Who knew we’d be in the middle of this mess?
It’s like living on an island. And if you’re in a quarantine, it’s same as being banished to Mars. For the extroverts, especially.
Are your kids getting antsy? The Summer break (what break?) is a burden, stripped of all fun—exotic vacations, visiting grandparents, or friends, even the good-old playdates.
And to keep them busy and learning is a never-ending homework for parents. It’s a Social renaissance, seriously. We’re shaping up history.
In fact, there’s a good side to it—racking our brains helps to grow more brain cells—they’re like shark-teeth, forever growing. That’s an anti-aging hack to bring some smile on our scowls, to nourish our nerves and keep them from riding the anxiety roller-coaster.
A Summer to Remember:
This could be the Summer to remember—not for its boredom, but for the unique things you did right in your homes.
I was a single child growing up on a tight budget in India. That was when being thrifty was upheld as a Gandhian trait. The two long summer months were mostly triple digits outdoors. Mom kept me busy with creative projects that held our attention for hours.
When I was finishing middle school, a civil war of sorts broke out in that part of India and our education was held up in the crossfire between the government and the insurgents. My schools life was in limbo for a straight 10 months, until we evacuated to the safe city of Calcutta and somehow finished school.
Those long 10 months with three neighbors’ children wasn’t easy. We had to settle interpersonal problems, make up for lack of resources with our ingenuity. Badminton and throwball over a make-shift net, table-tennis on the dining table, throwball, clay modeling, vocal music, relearning my mother tongue, Bengali, and running a hand-made monthly magazine. I still have those sepia-tinted booklets we stitched together for our magazine, Epoch. Its one-n-only copy circulated within the four families of our building.
The creativity of childhood still stands me good. Not only in an enriched memory, it helps me be happy with less. The absence of the expected life teaches us skills for survival on a different plane. Sharing a few of those shoe-string projects here that won’t make you run to the store. For the projects below, try to use only what you already have.
Get the kids to take pictures to make a scrapbook—a handmade hard-copy, and a digital one to share with loved ones.:
- Make masks, wall-decors, and useful holders with things around the house–this can really have the creative juices flowing. Kids can do an inventory of all the discardables and sort them to make eyes, noses, heads. This upcycle treasure hunt might discover a few long-lost items. Google upcycle projects and click on the images tab to get tons of ideas. It’s a hugely creative challenge everybody enjoys, supplementing one part with something unusual. Enjoy the browsing—some are hilarious while others are simply super-perfect. These can be huge money savers if you skip buying any supplies for it.
- Create a reading ritual—from a big-fat classic, by the candlelight, after dinner. I vividly remember my mother reading the original Bengali Ramayana with expression and explaining the archaic language. You can choose The Little House on the Prairie, The Kon-Tiki Expedition, Robinson Crusoe, or the Swiss Family Robinson, My Side of the Mountain—in all of these books the characters had little to no socializing as they learned to deal with the new setting.
- Make the den a real, wild den—this will help in recreating the set from the listed books. Pitch a tent on the floor to sleep at night. Decide on a few wilderness rules, like no snacking near the tent, hang snack packs on a high hook to save them from the bears, etc. A spare mattress can be the Kon-Tiki raft in mid-Pacific.
- Enact the dramatic parts you’ve already read. Keep a fixed drama day to keep the family busy planning period clothing and accessories through the week. Use pizza boxes, cereal boxes for prop-making. If there are more members, get them busy writing dialogues, music, maybe even compose songs for a musical. Working on the voice, planning action, learning your lines can get utterly enjoyable. Don’t forget to gather some funny video footage of the rehearsal.
- Indoor gardening—aloe vera, other succulents and herbs can make a great air-purifying garden. (google for air-purifying plants like snake plant and to make sure these don’t hurt pets.)
- Cook crazy recipes—these sessions crank out great products for mealtimes. Children can apply for jobs around the kitchen, pretending it’s a restaurant—chef, waiter, receptionist, cleaner-upper. Get them to take orders from parents for room service.
- If you have essential oils or pure rose water, infuse them around the house to relax the nerves. If you don’t seem to find them, just boil some citrus peels or herbs (basil, mint, or rosemary—your backyard or neighbors may have some) at bedtime.
- Infuse or cook some citrus peels and herbs in grape-seed or coconut oils to make a natural massage oil for your feet at bedtime.
- Make it a fun ritual with family adding some soulful humming or memory-sharing while you all sit by the bed and do the foot massages with these oils.
- This is the easiest. Give your kids some idle time to themselves, for free-wheeling, for more ideas, for imagination.
All of this can get overwhelming. Pre-planned time slots will help. Even assigning days of the week can add some alliteration fun. Tuesday Tongue-Teasers (whacky recipes), Wednesday Wilderness or Wild Wednesdays (camping night in the den), and Fancy-Dress Friday (the act-it-out day) are a few examples. Rotating all chores over the weeks makes everybody a cool Jack-of-all-trades.
Home and hope are the two safe things we have. Keep them up and running. Happiness never depended on the stuff we have beyond food, safety, and love. Enjoy your limitless creativity.
Name: Balaka Ghosal
Website: The Green Writer
A little bit about Balaka B. Ghosal
Balaka helps green businesses and individuals plan for the new-normal era, with practical, smart changes to create a legacy for a sustainable future. To discover optimum ways to organize their online presence to bring in more followers.
Her vision is to bring popularity to the system where one industry’s waste becomes a resource for another. Just like the water cycle and life cycles in nature.
The world needs EVERYBODY to bring on that circularity to create a legacy of sustainable health for our children. For businesses, it’s profit spread over a long period of time.
For individuals, it’s a sense of joy and growth. In her website, Balaka blogs about own ideas in living a simple, therapeutic, low-waste life poised on faith and empathy, and in helping others discover theirs.
“Our privilege for being alive gives us the responsibility,” she says. Let’s join in the healing, together in harmony and respect.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
