7 Tips for Homebound Families, Practicing Social Distancing

The death toll from Coronavirus in Washington state has reached 67. Positive cases pass 1,100. Yet, my guess is, that number is multiplied.

Only those here in high risk catagories (Older people, those with a weakened immunity, prior health condition etc) are getting tested.

Yesterday, another friend shared how her mom has COVID-19.

Anyone 60 or older is instructed to stay in their houses. I went to visit my parents, but the reality is, there is no one out, stores are closing and shelves are barren.

My husband’s birthday is today. We can’t go to dinner, all the restraunts and “entertainment” locations are closed.

I heard Ulta is closing this week, as well as Amazon, restricting what it’s sending. The outlet mall was barren today too.

Yet, I refuse to live in fear as the death toll climbs daily.

I recognize we need to find alternative ways to entertain ourselves. Watching news,  Youtube, or keeping the television on, for bored children, is not always beneficial.

So, here are some things we are finding to entertain us:

1. Playing games: Almost every night, after dinner, we have been having an Uno marathon. I love Uno because our younger kids can play, as well as the adults around here.

Games of any kind help to teach our kids about real life. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you get delt a good hand, other times, it’s about just using any wisdom you can and making it to the end.

It doesn’t matter how “lucky” you are. No one in this life ever gets dealt, all aces.

Cards teach children about grace and acceptance of a life that doesn’t always go your way. It teaches about sportmanship and togetherness. We love games like Uno.

What are your favorite games?

2. Tell stories: Stories are free.

Stories have been used globally, from the beginning of time and in all cultures, to educate and entertain. You don’t need to go into a store to find curriculum. You don’t need to hope Amazon will deliver it, virus-free.

Stories wait willingly inside us and when shared expand the creativity of our minds.

Around here, we have been acting out and expanding on Bible passages, stories like David and Goliath. Our littles learn, all of us have giants, yet God is bigger than them all.

We also tell stories before bedtime. Usually these are storeis are about princesses and horses, and animals and flying apparatuces.

What kind of stories can you share as a family? Stories about something funny that happened? One about a famous ancestor? A blupper that brings humor and light-heartedness to a concerned or weary home?

3. Sing and/or Dance: It didn’t take the Coronavirus to get this home filled with five happy girls to get up, spin, twist or turn.

We love all kinds of music. Music and dancing is something that’s always captured our home, taken our girls into a fairy-tale place where we all leap and twirl and imagine skating on ice or standing on point, a feature of our favorite ballet.

Songs like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” accompany our two toddlers and worship music is frequently played by our constantly singing teenager.

Music has this unique way of taking our minds away from the present, scooping them up into whatever lyrics are playing.

How many of us haven’t listened to an old song and instantly remembered exactly where we were doing when we first heard it?

How many haven’t felt strong emotions when we heard a familiar song playing?

What kind of uplifting and encouraging music do you like playing in your home?

4. Cook/Bake Together: Yesterday morning, my girls and I woke early to make our own version of home-made french toast.

It was messy and we didn’t really have any kind of recipe, but what a joy, us coming together in a kitchen…

Instead of rushing out the door, stuffing food in our mouths, this virus offered space, and time to laugh and talk and create together in the kitchen.

French toast and powdered sugar? Why not! French toast and blue berries? Sure.

Nothing is off limits when it comes to creating in the kitchen.

And even the youngest of hands can help stir or pour…but especially taste what they make, bringing connectedness and a sense of self-assurance and pride.

Last night we made home-made pizzas.

What kind of baked goods or meals do you love preparing? Better yet, what if we make something for a neighbor or bring a meal to an elderly person shut in?

5. Read: This morning our seven-year-old started just naturally reading aloud over hashbrowns and eggs. Her voice intentional and thoughtful as she sounded out words much harder than most in her age group.

She kept reading as we put away the dishes, changed the clothes of the little ones and even as I started typing this.

Books create connectiveness and give anxious kids a sense of closeness to the ones they love, reassuring them that everythings is going to be o.k.

Like music, reading can take a child or even an entire family into another place, a story where everything turns out o.k.

A happily-ever-after book can bring hope to our children.

We have a kid Bible where our children act out the animals stomping into the ark. And have often read aloud, books like “Little House on the Prairie”, or C.S. Lewis.

Who is the reader in your family? Will they read a story aloud? Or can you each find a book that appeals to your own interests?

6. Write, Draw, Color and/or Journal: I had a ninety-two-year-old neighbor many years ago who journaled just a small line or two every single day. He made it part of his day-to-day routine.

Imagine, when he passed, what a gift he had to give his daughter and grand-children.

What a treasure too, Ann Frank left us, as she journaled her experience, hidden in an attic while German soldiers destroyed and whisked other Jews off to Consentration Camps.

In our house, we find it best, despite expensive coloring books….to give our younger kids, blank, white pieces of paper, and crayons, markers or pencils.

Filling in white space is therapeutic (And it’s what many of our foster children do when they attend therapy).

Drawing gets what’s in us, out. Forming pictures or words can be therapeutic, mirroring the inner visible emotions hidden within us.

A few years ago, it was a thing to buy adult coloring books. Experts understood even then, the benefits found in using our hands to create beauty in one form or another.

What is your favorite way of expression; writing, coloring, painting or just sharing in a private journal of your own?

7. Get Outside: I guarantee, if there is one thing that will change the small feeling of the walls closing in on you, it is getting outside.

We have five acres to roam around in with our children, but what’s better is just getting in the car to drive; making our way to a quiet park, a beach front, an open field, or a mountain region.

Fresh air and wide open sky can be a perfect remedy to an overwhelmed life.

Walking, hiking, climbing, throwing rocks along a large body of water changes us and helps us remember, we are small in light of the One who made us.

God is still in charge. And this Coronavirus will too pass.

No matter what measures we take, there is a larger, world stage, God loves uses creation to show off in.

What is your favorite thing to do outdoors? 

Get outside; pray, sing a fun lyric, do charades. Take some time to pen your thoughts, clean out a closet, tell stories and remember…

We serve a God who knows our every need and sees our every tomorrow. He still holds our future in His hands.

Let’s cling to Him, turn off the news, and create a legacy and season our kids will remember one day as connected, passing, serene and beautiful.