Traveling for spring break isn’t a good idea this year, but you can find fun stuff to do close to home with your kids. (Photo: kate_sept2004, Getty Images)
For the second year in a row, spring break travel is a bad idea.
Vaccinations are giving us a light at the end of the tunnel, but, for the time being, staying close to home, away from crowds, masking and social distancing are the way to go.
While many typical spring break activities are off the table this year, here are some ways to make the break from school special for your kids.
Plan fun activities around a daily theme
Assign a theme to each day of the week, and brainstorm an activity, a gift and food to correspond with the theme. You can make the day’s theme as elaborate as you want, but it doesn’t have to be stressful or expensive, especially if you limit the activity to an hour, buy the gift at the Dollar Store and make a snack instead of a meal.
Here are some theme ideas.
- Springtime or summertime: Bury some treasures (painted rocks, fake gems or little prizes) in a sandbox, and let the kids dig for buried treasure. Prepare some picnic or barbecue food, and eat outside if the weather cooperates, or on a blanket spread on your living room floor.
- A staycation vacation: Choose a favorite vacation destination and plan your activities around that place. For example, for a Disney World theme, there are Disney Parks recipes online. A gift could be a favorite pin if your child is a collector, or anything with Mickey on it that you can buy practically anywhere. For your activity, watch a few favorite Disney movies.
- Out in nature: Pack the kids’ backpacks with trail mix, granola bars and their favorite treats. Make up a scavenger hunt game, or include paper and crayons so the kids can keep track of their nature finds as you walk around your neighborhood or on a hiking trail.
- Game Day: What are your kids’ favorite types of games? Board games, video games, sports? Spend a day dedicated to playing them, decorate themed cupcakes or cookies to eat while playing, and wrap some inexpensive prizes for the winners.
Let the kids stay up late
Embrace late nights and sleep-in mornings. If it won’t mess up your kids’ schedule too much, you can even count down to midnight a night or two and have a “New Year’s Eve” party.
Speaking of sleep, kids love sleepovers and spending nights in hotels — both of which are no-gos this year. But you can still give your kids a nice change of pace in their sleeping location by encouraging them to sleep inside a blanket fort, outside in a tent or inside in a tent. If you’re an especially nice parent, it could even be in that most coveted sleeping location for kids — their parents’ bed.
Pay it forward
The pandemic isn’t the only thing that’s been exhausting this past year. Political divisions and distrust have also been hard to take. Make it a spring break goal in your family to change that atmosphere by doing something nice for others. Have a family brainstorming session; your kids will have great ideas. Here are some to get you started:
- Do some spring cleaning and decluttering. Donate toys and clothes you don’t use. Also encourage your children to donate a toy they do use that they think other kids will enjoy.
- Do a spring cleanup around your neighborhood by wearing gloves and bringing trash bags to pick up litter.
- Ask if any neighbors need help preparing their yards for spring. Make sure to wear masks and social distance.
- Draw pictures or write letters to send to relatives or friends who live alone, to essential workers, to people in nursing homes or to hospitals.
- Kindness and empathy start at home. Encourage your children to think of (and do) one thing each day to brighten up each family member’s day.
Just do something different
Pandemic living is getting monotonous. We all need to change things up a bit. Here are some ideas:
- Just drive somewhere. It shouldn’t be far, it shouldn’t be among a crowd of people, but getting out of the house to visit a park, or take a walk in a different part of the city, or wearing masks to go to a different store than usual can be a fun change of pace.
- Plan a spa day. Let your kids give you a massage, set up some foot baths, put cucumbers on your eyes, read some magazines, give each other manicures, sip some lemonade. Whatever relaxes you and your kids, do that.
- Redecorate a part of your house. If your work-from-home and school-from-home days have you sick of looking at your house, choose part of your house to change. If you have the time and money to redo a whole room, go for it. Otherwise, just give a coat of paint to a room, or have each child choose a corner of a room to make their own. You can let them buy inexpensive decor items from somewhere like Michael’s to decorate themselves, or you can just let them take a few of their favorite pillows and blankets to transform a small space into a cozy corner.
Contact Amy Schwabe at (262) 875-9488 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @WisFamilyJS, Instagram at @wisfamilyjs or Facebook at WisconsinFamily.
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