Quick Activities to Fight Boredom
Yesterday marked one month of social distancing in my area, and in that time we have navigated our new normal of working from home, distance learning for the kids, and our new norms for our social lives. Some of the new things that have popped up have been amazing - why were my college friends and I not doing Zoom conference calls all these years from our various states? It’s also really cute to watch my kids play Battleship on Facetime with their friends down the street. But I think we can agree that lots of this whole situation has not been as joyful. It’s also struck me that how to weather Covid-19 depends on where you live - a hike is so easy in my area, but definitely difficult if you live in a city, and so I did try to take that into consideration and choose activities for all types of spaces.
We’ve all read the various internet fodder about how we should use the time to learn a new language or create something amazing, and some of you are and that is wonderful! Some of us are kind of hanging out because the new ebb and flow of the day doesn’t really allow for large pockets of free time to start a major project. With the latter group in mind, I’ve compiled a list of some fun things to do, and none of them are TV binge related. I’m trying to pick activities that are low budget, because I think most of us have had our finances impacted in some way, and low in time commitment, because while it would be great to learn to quilt right now, I don’t really have the attention span for that at the moment and to be honest, with 4 new full time work stations in my house, I don’t have the space to do much, either.
1) Low key art. I’m talking sidewalk chalk art, washable dry erase markers on windows, coloring books or short internet led virtual art classes. The good news is that there are SO many ways to be creative. We recently spent an afternoon in a friend’s driveway decorating their space; they had left to go on a hike and we wanted to give them a surprise. It was a nice way to spend some time to make someone else’s day brighter. If you have the outdoor space, then a quick web search will point you to so many sidewalk chalk ideas, that you may be praying for more rain so you can start over! Another idea is to decorate windows, in our area we have a virtual rainbow hunt, and you may have one in your area, too. If you don’t, it’s as easy as putting a rainbow in a window to get your area started.
2) Cooking. I’m not going to tell you to start working your way through Julia Child, (but feel free if you want to). However, I pulled out my old Pioneer Woman cookbook and found a few easy recipes that were made with things I had on hand. I also gave my kids some stacks of post its and told them to mark things they wanted to try, even if some of them involve ingredients we won’t be picking up for a while. It’s nice to have things to look forward to. But don’t think we are all gourmet now, at least twice a week is scrambled eggs or spaghetti, because some days are more ambitious than others.
3) Read something! I consulted with Megan at the Silver Unicorn Bookstore in Acton, MA and asked what books she loved lately, and her favorite reads of late have been “Separation Anxiety” by Laura Zigman, “Writers and Lovers” by Lily King and Evvie Drake starts over by Linda Holmes. You can actually go to their web page for more recommendations and they are still shipping, if you wanted to support a small business (which I highly recommend)! Also for the tween set: the titles in the photo to the left have been vetted by some of the almost teenagers in my life.
4) Virtual field trips. I think a lot of us are mourning things we had planned to do. Whether it was a big vacation or a simple day trip, it’s kind of hard right now, partially because we don’t know when we will be able to make those plans again. Luckily, you can visit some places virtually and make your list of places that you want to see in person. The National Parks Service created this handy list of activities that can be done from home. And here is a list of museums around the world that you can tour virtually.
5) DIY self care. You probably have everything in your house to make a sugar scrub. And yes, Kosmatology does sell sugar scrub, and no, I’m not giving you those recipes! But I will give you a basic template to DIY because sometimes it’s nice to make something! You can mix and match your oils if lemon isn’t your thing, or if you just don’t have any in your house. This one is also a great gift, so hold onto the recipe for the future!
I hope this has given you some ideas to fill up some of your time! Let us know your ideas below!