Bonnie Carroll's Life Bites - Kids Kaleidoscope

Take a hint from Kim K. and put those empty Amazon boxes out in the garage to good use!

Treasure hunts are pretty easy and depending on how many items there are, could last a while. Hide anywhere from 10 to 20 items around the house or outside to keep kids occupied for a few hours.

As your kids accomplish each reading task, they should cross off each bingo square.

Transport you and your family to Paris, France by taking a digital tour of one of the most famous international museums, the Louvre.

Cookies, cakes, brownies. Anything! Baking is a great lesson in measuring, ingredients, and of course, making delicious goodies.

The Cincinnati Zoo will be live-streaming animals on their Facebook page daily at 3PM.

Grab a sheet, whatever food you have, and enjoy a living room picnic (without the ants). You can even play that memory game at the same time: “I’m going to a picnic and I’m bringing…” Each person takes turns remembering (in order) what everyone is bringing and then adds one thing each turn.

No, seriously, this could be a good one. If the family dog doesn’t know how to sit or stay, start there. If he’s ready to move onto more complex tricks, try focusing on training an hour a day. You can move onto down and roll-over.

Making elephant toothpaste is a great science experiment. Using the laws of both chemistry and biology, this recipe will cause an enormous foaming reaction, fit for an elephant. Check Scientific American for a how-to.

Use safe kids paint to decorate your own Halloween Pumpkins for a special celebration on the spooky day.

Virtually visit the Mud Volcano, Mammoth Hot Springs, and so much more with a digital field trip to Yellowstone.

Josh Gad just gets it. (He’s a dad, after all.) To make it easier on all of us, the voice of Olaf has been broadcasting readings of different kids’ stories on Twitter.

DJ Mel in Austin, Texas, is hosting a weekly kid-friendly “Living Room Dance Party” on his Facebook page. Join the fun here! Thousands have been tuning in, so get ready for fun.

Tuesday is St. Patrick’s Day, after all. Check our roundup for the best craft inspo.

Read a book together and, as an added educational component, have the kids write up an independent novel project once it’s finished. The novel project can feature a summary and reaction.

Fill it with anything and everything, give the kids some shovels, and they’ll be excavating for hours.

Limiting screen time might be a good idea. In fact, some professionals recommend it. When school work, reading, and other educational tasks have been completed, then you can give back tablets and phones.

This won’t keep kids entertained, but it will make learning from home all the more easier. Set up a designated homework/schoolwork area. Whether it’s a desk or a specific place at the kitchen table, having a workspace can really help kids focus.

Setting a schedule and focusing on educational tasks is awesome, but you should take time to focus on recess, too. After a few educational tasks, make sure to focus on playtime, too.

Break out the envelopes, the stamps, the pens, and paper. No, we’re not talking e-mails; we’re talking old-fashion snail mail. Write a mail a letter to someone you love, like grandma and grandpa, or a family member who lives far away.

FaceTime is another meaningful way to connect with family and friends while practicing “social distancing.” Use it to check in on family members and to socialize, even if over the phone.

Reminisce on the last time you were allowed to travel by starting a travel journal. This is an awesome exercise for both kids and adults alike. If you want a resource, Teachers Pay Teachers has an interactive journal that’s inexpensive.

Need a recipe? Check out this one from I Heart Naptime. All you need are quart-sized bags, all-purpose flour, salt, cream of tartar, water, veggie or coconut oil, and food coloring.

We know cleaning isn’t exactly “fun,” but with everyone off from school and off from work, the house is bound to get messy, and pretty quickly at that. Carve out a few minutes, even if it’s just 15, each day to prioritize organization.

If you come across a few things that you don’t want anymore but are worth selling, try using OfferUp, a mobile marketplace that makes it easy to sell your unwanted items.

Kids will love learning the ins and outs of checkers. And if they’re already pros? Challenge them to a checkers Olympics!

No talking. Just you and your fam acting something out. It’s a classic boredom-saver.

Sequoia National Park is a national park in California. With Google Maps, you can scroll over the different terrains, and click on places of interest.

It’s miscalleneous toppings night. Whatever you have laying around the house, that’s what’s going on your homemade pizza!

You can practice mindfulness using an app, sitting quietly, or with a few worksheets like the ones below.

Got any old vocabulary or math flashcards laying around? If not, no worries. Make your own!

Playing the opposites game is an educational exercise for toddlers. You say “in,” they say, “out.” You say, “on,” they say, “off.”

Another good occupational therapy exercise for toddlers is practicing scissors. If you have safety scissors at home, watch and help children learn how to cut up old scrap paper. They can even practice by trying to cut along a traced line.

Storytime From Space is unlike any other kind of storytime; NASA astronauts read stories to kids while they float around in space.

Learn about what it takes to run a farm, meet farm animals, and more by taking a virtual farm tour on Farm 360.

Have your child pick an animal. Can they make a fact sheet, listing everything they know about that animal? Now, do some research. After learning a little bit more about that animal, have your child add new facts to the sheet about what they learned

Monterrey Bay Aquariam has a sea otter cam that allows you to watch what the sea otters are doing at any given time of day!

Use programs like iMovie or YouTube to teach kids how to edit videos. It’s a meaningful skill to have in both school and the real world! Who knows? Maybe they’ll want to even create their own YouTube channel.

Is your family up to the challenge of creating your own board game? Use the DIY board game instructions.

MommyPoppins has some great coding resources for kids just getting into the ins and outs of coding.

Interviewing is an important skill. You and your child can start interviewing each other face-to-face by asking each other questions and taking notes. If your child shows interest, they can take it to another level by calling a grandparent or family member and interviewing them over the phone.

Learn more about the wildlife of Africa by checking out this African wildlife cam situated by a busy watering hole.

A great academic practice to get into, either after reading a book, doing research, or watching a movie, challenge your child to write an opinion piece about it. What they thought, what their opinions are, and if they’d recommend the book/movie/resource.

Reading is a big one during these quarantined days. But to make reading extra exciting, join an online book club with discussions and thought-provoking questions about the books your child has just read.

There are tons of kid-friendly podcasts out there. Do some research and find which one is best for your family!

Might as well hone our origami skills, right? Learn how to make dozens of origamis: dinosaurs, swans, frogs, and more.

In need of homeschool worksheets (or just education-related activities? Download this second grade learning packet.

You don’t need to leave your home to explore some of the most historic monuments out there—the Great Wall of China included.

If your kids are learning instruments, make sure to instill an hour-long practice time each day.

What kinds of animals live near you? Maybe squirrels, maybe alligators, maybe chipmunks… Make a list of all the animals you observe while looking out the window.

Paper? Check. Stickers? Check. Staples? Check. Make a sticker book, then decorate it.

Log onto the Smithsonian Science Education Center to do a deep-dive into insects.

The Smithsonian Science Education Center has more resources, too, including a virtual glider that makes you feel like you’re flying around the world, exploring.

Here’s another good one: Learn all about sugar through an online simulation that shows kids how sugar dissolves and interacts with other substances.

Staying home all day is a great opportunity to report on the weather. You could even do a study on the weather, using the Smithsonian Science Education Center. Learn about currents, air masses, and more.

Acadia National Park is a national park located in Maine. With Google Maps, you can scroll over the different terrains, and click on places of interest.

ABCMouse Learning Academy is a great educational resources with tons of lessons that kids can benefit from.

Squares can include “put away your clothes,” “brush your teeth,” “put the dishes in the sink,” etc.

There’s never been a more relevant DIY project than making your own hand soap.

Dance like no one’s watching! (And make sure you’re not sitting on the couch all day.)

Arches National Park is a national park located in Utah. With Google Maps, you can scroll over the different terrains, and click on places of interest.

Osmo is an online learning resource that interacts with the real objects you have in front of you. Osmo interacts with the physical items in front of you for engaging play.

Felt boards are great for imaginative play, learning the alphabet, math, and so much more.

BrainPop is an educational resource that provides lesson plans for all kinds of subjects—even health, arts and music, and engineering and technology.

Badlands National Park is a national park located in South Dakota. With Google Maps, you can scroll over the different terrains, and click on places of interest.

NearPod has homeschooling lesson plans for grades K-12: ELA, social studies, math, science, and more.

Scholastic, an educational resource, has enough learning programming for 15 full days of homeschooling.

Glacier National Park is a national park located in Montana. With Google Maps, you can scroll over the different terrains, and click on places of interest.

STEM activities are great for learning and educating kids about science and math.

Take a family trip to Alaska… virtually, of course. Visit Denali National Park a la Google Maps and learn about the wildlife, environment, terrain, and more.

Mystery Science has lesson plans for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade. Their lesson plans cover everything from: How does hand sanitizer kill germs? to What causes things to glow-in-the-dark?

Making play dough is fun, but making play dough with Kool-Aid smells really, really juicy.

Listen to audio recordings of other languages (like Spanish, for example) on slow. Repeat to practice pronunciation.

You can start an indoor herb garden by using eggshells as planters or make a terrarium out of mason jars. Check out Food52 for a terrarium tutorial.

Print out pictures from Pinterest or Google and adhere them to a poster board or computer paper. Fill it with images of what you want this year to be, then hang it on the fridge or somewhere where everyone in the family will see it often.

Ready for the next national spelling bee? Make practicing spelling fun by computing your child’s vocabularly words to Spellingcity, where you can turn vocab words into spelling lessons.

McHarper Manor is offering a free arts and crafts lesson on Facebook Live every day at 1PM EST. You can check out their supply list for what you’ll need for the first few projects on their website.

That might not seem like one individual idea but you can do all three with GoNoodle. GoNoodle encourages kids (and families!) to get moving, whether that’s dancing, meditating, or just jumping around!

Log onto Suessville and you can join Dr. Seuss’s Word Challenge. The challenge is to read as many books as you can. If reading challenges aren’t your speed, still poke around on Seusville where there’s Dr. Seuss-themed games and videos.

Chris Van Dusen has written and illustrated children’s books throughout the years. Now, for quarantined families, he’s treating readers to recordings of each of his books on Instagram Live.

The YouTube account Cosmic Kids Yoga has all kinds of yoga-for-kids videos. It’s not just for kids, either; you can all do yoga together as a family!

All it takes is a few household items to really focus on honing motor skills with young kids. Mamoat has tons of at-home occupational therapy ideas, from inserting pipe cleaners through a collander to pushing pom-poms through a hole in a plastic container.

Shaving cream painting is a favorite sensory activity amongst preschool teachers, but if you’re doing it at home, it’s best to do it in the shower or bathtub. Add food dye to the shaving cream to make it all the more interesting!

This is an activity best for younger kids who are learning colors and shapes. You can use almost anything for sensory sorting. By grouping different colors or shapes together, challenge your toddler to group all the reds together, all the blues together, and so on. If you’re doing it with shapes, try different items. Can you separate the sort the straws from the magnets?

Sure, it’s a little early, but it’s time-relevant and you can even make it educational by hiding letters inside the eggs instead of candy. Hide the plastic eggs around the house and see if your child can find the entire alphabet!

There’s a bunch of different ways to make slime but if you’re just getting started, the below tutorial is perfect for beginners.

Dye rice all the different colors of the rainbow, then let your child dive in with scoopers. You can even hide other small toys or prizes inside the rice and she has to dig out.

It’s a classic game most of us remember from our own childhoods, but how often do you play with your kids now? If they know the game well, have a tic-tac-toe-off; if they’re newbies, teach them the ins and outs.

Fill a Ziploc with hair gel, glitter, pom-poms, and other small items that won’t pierce the bag. Your child will love this sensory play!

If you want to keep things simple, the self-portrait can be made with crayons or markers. But if you want to take things up a notch, switch to a more unconventional medium: candy, pasta, buttons, or anything else you can find!

Everglades National Park is a national park located in Florida. With Google Maps, you can scroll over the different terrains, explore local vegetation, and click on places of interest.

Live from the castle, your child’s favorite princesses are available via FaceTime or Skype! You can decide what to chat about during the 15-minute call; princesses can even read your little one a goodnight story.

This one incorporates everyone. Parents or older siblings can draw a maze on construction paper; the younger ones can try to solve it by drawing along the maze with a crayon.

Need help yourself? Ravelry is a free resource for knitters, no matter your skill level.

Zion National Park is a national park located in Utah. With Google Maps, you can scroll over the different terrains, and click on places of interest.

When all else fails and you crack on the screentime rules, don’t forget Frozen 2 is now streaming on Disney+.

For more information on how to best support children in isolation, check out the government’s Children in Isolation info sheet on coronavirus.

Local Bookstores are finally open and practicing State compliance. My bookstore carries wonderful books and educational games and toys for kids doing school work at home and kids confined to home for day care.