Put together by Angels CCM Cassie Dove, LMFT, Foster Parent Kendell Borkowski, and You – please send ideas to cdove@angelsfoster.org so we can keep updating and sending periodically to Angels Families. 😀
Important Parent/Adult Self-Care
- Get ready for the day
- Take 1 hour for yourself
- Go for a walk by yourself
- Hide and save your favorite treat/snack only for you
- Audible book club
- Faith-based activity
- Take a bubble bath/luxurious shower
- Have a Zoom date with support network
- Do a puzzle
- Turn off your phone for a set amount of time
- Journal a page of gratitude
- Play music
Working Remotely
- Walk outside
- Take mini breaks
- Light a candle/essential oils that you only use during work
- Create a transition ritual at the end of each work day (e.g. change clothes, wash face, etc)
- Create a space only for work, only do work in that space (to create some resemblance of work/life balance)
- Organize your own place
Couples' Care
- Eat dinner together after the kids go to bed
- Thermometer check-in with self and partner – do you need space, closeness, friend phone call time, extended family phone call time?
- Couple book club
- Complete the Love Languages test and talk about it
- Play a board game after the kids go to bed
- Sit outside together after the kids go to bed
Kid Care
Coping Skills/Self-Care for Kiddos
- Daily schedule
- Dance/Freeze
- Hard like a rock/soft like a noodle (all body or sections)
- Kid safe yoga (Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube)
- Read books or listen to songs about your religion
- 5 senses
- 5 see
- 4 touch (safely within home or imagine and talk about how you think something feels if outside)
- 3 hear
- 2 smell
- 1 taste
- Belly breathing
- Flowers and candles
- Thermometer check-in
Spiritual and Religious Activities (as applies)
- Contact your spiritual and/or religious community and see if they are holding online or video groups that you can participate in
- Read books/listen to podcasts or listen to songs about your spirituality and/or religion
- Include spiritual and/or religious activities as a part of your daily schedule
- Journal
Indoor/Home Activities for Kiddos
- Pretend to be an archeologist
- Decorate a rock with permanent markers/paint or bury plain rocks in the shape of an animal, pack it and wet it in dirt, bury it, parents water periodically a couple of times the first 2-3 days. Set a date/time alarm of “the dig” a few days later (when area has had time to dry/bake in the sun), Use paint brush/age appropriate tool to let child carefully remove dirt from rock to see their treasurePretend to be an archeologist
- Sock match game
- Spa (nail polish, lotion), is also self- and parent-care of child
- Set up toy rotation (similar to or follow Montessori)
- Scavenger hunt
- Make a fort
- Book scavenger hunt-Make a list of items to find in a set of books
- Paint/sponge shape with water in driveway
- Get moving with GO NOODLE (on YouTube)
- ABC Mouse app
- Kidopia app
- Coffee filter and marker art
- Bake together
- Art for Kids Hub (on YouTube)
- Read Aloud Podcasts (Story Pirates, Smash Boom, Stories Podcast)
- The floor is lava!
Neighborhood Walks
- Red light, green light
- Stomp, skip, side step, dance, cross cross walk, jump run the whole way
- Count number of red or black doors
- Count how many dogs you see
- Count how many different colors of flowers you see
- Nature scavenger hunt
Links
Links from topics above and additional resources/activities