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no kids here but have young niece and nephews... none are in school yet so it didn't affect them. I just hope when I get back to babysitting them after mom is done with maternity leave that the library is open so I can check out books. The older kids looked forwarded to that.
I think the NYC library is doing free online book check out.There are a lot of virtual tours of museums available. The Atlanta zoo has a live feed web cam.
This is a very serious situation now. The kids will get over it. I believe they are also learning a few life lessons along the way. It's very sad for sure.
Literature is packed with stories of people born during TERRIBLE times, and the character that was developed.
This mollycoddling by parents has been detrimental to children. Maybe some alone time will assist them in connecting with their true spirits.
Exactly. Any kids who whine about their current circumstances need to be sat down with a copy of Anne Frank's diary or "Lost Children of the Holocaust" or any book about children whose lives have been turned upside down by things outside their control, and get some sobering real life perspective on how bad life could get for them.
Anne may not have been able to go outside or see her friends (and there was no internet or FaceTime or Skype then, no Netflix or ability to watch cinematic films in your home), but she was still able to indulge in studying and reading thanks to the efforts of the people helping to hide her and the other people living with her to get the necessary books for her.
Sounds like every summer I spent growing up in the 70s. Mom and Dad went to work, us kids stayed near home. Bored? Figure it out. I rode my bike, went to the library and read a lot. TV only had interesting shows in shorts bursts throughout the day (morning for preschoolers, Flintstones at lunch, reruns of the Brady Bunch before supper. There wasn't a lot of hanging out with other kids, because they also were expected to stay close to home. Vacations were car trips with our parents.
You'd be amazed at what kids can come up with when they have the time. Boredom is the best push to creativity. And what's wrong with your kids cleaning up? You seem to think that's a weird thing for a kid to do.
Worrying about their mental health because they have to spend time with family is sad, and a bit horrifying for their future.
That was pretty much my childhood too (I was born in 1974). Only overnight trips we ever took were to Round Top in the Catskills to my grandparents' house. No Disney World, no European tours or the Caribbean. We lived within our means, and my retired father's financial situation shows it now. I'm GLAD we weren't spoiled rotten with my parents going into debt to give us frivolous luxuries. They were born in the latter days of the Depression, so they know the line between needs and mere wants. They didn't go overboard like parents do now.
Our kids have been out of school for just under 2 weeks now and the strain is already showing- and last week was our spring break! I am having a very hard time trying to figure out a new routine for them and myself, as we are all used to being busy with school and work (I work at a preschool) all day long. As parents, how the he$$ are we supposed to maintain social distancing for months on end?
No interaction with other kids? No classroom learning and recess? No playing on playgrounds? No going to a movie? No bookstore trips? No grocery trips? No meals out, hearing the loud buzz of a restaurant? Just staying at home, all day, every day. How will our children's mental health be after this is all said and done? IF it even gets done?
Sure, we can go to our park and run around a bit but what about the other 10 hours in the day we have to fill up? Lessons will only take so long and I'm terrified that I will end up having robot kids. We've done crafts, baking, walking, playing in the backyard, bike rides at the park, drives in the car, reading, virtual zoo trips, worksheets, movies, tablet playing (I HATE that part but it's for our sanity at this point) science experiments and more. Right now my kids are WILLINGLY cleaning out the drawers in their nightstands, as they collect all sorts of little things.
Yeah, I know, it's better to be alone in a house than to be dead or seriously ill. I get it. Humans are social beings, though, and if you've limited your kids interactions with electronics their entire lives and all of a sudden you have to switch over to a huge amount of digital interaction....it's very daunting. I've barely slept in the last week because I'm so anxious and worried over how this is going to affect our kids.
I'm worried my kids won't be HAPPY anymore.
How do we show them the good in the world when it seems as if that world is coming apart at the seams? Or keep their hope up?
A friend of mine works as a teacher here in our area and told me that it is a strong possibility none of us will be going back to school until September. I literally almost puked when I heard that. How in God's name did we get to this point and how do we explain this to our children?
How old are your kids that their online school doesn't take that long? My 6 year old grandson starts about 9am, does his teachers morning question sheet asking how he's doing today, what did he eat, what are his plans that day, then we move up to the next thing. He then gets a 30 minute break to play my tablet or watch TV. Then he does the next subject and depending on how long it took, he either does the next or another break. Add time out for lunch and snacks.
He was grounded from the Xbox all week but thankfully my daughter gave it back yesterday. He loves his Xbox
Friday's assignments were light. His science teacher wanted them to go outside and play. He rode his scooter some then we were at Hobby Lobby over an hour getting supplies to paint rocks that are left in our development.
Do you have a local FB group? I run the one for my development. As I mentioned above, their doing painted rocks where you have to put our development name and rocks, so it's WWRocks! Last year rock painting in my town was really popular. There was a Facebook group for it. Parents take a pic and submit to the post in the group but don't take the rock, leave for others to find. The one last year in our town people were encouraged to take the rock they found. To see if there's a Facebook group for rock painting search your town name with the word rocks, depending on your town, you may have to search town, state rocks
There is another where they're chalking the driveways and side walks, parents are adding the pics to the post. Kids are going out to look at the chalk drawings. We haven't done that one yet and I'm not sure if my daughter and grandson started rock painting yet. I've seen one on Facebook where it looks like the parents took painters tape to their fence to make a design, the kids used different colored chalk inside the design. When the tape was removed it looked like stained glass. I just found the post on my friends wall, it came from a public Facebook group called FAMILIES IN LOCKDOWN HELP, TIPS & IDEAS (sorry for all caps but it's spelled exactly like that). I found a post showing the pics on a Facebook page
Hopefully something in that Facebook group will help you. It looks like you're trying to utilize various methods to keep them busy. You can only do so much.
Sounds like every summer I spent growing up in the 70s. Mom and Dad went to work, us kids stayed near home. Bored? Figure it out. I rode my bike, went to the library and read a lot. TV only had interesting shows in shorts bursts throughout the day (morning for preschoolers, Flintstones at lunch, reruns of the Brady Bunch before supper. There wasn't a lot of hanging out with other kids, because they also were expected to stay close to home. Vacations were car trips with our parents.
You'd be amazed at what kids can come up with when they have the time. Boredom is the best push to creativity. And what's wrong with your kids cleaning up? You seem to think that's a weird thing for a kid to do.
Worrying about their mental health because they have to spend time with family is sad, and a bit horrifying for their future.
This. When I was growing up no one cared about entertaining the kids, we had to do it ourselves.
I grew up with one sibling in the country. I was not shuttled around to socialize during the summer. I had to entertain myself and figure it out. And we did. I didn't have a parent orchestrating things either.
I think we have trained kids to look to parents to provide entertainment when kids could spend hours playing with toys and making up their own stories. And being forced to entertain oneself actually develops the brain in a powerful way.
Last edited by Coloradomom22; 03-22-2020 at 10:18 AM..
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