#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--KEEPING KIDS BUSY WHILE STUCK AT HOME

Life has certainly thrown us a curveball. Most of the country is stuck at home, and we have no idea how long our isolation will last. We know it’s for the greater good, but if you have children, you’re probably at your wit’s end right about now and giving in to way too much screen time.

As for me, I’ve had to pause Anastasia’s latest adventure midway through writing it to help care for grandchildren while their parents work from home. Luckily, I have a LOT of crafts supplies. We’ve spent one afternoon making bead bracelets and necklaces and another playing with pompoms. Sure, you can glue pompoms together to make pompom animals, but there’s nothing like a pompom fight!

We’ve also gone old-school with things like bubbles.

Recently Beth Schmelzer sent me some links that I wanted to share with all my readers to help you cope with the restrictions of Covid-19, especially if you have children. For those of you with grandchildren, you might want to pass this post along to your children. I’m sure they’ll appreciate it. Beth says she finds inspirations in these sites. I hope you’ll find them helpful.

Penguin Random House sponsors the readbrightly.com site where you can find books and activities for different age groups. They sometimes include giveaways. There are also videos where books are read aloud.

WhatDoWeDoAllDay? is a blog by a mom of two boys. The site includes books, crafts, games, and other activities to keep children of all ages and interest levels "unplugged."

The Imagination Soup website is organized by age, grade and topic, listing books, games and toys. The theme of the blog is Raising Kids Who Love To Read.  

For those times when you don’t mind your kids having a bit of screen time, check out these free kids’ movies being offered by Amazon. And Audible is allowing kids to listen to a selection of audio books for free. 

If you know of any other sites with fun things to do while we’re all stuck at home, please share by posting a comment.

Finally, a little musical interlude…if like me, you’ve always loved “Sweet Caroline,” check out this new Covid-19 version by Neil Diamond.