2020 hasn’t been easy, for so many reasons. And with no real end in sight for a COVID cure, many people are starting to feel the burn out of everyday life. Add to the mix that we can’t take that stress relieving vacation we all look forward to – that something that will take us out of our daily grind, makes it that much worse. Plus, being at home most of the time and not really getting to go anywhere can get boring. This blog post shares 7 staycation ideas your kids will love!
With conflicting studies on the COVID vaccine development, debates on its safety and timeline to bring to market, betting that 2021 will be the year everything gets ‘back to normal’ seems very unlikely. We keep hearing that our current state is the new normal, with a lot of people rejecting that to try to desperately get back to their pre-2020 lives to no avail.
Value the time we have at home with our children
With two kids at home – a rambunctious 4 year old who doesn’t want to listen to the house rules, coupled with a needy 1 year old who doesn’t want to be left alone for even a minute – I get that things are crazy at the moment. I’m lucky to be on maternity leave, but, that will be coming to an end soon. With the second wave everyone keeps talking about, I wonder how I will manage when I’m back to work, with these two around the house.
I need to keep reminding myself, that both my boys are young and when else are they both going to want to spend all this time with me, before they are too cool as teenagers? This is a core time in their lives to be building their foundational values. I need to focus on that and giving them the best part of me which means staying positive, practicing patience (which is so hard) and not letting them feel any of the stress I may feel.
We need a break from the monotony
When else will I be able to spend all this quality time with them? Once life is ‘back to normal’ – I won’t have the opportunities to spend the time with them that I can now. So, make the most of it. The days are typically the same, routine is good. The weekdays consist of online school for Jahan (read my blog post on how to get your child comfortable and motivated with distance learning) and the usual exploring, book reading and singing for Rivaan, going for walks, dinner and bedtime. Weekends are for visiting the grandparents then one day of mass cooking, cleaning, running errands and spending time outside.
That can get boring, so how can we to change it up? I’ll share with you, 7 staycation ideas and tips to combat vacation withdrawal.
1) Set aside a day each week for dining out (or ordering in)
- Friday is designated as dine out day. For dinner, we will either go to a restaurant (if patios or indoor dining options are available based on COVID levels in your area) or order Uber Eats. I look forward to reviewing the best restaurants menus (I’m a foodie so I love this) and making my selections
- Make an event of it! We hype it up during the week and assign a theme to the evening as well (Italian food night, Mexican food night etc). We set up the table with some decorations that remind of us those places
- We’ll look up something that’s related to the place to focus on
- Music: For example, we’ll play Bollywood music for Indian food night
- Shows: If it’s Cuban food night – we will watch a Cuban dance. For Middle Eastern cuisine night, we might watch a virtual tour of the Burj Khalifa
2) Set up theme nights
Movie Night:
- We designate one night a week as movie night and make a night of it with popcorn, the fireplace and cozy blankets
- Rotating who gets to pick the movie each week gives each person something to look forward to and adds the element of surprise
- We set a genre for each week (comedy, drama etc.) to hype up the excitement
Beach Day:
- This one is especially a hit with young kids. My son loves to set up his play area as a beach. He will put blue blankets down as the water and put his sea animal stuffed animals and magnets on it and pretend its the ocean
- We play ocean music to set the mood, or choose a particular beach destination and play music from that region
- We play beach themed games – for example, do a hula dance!
3) Take road trips and spend time in the great outdoors
- We love going on drives to search for new spots (road trips to nearby towns, scenic parks, trails and waterfronts) This can easily take up a full day or even a weekend if you are able to stay overnight
- We like to change it up. Sometimes, we will plan the day out and set an itinerary of things to do and places to check out. Others we will wing it and figure out once we get to the spot, what to do
- We also look for things that are going on in our area (pumpkin patches, apple picking, farm wagon rides etc.) while following local guidelines including practicing social distancing and mask wearing of course. We have found a lot of hidden gems and places we would never have known about or explored had it not been for COVID forcing us to do so
4) If the weather is nice – have backyard tent sleepovers
- For the feel of ‘getting away,’ my son Jahan loves the backyard tent sleepovers when the weather is warm. For school age kids this will work well on a Friday or Saturday night
- Another popular option is changing up where he slept on certain nights – where he could sleep in another room in the house, with his sleeping bag. Jahan is 4, so this worked maybe once a month, because typically he would be so excited that he would spend most of the night talking rather than sleeping!
5) Sleepovers at the grandparents
- Spending a weekend at the grandparents house is always a fun little getaway with great company
- The kids love it and we as parents get a break 🙂
6) Take online virtual tours and vacations
- There are so many programs to search for on youtube where you can take a virtual tour of farms and even different planets!
- Local zoo’s and aquariums likely have viewing camera’s available for viewing online that allow you to watch the animals in their day to day habitat
- Virtual vacations are available whereby you can view churches, amusement park feeds, etc in different parts of the world. We will take the opportunity to make this a history lesson and teach the kids about each of the places we are ‘touring’
7) Plan for future vacations!
- Planning for future vacations is always fun! We have spent some time choosing our next top vacation destinations and thinking about what we would do at each spot
- Not only do we get a little break from the daily grind and allow us to dream about our next vacation destination, it serves as vacation pre-planning as well!
- Make sure you document and save all your notes so when we can finally travel safely again, you can look up what you researched on your top spots, which will save time when the time comes to actually book! And a little daydreaming is always fun!
- Not only do we get a little break from the daily grind and allow us to dream about our next vacation destination, it serves as vacation pre-planning as well!
I hope you will try out these 7 staycation ideas your kids will love!
Check out my blog post here on 7 simple strategies to naturally boost your immune system. This is especially useful to fight against COVID and for overall health and wellbeing.
What are some of the things you do to change things up? How do you spend staycations? Sound off in the comments below!