This post kicks off a series here on Carla-at-Home of especially thrifty crafts, hints and activities, because even after the quarantine is over, I suspect that many people will be looking for thriftier ways to do things.
Families with children living in cities may be feeling the pinch of something for them to do besides watch television and play electronic games.
I remember rainy or cold Easter Sundays when I was a child. We weren’t a picnicking family, so bad weather didn’t affect dinner. If it was sunny, I could wear out a basket of dyed, hard boiled eggs in one afternoon by hiding and hunting them out in the yard. But sometimes when the weather moved us indoors, my mother would hide the eggs for me in our living room; over and over, bless her heart. In truth, it was probably much easier for her that way. She’d developed heart trouble when I was only 3 years old and had very limited energy. (In truth, I don’t think any of the mothers in our neigborhood did. They were very busy ladies.)
She still spent a lot of time with me, just not doing physically active things. When I was younger she read aloud or we played lots of word games, cards, Hide the Thimble, I Spy, etc. When I was older, we played Scrabble, Password, Scribbage (a Boggle type game), You Don’t Say, Jotto, and watched classic movies together on television. That was back in the days when cable hadn’t been invented and only 3 channels were on the dial.
Ebay has a ton of these classic games. Thrift stores and garage sales are excellent resources and a lot cheaper. Hopefully, the stores will all be open soon.
This link to an article on The Dollar Stretcher gives several indoor activities for families.
The Dollar Stretcher is one of my favorite websites and has been since 1997. It is a free massive compilation of advice on how to get out of debt and cheaper ways to do things, started and edited by Gary Foreman. Most of the content is reader submitted. Kind of like an online Amy Dacyczn collection. I encourage anyone who’s looking to save money to visit the site. You can sign up by email to get updates or simply go to http://www.thedollarstretcher.com. New content is added at least a couple of times weekly.
Just because we’re stuck at home doesn’t mean we have to turn into tech zombies.
carla-at-home 