Good day folks ~ Well, times are changing aren't they. Who ever thought that there would come a day when the world would be running scared from a virus. Well, maybe some of us did, but really, not one of us had a clue what to do when COVID-19 showed up.
Having said that, what do you do with those kids that are running around under foot, not being at school! From a teacher, parent and author's point of view I thought that I would give everyone some simple ideas. These are a little bit "out of the box". Hopefully they work for some of you.
1. Make a video of your child/children reading a children's picture book. Then share that video with families of preschoolers. I could suggest a couple books, as you know, but I'll let you figure it out for yourselves.
2. Set up a treasure hunt for your own kids, or do a remote hunt for friends' kids. My wife and I just did this for our grandchildren, one set in Summerland and the other set in Maple Ridge. All it takes is knowledge of your own, or others' yards and houses. My wife and I drew up the clues, emailed the clues to our son and our daughter. They looked after hiding everything for Easter Sunday. Then we watched, via Facetime, while the kids looked for the clues. It was hilarious, for them, their parents, and us. We're already planning our next effort. Maybe you can do one for the parents, and get the kids to hide the clues!
3. Go Geocaching! If you've never tried it go to geocaching.com, sign up for a free basic membership, download the app to your phone and get started. There is nothing wrong with family groups going out for walks/hikes. Now you'll have a purpose, finding little treasures hidden all over and around Merritt. The kids get outside, so do you, even the dog. My wife and I have gotten out the last three days to do some hiking/geocaching and are planning to go out again today. Yesterday we found two caches. Gail and I hiked 5.8 km and the dog did about 10 km! Try some of the riddle caches ~ they're listed as a blue circle with a question mark inside the circle. They can be a lot of fun.
I'll leave it at that for today. Just a final word ~ I don't know if we have handled this crisis appropriately or not, but we are committed to this approach until we need to try something different, so let's make the best of it. I hope these ideas help, even if they simply remind you of things that you can try from your own childhood.
Jeff Bloom
Talk to you next week.