Whether it’s for an aunt or the next-door neighbor, parent, or community helper—take time to create a thank you card or sign for healthcare providers, mail carriers, grocery store employees, or anyone else deserving of gratitude, inside or outside of your household. Your kids will work on their literacy and creative skills, plus you’ll be teaching them the power of gratitude.
At Home Activity: Puppet Parade
Let’s throw a parade in our honor. We deserve it, don’t we? The homeschooling, the working from home, the socially distant Zoom birthday parties, and constant hand washing—we are all something to celebrate.
Trouble is, who do we celebrate with?
Today’s at home activity is all about making your own crowd. Gather some puppets, stuffies, and toys— and throw yourselves a parade.
At Home Activity: Marionette Play
By taking a familiar toy or stuffy (one with limbs that move easily) and turning it into a marionette, your little ones will have a whole new way to play. They’ll work on their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, plus their sense of self expression and creativity will come alive.
So grab a flexible toy and some string and let your littles be the puppeteers.
At Home Activity: Cereal Box Guitars
At Home Activity: Mandala Drawing
Parents and Caregivers: You're in Timeout
In these times of added stress and uncertainty, one of the most important tricks in the Parenting Playbook is the timeout.
No, no, no. Not that kind of timeout.
We’re talking about a mental timeout to recharge your personal batteries and tend to yourself. Plus, who wouldn’t mind a little extra quiet time in this all family, all day era?
Read the weekly Timeout, a new feature of Chicago Children’s Museum’s Parenting Playbook, for the best in self-improvement and escapism from across the internet.
Celebrate International Family Equality Day Online!
Since 2012, Chicago Children’s Museum has recognized International Family Equality Day (IFED), a day held annually on the first Sunday in May to celebrate and recognize the diversity of LGBTQ families around the world.
Usually, we’d pack our Great Hall with activities and resources, tie pride rainbow ribbons along our staircase, and host performances to celebrate and honor the diversity of the families that come to Chicago Children’s Museum.
This year, we can’t make that happen. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t celebrate.
At Home Activity: Tear It Up
Look at your little one’s hands. Yes—they're adorable (and maybe a little sticky), but did you also know that they’re working really, really hard?
That’s because our hands grow the most when we’re between ages 0 and 5 years old. And as a result, our little one’s hands do a lot of work to get stronger, more flexible, and more adept at skills we eventually need... like using scissors.
Today’s at home activity video is all about enhancing those skills.
At Home Activity: Secret Puzzle Game
Secret Puzzle Game is a simple, outside-the-box way of sitting with the words, feelings, and thoughts we’re experiencing during this wild time. Think of a word or image, keep it secret, draw it on the back of a cereal box that you’ll cut up to make your own puzzle. Then, hide the pieces around the room and hunt for the rest of your family’s pieces.
At Home Activity: Alphabet Scavenger Hunt
Today’s at home activity lets your children show off their literacy skills by finding items beginning with every letter of the alphabet. So explain the rules, maybe provide an example, and let them explore your space to find each object.
And while they do, take a minute to sip some coffee, look out the window, or even just stare at the wall for a little bit.
At Home Activity: Sink or Float
At Home Activity: Body Tracing
At around 3 pm every afternoon, we find ourselves just wanting to lie down for a bit.
Today’s at home activity not only requires you and your little ones to lie down—it turns sprawling out on the floor into a fun art exercise designed to sharpen children’s gross and fine motor skills, as well as their observational abilities and creativity!
At Home Activity: Scrub a Dub
Today's Chicago Children’s Museum parent PSA: not every at home art project requires drawing or crafting.
If you’re worried about running low on art supplies, or simply just not feeling up for more traditional arts and crafts activities, Scrub a Dub has you covered! Simply find a spot that’s safe for splashing (think kitchens, bathrooms, or even outside), fill up a couple of buckets or bowls with water and dish soap, and let the foam sculpting begin.
At Home Activity: Mindfulness for Kids
What comes to mind when you think of mindfulness? This much-talked-about coping strategy can conjure up images of quiet meditation or solitary thought exercises—often practiced by grownups.
However, mindfulness is also a powerful way for children to calm their anxieties and accept the present moment. And while silent meditation and breathing are definitely ways to practice mindfulness, there are also ways to bring play into your mindfulness activities—for grownups and little ones.
At Home Activity: Tabletop Bubbleologist
What’s a bubbleologist, you ask?
Simply put, a bubbleologist is an expert in all things bubbles—and kids are natural bubbleologists.
Today’s at home activity takes bubbles to a whole new level. Not only do the activities below allow your little ones to play with bubbles (which is obviously a blast), they’re designed to build important skills like trial and error and cause and effect. Plus, by following the directions below, kids explore geometry and shape-building, physical properties, and their own creativity.
Play in the Time of Coronavirus: Part 5
At Home Activity: Window Garden
Working from Home Parents: We See You, We Hear You, We Love You
Play in the Time of Coronavirus: Part 4
At Chicago Children’s Museum we have a “secret sauce” of sorts that guides us in making decisions about our programs and exhibits. It is a concept called Universal Pursuits of Childhood, in which we identify the experiences that children across time, gender, and geography, need, want, and love to do.
At Home Activity: Chalk Painting
We’re taking #chalkthewalk to a whole new level.
This at home art activity for kids comes from Chicago Children’s Museum Lead Arts Educator Liz Rosenberg (@lizziemaerose on Instagram). Follow along as Liz brings our Art Studio to you, and share your pics of what you create with us!