fact that it's almost entirely outdoors makes me feel ok about it.

We are in northern NJ, and the curve has flattened pretty well here. Hopefully it will stay flat this summer.

I am already thinking about pulling him out of school in the fall though. I'm not too motivated for an indoor, masked experience in a large public school building with approximately 400 students plus staff. Who knows what the ventilation will be like. Ugh ugh ugh.