Your Stay-At-Home Activity Guide
As we all adjust to our new normal, parents are faced with new challenges day after day. How do I balance working from home, home schooling my kids and maintaining our normal day to day routine? How am I going to keep my kids entertained while staying safe at home for weeks? How are we going to celebrate Passover or Easter and still make it special? All of these questions and daily struggles can seem overwhelming, we are here to help !

We have put together some ideas to help you out. Passover arrives on April 8th and lasts through April 18th. Easter is celebrated on April 12th this year. We know these days are cherished by those who celebrate and maintaining traditions may just not be possible given the current restrictions. Let's use this time to create new traditions and memories to be cherished for years and years to come!
Here are a few activities to get the whole family involved in continuing special Passover traditions throughout the week long celebration:
  1. Make your own Seder plate: This is a great way for children (and parents) to get creative! Whether you're using felt, paper, or even Legos, use this opportunity to have your kids express their individual creativity while learning traditions and importance of the Seder Plate.
  2. Afikoman Bag Craft : Another great way for children to express their creativity and imagination! Don't be afraid to use unconventional craft supplies! Once it's all done, hide the bag and send the kids to find their own bags!
  3. Passover Scavenger hunt: Use those Afikoman bags the kids created in addition to other traditional items, such as the Elijah Cup and create a scavenger hunt Once the children find the items, have them trade it in for a little prize!
Celebrating Easter a bit different this year? Still want to create cherished memories with your family? Here are a few special ways to get creative:
  1. Easter Egg Decorating Station :Get the whole family involved! Set up stations indoors or outdoors with various materials beyond the traditional dye - get creative!
  2. Cross Sun catcher: Rainy day? This is a great indoor activity - all you need is contact paper, tape and some tissue paper. Tape the outline of a cross to a window and let the kids get busy!
  3. Egg Hop Relay Race: Need to burn up some energy from being inside? Use cut out eggs from construction paper and create a trail. Make it a team effort by splitting into teams and see who can hop the fastest!
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Thank you to Julie at Macaroni Kids for these great activities to do while at home with your kids!
Feeling stir crazy?
Here are 5 easy, engaging activities to do at home with your kids.
1. Have a LEGO challenge.
Grab a few little buckets and scoop up a random assortment of LEGOs for each child. Set a timer and challenge each child to make the coolest thing they can with the LEGOs they've been given before the timer goes off. Some ideas for guidelines - planes, vehicles, animals, people, playgrounds, or skyscrapers.
2. Water play.
Throw the kids into the bath with a few toys they don't usually have in there to make it new! Some ideas: kitchen items, cleaned out recyclables (think old shampoo bottles with cool pumps, not glass baby food jars!), buckets, beach toys, special bath bombs.
3. Support our local businesses.
So many of our local businesses are adapting and offering curbside pickup or local delivery and they need our support now more than ever! Virtual sewing lessons and kits, cake decorating kits, outerwear, toys, books, and craft packs are just some of the many things you can get locally right now! You could even just contact your local pizzeria and ask for a pizza kit and have a make-your-own pizza night at home! Check out this list for inspiration.
4. Sensory bins.
Put a few materials into a wash basin or two and let them play. Some options? Dried beans of different colors with an ice cube tray and ladle for scooping and sorting; dry rice with little toy construction trucks; play dough (you can make your own !) with loose parts like googly eyes and pipe cleaners; acorns (collect them from outside) with meat mallets for smashing or containers with different sized lids for dropping in.
5. Get to know your backyard birds.
You'd be surprised how quickly you can have a whole flock coming to your yard regularly with the installation of a simple bird feeder. You can pick up an already-made feeder or make one yourself and then sit back and watch the birds!

 This list is brought to you by Macaroni Kid Summit/Short Hills/SOMA , a FREE hyper-local e-magazine with tons of family friendly activities and events.
For more at-home fun ideas, click HERE .
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