Listen to a book. Sometimes you just cannot read another book to a little person. But you can listen to one. Often, I’ll download an audiobook and we’ll all sit around the cool, dark living room, listening. Bliss.
Paint. We paint very often. There are moms who are scared of the paint, the mess and the cleanup. I understand, I do. There are times we use acrylic paint and wear smocks and make big messes. But those times are not now. During low-key times like these, we use watercolor paints. And washable paints. And finger paints, because those are always washable. One time, we collected large rocks from the backyard, dragged the picnic table into the garage and sat around, painting the rocks with washable paint. My kids, and the playdates of the day, painted for hours. I sat on a beach chair, four feet away from them, reading a book and drinking an iced coffee. The only time I stood up was to help them get more rocks. That was perhaps the best playdate in the history of all playdates, ever.
Go School Supply Shopping. Before you stab me with a number 2 pencil, hear me out. It’s the middle of the summer and no one, and I mean no one, is shopping for school supplies. The aisles will be empty, every folder color that your 6-year-old must have will be available and the backpacks haven’t all been touched yet. Go now. I know you don’t want to, I don’t either. But if you walk quickly from the air-conditioned car to the air-conditioned Target, you’ll barely feel the blazing sun beating down on you.
And when you get home from shopping, the divvying up of the school supplies and the labeling of everything with the brand new Sharpie you picked up while shopping is a whole activity unto itself.
Put on a Play. My kids love to make us laugh. Often, they will invite us into the living room where they have set up a stage with a curtain backdrop. They sing, they dance, they tell jokes and, best of all, we sit. We laugh and smile and clap, but we do all that while sitting down. Encourage your kids to put on a play. The planning and practicing alone can take half a day.
Make Challah. It might seem like a bit much for today, but come Friday, you’ll be so happy. When I bake with my kids, I make a double batch of dough. I shape the challahs that I need, set them aside and then the kids use the rest of the dough to do whatever it is that they do to dough to make their “special” challahs. I put out bowls of chocolate chips and sprinkles and they can decorate for a good hour. Their overworked challahs get baked just as regular challah would. They smell good but I can’t hand out any guarantees on taste. Overworked, over-floured dough does not have a lot going for it.
So many ideas and only nine days. Choose one idea or all the ideas. It’s even okay to choose none of the ideas. The important part is to be creative, stay cool and spend lots of time with your kiddies.