10 Links for Parents Watching Young Children at Home
So the last couple of weeks have been interesting as we adjust to watching the kids more full time while we try to work around their waking hours. With young children, it can be tough because you want them to continue to have structure around their days, but you also need to balance potential challenges with work requirements or commitments.
For our situation (which many other parents with kids at home because of shuddering of daycares across America), I figured I would share some links we have found helpful in generating ideas for learning activities, crafts and things to try to keep the kids entertained.
White Board Wall Paper
We installed a paste on white board sheet that we got on Amazon.com. It was a bit hard to get on the wall in the first couple of feet and we had some bubbles, but it smoothed out later. That said, it has been a hit for the girls. They will get up on their stools and draw for 15-25 minutes at a clip without tantrums, etc. https://www.amazon.com/Contact-Sticker-Adhesive-Backing-Markers/dp/B078HLLR8F?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_4
Learning Tools
A friend of Maddie’s in daycare told us about abcmouse.com and we are about to try it. Great reviews, and helps provide some good structure to learning when you may not be a pro teacher…
Fantastic Fun and Learning: https://www.fantasticfunandlearning.com/ Our daycare teacher sent this link over to us along with a pre-school curriculum with lots of ideas on how to do fun creative things with the kids while still teaching them some real lessons.
Kids Out And About - In Fairfield County there are plenty of virtual fun things to do. Here’s a link to virtual events in Fairfield County - there are likely others in your local areas too: https://fairfieldcounty.kidsoutandabout.com/view/virtual-events/2020-04-02. They link you to fun things like live webcams of zoos, story times and more.
Links to Crafts
The Spruce Crafts: My mom sent this through. Some good 10 minute craft ideas, but there are many cool sites out there for kids crafts - just search for the ones that will keep your kids engaged: https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/10-minute-crafts-for-kids-1250670
5 Minute Crafts on YouTube: here’s a link to their channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC295-Dw_tDNtZXFeAPAW6Aw
Good Housekeeping - a long term staple in US homes, they have great kids resources too. Here’s one list: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/craft-ideas/how-to/g1389/diy-kids-activities/
Links to Activities
GM Dance Studio on YouTube.com is one example of a lot of cool little movement exercises you can do with your kids. Here’s a link to one example of 5 basic moves for youngness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwGS-wg02gQ
Science Experiments - Here’s an example of a science experiment video on YouTube that can give you some ideas to help show kids how things work in real life but things you can do with some items you might have on hand already. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MHn9Q5NtdY
Kid’s Gardening - we are looking forward to planting bulbs in the near future once they arrive. But for other kid gardening ideas, here’s a nice site to check out: https://kidsgardening.org/
