Personally, I’ve been straying more stringent with my social distancing. We still wear masks when we go out and try to keep a six-foot barrier with the people around us. My daughter has had a friend or two over to play outside, and we’ve talked about how distance is important for preventing the spread of germs. Still, it’ll be nice when things go back to a relative state of normalcy. If they go back to a relative state of normalcy.
In keeping our distance from people, my daughter and I have come up with some adventurous activities that incorporate distance by definition. If you and your kids are struggling to find fun at a distance, give these 10 activities a try:
- Hiking: There’s a great state park near our home that we’ve made a couple of trips to. The hiking is pretty easy there and I’ve found ways to make it fun for my daughter—including a bingo card for wildlife.
- Geocaching: We were introduced to geocaching by a friend and since then, my daughter is hooked. She has a logbook that I bought off of Amazon and records all of the caches she finds. Every day is a new adventure!
- Dog walking: We don’t have a dog, but two of our neighbors do—a terrier and a Pomeranian. These little guys don’t need a long walk, so my neighbors have taken to letting my daughter walk them around the neighborhood with us.
- Modified team sports: So far, we’ve done kickball and it was a blast! Everyone stays six feet apart and the runner stops when the ball is fielded—no basemen needed! Masks are required and instead of shaking hands after, both teams did a distance air-five.
- Hide and seek: This was a fun afternoon organized by a friend. The kids went to a park and played hide and seek using the whole park. No need to get close to spot someone—just say what color shirt they’re wearing when you spot them!
- Drive-in movie: Before this pandemic, I’d never been to a drive-in theater. I hope they keep them around when things blow over! It was a blast! We watched Detective Pikachu and ate snacks with the windows rolled down.
- Sightseeing: A friend of mine recommended ‘being a tourist in your own city,’ so that’s what we did one afternoon. We took in a bunch of sights from the car and got out to look at things when there weren’t any crowds.
- Go for a bike ride: One day, we dug out the bikes and went for a ride near the lake. It was great and my daughter had a great time! We ended up going about 6 miles (3 out, 3 back), which she thought was the most impressive thing ever.
As it turns out, a world where you can’t get too close to people is still a world worth exploring! I highly recommended these kid-approved adventures that make social distancing just a little bit easier.
