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Tips for planning family activity during social isolation

Posted on April 27, 2020 | Posted in Blog | Tagged Coping with isolation, families, Parenting, Separation, SusanHamiltonGreen

Some ideas for making Covid-19 leave your family stronger and closer!

Establish a routine for the whole family, talk about this, and communicate about it as a family so it is well understood and committed to by everyone
Be flexible and creative to provide interest and variety, and to allow for improvement as time goes on
Involve the children into the planning to ensure that this meets the need for all,
Ensure that your planning includes the essential aspects in a predicable and manageable way such as bed time, getting up time, and meal times
Allow for shared time as a family as a whole, for siblings as a group, and for one on one time between parents and each child
Start and end each day with a check-in, to ensure that you are in touch with any anxiety or concerns that need to be addressed as soon as possible.
Be clear about times when will be working and may not be as available for your children. Talk with them about these times to ensure that all understand in advance how these will be managed if the children have a need of your attention
Build in regular breaks. Take your breaks with the kids if you are working from home. Plan what you will do together during these breaks- such as a special activity on the verandah, balcony or in the backyard.
Plan for exercise. This does not have to be in or around the home, and can include activities such as bike ride together or a walk in the park or along a walking track
Keep connected with family friends, extended family and other important people in the life of your family. The children should be able to FaceTime ort Zoom their friends from different parts of their life and other family such as grandparents who they would otherwise see on a regular basis.
Consider doing something together that is new and different.

- You may decide to get takeaway from a restaurant from a different nationality and then watch a movie set in that country or listen to some of their music over dinner.
- Start a new activity together as a family. Download a course about a national park and start to plan for your next camping trip when Covid-19 is over.
- Download a Scrapbooking App and make books of photos from over the summer for friends and family for birthdays or Christmas.
- Redesign the family room or one of the children’s bedrooms, moving the furniture for a new look, making or ordering a new doona cover, throw for the couch, and soft furnishings for a new look.
- Go through your old photo albums to share special memories with the children from your own childhood, or family holidays from the past! Make a memory board of these special times for the wall to remember the special times you have shared during Covid-19

Great resources for ideas of what to do with your kids can be found at:

https://emergingminds.com.au/resources/supporting-children-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/

https://raisingchildren.net.au/guides/coronavirus-covid-19-guide

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/healthy-parenting

This is a video featuring Professor Bruce Robinson from The Fathering project with some other ideas:

https://thefatheringproject.org/fathering-channel/mondays-with-bruce-april-27/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Week%20Tip%20-%20April%2027&utm_content=Week%20Tip%20-%20April%2027+CID_454a82f29927950b6c5ec377be40b8cb&utm_source=Emails%20from%20HelloStarfish&utm_term=Watch%20the%20video

More resources

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