3 Creative Ways to Spend Time With Your Kids During Coronavirus

My family has gone through many changes since the Coronavirus hit.  The question hits me time after time: “Now, what do we do?”  We’re not supposed to go anywhere, but there’s a 3-year-old bouncing around the house and having trouble sleeping at night. This is an enormous problem because I am done parenting for the day when my kids are asleep.  No rest for them equals no rest for my wife and I.  It’s time to get creative with our kids and push the limits.

3 creative ways to spend time with your children during the Coronavirus are performing fun at home science experiments and crafts , block out time for creative play, and share memories from your life with your children.

Science Experiments and Crafts

There are a ton of free and exceptional things to do around your house.  Everyone could learn to make invisible ink. Kids love homemade Playdough and are inept at making dinosaur sculptures until you masterfully teach them.  You could pick up a $.99 bottle of pop and some Mentos at the grocery store and teach them about volcanoes while they decorate one. The recipes for these experiments are on Google.

Kids are a brilliant excuse for doing things you want to do, but you question if it is inappropriate for you as an adult.  I miss felt coloring posters personally. It’s time to buy one of those again for my kids and I. Don’t forget about painting. It is often a cheap yet entertaining endeavor.

Creative Play Time Blocking

Time blocking is important. It is a powerful skill to use with children. A mission of mine is to educate dads that they can duplicate their practices at work with their family.  It’s imperative to allow time for creative play without distraction.  

There is a difference between typical play and creative play.  Creative play uses more energy and involves learning a new skill.  Kids love to replay games.  There is a way to honor this and create fresh games along the way. I recommend twisting familiar games into imaginative ones and watch your kids adapt. It is mentally exhausting and healthy for them to engage these behaviors. 

We have a game called the sleeping game where they use an electronic book’s noises to knock me out and wake me up angry depending on the noise. I will change-up the rules of the game and teach them to play this game a different way than what they’re use to. These new rules tire my children out and build up their skills of creativity.

I recommend planning the activities out in advance.  There are benefits to being prepared such as extending the time activities last and their purpose.     

Sharing Memories

There are keepsakes all over your house.  This is a perfect time to share the meaning behind these items with your children.

Kids live in the present moment, and this is an excellent way to join and bond with them. It is important to give them room to play with or view the items you show them.  Share the story behind it, or show them how to use it. Encourage your child to be creative.  

I love to watch The Land Before Time movies with my kids. I brief them on memories of growing up with the characters and how it made an impact on my life.

A warning to the wise: Young kids will want to keep the item you show them.  Choose carefully about which ones you’re comfortable seeing played with.  Kids often have the mindset that everything is indestructible!

Fun for Everyone

Science experiments, creative play, and sharing memories will bond you to your children. You will enjoy the ideas you create too.  The whole point is to expose them to fresh activities that you find entertaining.  Coronavirus sucks. It is a challenge that we are all facing.  The aim is to cope fantastically with this stress, even though it’s hard.  Reach out if you get stuck. ryan.plasch@discoverymentalhealth.com.

Inclusion: Lifehacks for Dads #7

Your kids want to be part of your schedule. Science tells us that younger children learn by modeling. That’s why they pick up on your bad behaviors but also they can pick up on your routine.

Do you pride yourself on how active you are? Are you the laid back type on the weekends? There is a good chance your kids will follow in your steps on how you act.

Including Children in Your Routine

I have a morning routine that I stick to regularly. I’ve been doing it for almost 90 days now. I recently discovered the joy of bringing my kids into it and they loved it. Kids want the time with you and if that’s so, why not get what you need to get done too.

Warning! this will likely lead to things getting done slowly but it is important to their development that they do these things with you.

One example is making breakfast. My toddler “makes eggs” with me by opening the fridge, pulling out the eggs, picking which eggs to make, watching me crack them into the pan (I make 1 for her) and she throws away the eggshells. She also makes and butters the toast with my help. Then she sits on my lap and we eat it together.

We both get a delicious breakfast, but also, she gets time with her daddy. I mentioned in another post that both of my girls shave their faces. I take the razor off and show them how to shave their face while I’m shaving. They love it and I get to shave my face.

I won't go over it much here but babywearing is amazing for inclusion. You can do almost everything with your infant on your back or in front of you and they totally dig it. Yes, I’ve played videogames while my baby chills with me.

Benefits

There are so many benefits. You spend time with them during the monotonous parts of your day such as preparing breakfast. They learn skills that are going to prepare them for success. It demonstrates sharing and the importance of including others in your life.

Pick some of the activities you already do and include them in it. They will be better for it.

Love: Lifehacks for Dads #6

Love is where everything comes from. Love is what brought you here and what drives your force forward. It may be weaker right now or it may be the strongest part for you. Whichever the case, it is imperative that love is included in each of the areas.

How to Show Your Love to Your Family

No, it is not true. Your family doesn’t “just know” you love them. That is one of the biggest issues I come up against when talking to men. A few steps go into this.

I would say, most importantly, you need to say it to them. Pull each member aside and remind them that you care for them deeply. It matters that you verbally say “I love you,” rather than assuming they know.

The truth of the matter is telling them you love them isn’t enough. Your actions show that you love them. To start, I want you to think about 1 large request from each family member that they have for you. Then come up with a plan for this.

My wife hates when I come home and put my bag and water bottle down on the counter. I don’t do it to be annoying, I do it mindlessly. I have now been transferring my belongings, more often than not, to the bedroom where “they belong.” This demonstrates I love her and care about her feelings of where I put my things.

Focus on the Other Attributes

By strengthening your position on all of the attributes you will be demonstrating to your family that you care for them and love them. They want to see a change in you. They want to feel loved. This is even if they are resistant to your change in behavior at first. You will need to continue doing these things in the face of adversity.

You’ve got the love. The time has come to reinforce your love for them and show them what love looks like from you. I am always here to help. Write to me if you are stuck.

Developing Dad-Sense

Dad-Sense is a real thing you develop after becoming Dad. Unfortunately, there is no radioactive dad out there to bite you so that you gain amazing senses and have a well-rounded dad bod the next morning. You’re kind of stuck developing Daddy-Sense in a realistic way. You know. Day after day of getting it wrong until its right and then until its not right anymore…

The Importance of Daddy-Sense

Dad-Sense is important. It shows you are capable of being the father you want to be. Plus, you’ll need to relieve your partner and do your share of bringing up that wonderful, joyous child.

Daddy-Sense senses when people in your household are in need. It is about controlling that anger you get when you hear crying and being productive about helping the problem. Its showing patience in the face of “I can’t stand what your doing right now” or “why are you telling me this right now?”

Daddy-Sense helps you apologize to your family when Daddy-Sense doesn’t kick in right away when it probably should of. Daddy-Sense is part of the love you express to your family. It will tell you when to sacrifice your much needed alone time to be there for the kids and your partner. Or maybe it will tell you to not go out with the friends when something big comes up even though it was planned a week ahead of time. Don’t worry Daddy-Sense will help you deal with the frustration too.

Daddy-Sense lies in your gut reactions, your instincts and it works best if you are taking care of yourself.

How to Life Hack Daddy-Sense

Good News! There are tips out there to develop Daddy-Sense faster. If you’re fresh meat for the grinder, see how you can incorporate some of these. If you’re a dad looking to be a better dad you should check to see if you can add these to your base skills.

1. Typically your partner knows a ton of things already. Pay attention to how they interact with your kid or kids. If appropriate, copy their maddening ways. I have a zillion examples of what I took from my wife. How she says “we need to be safe when we’re eating,” instead of my method of saying “Sit Down in your chair, You’re going to fall!” possibly making them fall from startling them. Your partner is creative. Copy their creative/appropriate ways.

2. Write out or give serious thought to the type of father you want to be. This is going to help you develop your tingling senses when something that is happening goes against your Dad Value System or DVS. What do you want to teach your kids about in this often terrifying, disappointing, and beautiful world we all live in together?

3. Take your child out and spend one to one time with them, baby or toddler. You won’t know them as well if you don’t take time to do fun things with them. Usually its what they like doing which can be draining or soul sucking depending if its playing chase all afternoon on a playground or watching My Little Pony: The Movie. Oh and plan stuff if you want to avoid horrendous films.

4. Apologize. This was mentioned earlier. Daddy-Sense helps you apologize for when Daddy-Sense did not go off early enough and everything exploded in your face. Pull the shrapnel out and say you’re sorry to those little ones. AND YOUR PARTNER TOO. THEY’RE WATCHING YOU OR YOUR KID WILL TELL THEM WHAT HAPPENED IF YOU DON’T APOLOGIZE FOR IT FIRST.

5. Finally, at least for this post, Meet dads! Please do this. Your Daddy-Sense will grow when you meet some good fathers out there. I always hear, “Oh, I haven’t thought about that.” We’re in this together and there is a GIANT isolation problem out there. So many changes have just happened. Meet with other dads. 

Do not hesitate to reach out to me ever! I mean that (unless its midnight, I need my sleep. Every dad needs sleep). If you want more tips and to be added to my email list, write to me at Ryan@marriagegeek.com or comment below.