Spend Themed Weeks for Your Kids at Home
At this stage of the pandemic, your children are probably missing school, and you are definitely running out of time when your children went to school. The days are now merging, and the school has been able to make a difference in ways we could not fully appreciate before. But you can grab a page from the school manual “Keep Interesting Things”: Bring the idea of a classic school spirit week with a little twist to your home — a theme week.
The first step is to make sure everyone has some skin in the game. Since there were about four weeks left in the current routine in our city, I asked everyone to write down the thematic idea on a piece of paper and place it in their hat. Then my son pulled the first sentence out of his hat.
Over the past two weeks, we’ve had Sandwich Week (my suggestion) and Nintendo Week (my daughter’s suggestion). These ideas were related to themed food, activities and, perhaps most importantly, something to expect every day.
During spirit week, your kids could walk to school with crazy hair or wear their favorite team jersey. Each day usually has an intended action or a reason for its existence. Imitate this idea by doing one thing each day (food, activity, movie, game, or craft) to celebrate the theme of the week. The goal is to have some fun or distraction without adding to your schedule.
Sandwich Week, of course, was all about food. We had sausage sandwiches. We made banana bread. We carefully discussed whether a hot dog was a sandwich, which led to the hot dog and toast starring in a little magazine my daughter had drawn.
Leftover chicken shawarma has been transformed into a goat cheese, radish and whole grain mustard sandwich. And we played Overcooked 2 on Nintendo Switch – a game in which you have to work together as chefs in the kitchen to fulfill an ever-growing list of orders. Only once did it end in tears.
Nintendo Week wasn’t all about technology, although it started with extra screen time. Just Dance 2020 opened up its unlimited library for a month for free and my wife got the kids moving for 30 minutes in workout mode. My son told me how to watch other people play video games on YouTube. Next, we will create 8-bit LEGO murals and decorate sugar cookies like Super Mario characters.
We still have Pokemon Week (I bet we’ll have another Pokemon hunt ) and Hat Story Week. When thinking about different topics, choose broader categories that can take many directions. Find your themes in your favorite movies, books, food, or genres.
Star Wars, for example, is made for lightsaber battles, Yoda’s voice lessons, and over a dozen ready-to-watch movies. Harry Potter Week can come alive with homemade creamy beers , walking audiobooks, and magic lessons. Mystery Week can include scavenger hunts , riddles and spooky stories with an overnight stay in your yard or living room.
At the very least, topics can help weeks get by and the days will be different from each other.