We're Making: The Kidz Korner
Or, What Should You Do With Children For A Really, Really Long Time?
I usually try to avoid topics involving children and the parenting of them because there are many, many people who cover this topic with aplomb and are, generally speaking, more thoughtful and interesting about it than me. However, sometimes reality hits and these topics—kids, what to do with them, how to feed them (no actually: how?), how to keep one’s wits about oneself throughout—come straight to an undeniable forefront.
For me, this biting reality hit several weeks ago when my partner in the above topics (and others!) fell very ill with what turned out to be Real Pneumonia.1 Jesse “entered bed” just before a snow day, a day which preceded the February school break. We had a trip planned for the time, which we had to cancel. And so, I spent twelve uninterrupted days at home with my human boy-children, and very few breaks. With absolutely nothing on the docket, it was extremely challenging—but we managed to make it pretty fun and had some good, resilience-building chats about plans gone wrong, making the best of things, and generally, just being together being OK.
I thought, since I haven’t had a whole lot of bandwidth to put anything together besides Legos and snacks, perhaps I’d share some of the things we got up to, in case you find yourself in a similar (but sheesh, I hope not exact same!!) position. And if you don’t have any available kids, or nieces, nephews, or neighbors to borrow—maybe there are a few fun ideas here for random Sundays anyway.
Polymer Clay
The undeniable hero of this period had to be Sculpey. This is particularly heart-expanding for me because when I was a kid, it was all about Sculpey (and its lesser known German cousin, Fimo). My best bud Louise and I would make lots of little figures and characters and WHATEVER we could dream up. So, seeing my kids’ brains break with all the possibility of oven-fired plastic clay was extremely gratifying. We started with beads and bracelets, then some household items like candle and incense holders, and finally expanded into a world of newly-invented Pokémon and “guys.”
Printing Stuff Out; Extra Points: Make It A Sticker
My eldest James is apparently opening a roadside restaurant with his pal Diogo this summer, called Pikachu Pizza (you will notice a theme here, I am sure). We’ll see how this develops, but in the mean time James decided he needed a logo involving the Statue of Liberty with the head of Pikachu, holding a box of pizza and soda. Luckily, I have just enough graphic design skill to deliver on this request. This somehow turned into an afternoon on Canva, making and printing all manner of things. THIS turned into printing all manner of things on label paper, making stickers to stick literally everywhere.
Ice Skating
As mentioned: I can’t ski. But! I can and I will ice skate whenever the chance presents itself. One of our local rec centers has two hour long daily open skate hours, which was really great. Why is skating around and around in a circle so fun? We don’t know. But it is and the best was looking around to establish visual contact with the kids and noticing that they were skating round and round together.
ArtLab
We have a contemporary art museum nearby with an art project room, called ArtLab, which is a great inside thing to do that isn’t the library or your own tired house. It’s stocked with just about everything you might need to make a thing and is one of our collective favorite places to go. Over the break, they had a project inspired by artwork in one of the galleries that happened to be made by a friend!
A Short Trip
We went on A Short Trip, to Boston, to the Science Museum. We stayed overnight at my aunt and uncle’s house, which happens to be home to two celebrities (cats). They had Legos there. We drove home the next day and stopped for Japanese lunch in Portland. Hanging out with kids is a good reminder that plans don’t have to be complicated or esoteric or on a cool-guy list to be very fun. And it was good for all of us to not be home for 24 hours.
Yoto, Full Stop
Remember the keeping-wits-about part I was going to mention? Shoutout to Jake and the heroes at Yoto, without whom I would be a bloodshot, shivering pile on the floor. Screens make kids cranky and uninteresting; the Yoto player seems to have the opposite effect (on us all!). Little brother Russ is a particular fan of the Draw Alongs.
Homemade Popcorn + Movie [We Can All Agree On]
I love using a Whirley Pop to make excellent stovetop popcorn (it gets every kernel and doesn’t burn!)—then we can mess around with toppings. The no-brainer is our locally-made Little Lad’s herbal seasoning. But you can sprinkle and drizzle all manner of things on top. The more difficult task is finding a movie we can all agree on, but I tend to narrow the scope of choices by relying on the lists put together by Common Sense Media.
ACCEPT HELP
(This is less ‘something to do with kids’ and more generally ‘something to consider’.) I have come to the understanding that I possess a New England-twanged deficiency where I absolutely cannot stomach accepting any help, no matter how much I may really, really need it. After this Fall’s pit of grief (wherein we said no, all good to so much support), I decided to try a different tack and, simply say, “Yeah, that would be great,” even though saying that actually makes my skin crawl (I’m growing?). The result is that I haven’t made dinner in a week, I didn’t throw out my back moving the garbage cans or stacking the wood, and my kids got quality time with both their grandma and their great aunt (both of which meant delicious midday sweet treats!).
Special Edition: Spider Webs
This is not one of mine, but I think I should mention this project that my aunt set up when she hung out with the boys: Spider Webs! Part scavenger hunt and part house-sized tangle, each kid gets handed the end of a string and told to follow it to a prize. This particular web was so elaborate and wound so thoroughly all over the place that it took my children a full hour (!) to finally arrive at their prize (absolutely humongous chocolate gelt and extra-long candy necklace, respectively).
OK, I know this readership has ~tricks up their sleeves~! So tell me: Wh
at are some of your 838 Ways to Amuse a Child?
This is an interesting offer in Woodstock... (LINK)
These need new upholstery but are otherwise fun in Austin. (LINK)
I hate linking to this particular website, but if you have $4k and love pepper mills, this one is for you. (LINK)
Omg. (LINK)
He’s doing better! Still not 100%, but better! Thanks for all the people who brought us soup and stacked up firewood, you know who you are. 💝
woooof! i feel this! i had a kid home sick every single day in the week before their week-long february vacation (during which james had to work). SO MUCH TOGETHERNESS. i have the school's read-a-thon to thank for their extreme focus on competitive reading which really got us through the bulk of the week, but MoMA's reinstated family week was another highlight as were papier maché projects before everyone decided their hands were too messy and i was left to craft by my lonesome. late afternoon viewings of *all creatures great and small* on PBS really helped me get through the very long days and is a rare screen experience that seems not to suck the very life force out of us—recommended!