We are now entering week 4 of shelter-in-place. We were required to begin shelter-in-place almost 2 weeks ago, but when hubby’s employer told all the employees that they had to work from home and that no one was allowed in their offices, we decided to take it more seriously than our elected officials had taken it at that point. So, we stocked up on some groceries and hunkered down at home.

So far it’s gone well.

The kids have played more video games and watched more movies than we typically allow. At the same time, we’ve watched movies as a family and played more games together. We’ve always made dinner together a priority, so that hasn’t changed, but we are certainly eating out a lot less than we had previously and that’s been a good thing.
I’ve gone back to baking more than I have in several years. Strange how spending so much time at home has given me more time to do things like baking. It’s also given me more time to do things like cleaning and organizing. What I’ve discovered though is that even though I have more time, it doesn’t necessarily mean I have more desire. 🙂 This means the cleaning and organizing is happening at a much slower process.

We were fortunate to have much warmer weather the week before last. I turned the pool heater on to give the sun a boost and the kids spent 3 days enjoying time in the pool. Then the clouds and rain moved in and cooled things off again. I’m not sure when it will warm up enough to get back in the pool, the reprieve from spending so much time indoors was certainly welcome.

Homeschooling is also very different. In fact, it’s not really homeschooling at all for us. We’re no longer going to our weekly park days with our friends. We no longer meet for co-op. We don’t attend our home school Ninja Warrior class. We don’t see our friends at our weekly teen/tween time game day. We aren’t having our Navigator scout meetings. We don’t visit museums or zoos. There are no visits to the library. We don’t practice consumer ed at department or grocery stores. We don’t do any of the things we typically do as a home school family.

What we have done is bought some new educational board games and try to play them several times a week.  Right now our favorite is Timeline.

It’s a great way to become more familiar with different history events.

This is another one that is fun to play and helps the kids learn some new words.

Prior to shelter-in-place, I purchased this game.

We played it one week during co-op and enjoyed it a lot.  A few days later we bought it and have played it several times.  There are several other Ticket to Ride games such as Ticket to Ride:  Africa, Germany, Japan, etc.  It’s a fun way to learn geography.

We’re watching more documentaries and having more discussion about what we’ve learned.

We’re looking for and finding more on-line learning opportunities and taking advantage of them.  For a matter-of-fact, Lili will be taking an art class again with her previous art teacher.  She’s very excited!

And the list goes on.

While shelter-in-place isn’t necessarily how we want to spend all day every day, we’re doing our best to stay healthy physically, mentally and emotionally.

So far, so good!

If you’re practicing shelter-in-place, how are you spending your time?  Have you discovered any good shows or movies?  Any good books on your reading list?  What about your favorite games?