Five Fun Family Activities During Pandemic

What do you do in the midst of pandemic?

Well, you create your own fun. So what have we been doing as a family to help keep us all entertained during this unusual time? Let me tell you about our top 5 favorite family options.

1. Outdoor Movie Night: After this past spring when school was called off and before I had a chance to get my bearings, I definitely let my kids have too much screen time. It turns out, that is really hard for my son. He doesn’t not react well to having a lot of screen time. So, I decided we needed to detox from screens and now they are only allowed FaceTime with family, specific lessons and Saturday night movie night. We watch one family movie on Saturday evenings. But watching outside makes it feel like we are going to the movies. Even better, when you have a small infant, you have the flexibility of being at home and having all the amenities for comfort. Since we live in Minnesota, land of the mosquito, we always set up our outdoor movies with a screened in tent. We have a large pop up screened in room and we set that up on the grass. Then we have an outdoor screen and projector and we nestle the screen inside the garage about 15 inches or so — that way it is dark enough to actually show a movie.
2. Family Splash Pad: We aren’t indulging in pools or lakes this pandemic, so how do you get your family outside and enjoying the warm weather? We set up the family splash pad. We turn our sprinkler system on for the grass and couple that with a blob filled with water and a kiddie pool that doubles as a sprinkler. We give the kids water geysers (as I won’t allow them water guns) and we have a family splash pad in our very own backyard!
3. Family Karaoke Night: I come from a family that LOVES to sing. Say any word and I can turn it into a song– seriously. We are like the Van Trapp Family Singers when we take car trips. Needless to say, having a karaoke night makes perfect sense for our crew. We bought a mic and speaker and use the app karafun. We hook up the app to the iPad or computer and are able to sing our little hearts out all night. Family fun for all.
4. Game Night: Okay, this one is tried and true. We have really ramped up our collection of games during this pandemic. We had a myriad of board games and yard games so that we can have a weekly game night that is either outside or inside. I love the fact that games help kids with taking turns, strategy and interacting with others. Win-win.
5. Camping in the Backyard: For this one, realistically, you need a decent sized back yard, or a living room you don’t mind getting messy. Take out the tent and all the camping gear. Set it up in the back yard for the kids. If you have a fire pit, get that baby started up and roast some marshmallows. Have fun outside, sing campfire songs and enjoy good old-fashioned fun together.

While this pandemic has been challenging in so many ways, it has really allowed our family to have some amazing quality time together. While we enjoy the zoo and theater and all of the things we used to do in the summer, we don’t need to go outside ourselves to find fun. Family fun is here with us and we can enjoy just being together with each other.