Think Cottage Life: Ideas On How To Take Advantage Of A Slow Down

By Angèle Alain

This outbreak curve flattening strategy of social distancing is making many Ottawa families anxious and nervous about fighting off boredom. In my case, I’m revelling in the idea of a forced slowdown, a time to rest body and mind, build up immune systems and do so many things we never do because life is just too busy. This is how I suggest approaching the next few weeks. The odds are, we will remember this situation forever, why not create positive memories too.

Think cottage life. 

The cottage is usually where we naturally slow down. It’s where we play cards, dig out the yarn and knitting needles, crack open the Monopoly box (I prefer Cards Against Humanity, but that’s me) or bake something with wild raspberries. It’s where, on a rainy day, there’s nothing “usual” to do, so we give ourselves permission to help the kids build a fort with all those spare blankets. It’s where we watch old movies, read old magazines. 

So here is a list of things to do on your own or with your family:

• Play a board game or a video game as a group. Dig out the older ones for novelty;

• Finally get to sewing repairs;

• Marie Kondo the mess out of your house (declutter and donate);

• Pair down a collection and organise it: photos, books, records, etc.;

• Try knitting a scarf or neck warmer: it’s just a rectangle you sew both ends together;

• Dig out your childhood memory box and share with your kids;

• Colour in a colouring book: try with wood pencils, then with markers; 

• Find all that leftover cardboard and paper, or raid the recycling box to make crafts;

• Read that book you’ve been wanting to read or re-read;

• Play cards or build card castles;

• Organise your cupboards or your closets;

• Clean your windows and walls. It is almost spring, after all;

• Clean out the garage;

• Paint your walls or old furniture;

• Rearrange your furniture;

• Finally use those paints and canvases someone gave your kid;

• Bake creative cookies, muffins or bread with what’s in the cupboard or the freezer;

• Do a puzzle; 

• Make a model or a Lego-type kit;

• Cook with food that’s about to go bad and freeze it;

• Build a blanket and chair fort;

• Learn something new from a YouTube tutorial;

• Learn basic sentences in a new language (you will travel again!) or in sign language;

• Watch a film from your childhood with your children: The Breakfast Club, Gremlins, Close Encounter of the Third Kind, the original Ghostbusters, the list is endless;

• Finally put photos in the frames you bought and hang those frames;

• Write and mail someone a letter or make someone a handmade card;

• Try a science experiment, there are many easy instructions online;

• Play an instrument you have and you know how to play;

• Write a short story, a poem or a song;

• Dig out your favourite music from your teens and share it with your loved ones;

• Make music playlists on your platform of choice like you would mix-tapes (I showed my age there, didn’t I?)

• Try a new workout or yoga tutorial: there are some good ones on YouTube for small children like Cosmic Kids Star Wars;

• Follow nail, makeup and hair tutorials for fun;

• Play dress up and put on a fake Halloween party or fashion show;

• Go for walks with your animals. Try it with the cat too, it’s funny; 

• Go snowshoeing if there’s still snow.

I hope this list motivates you as much as it motivates me. I could have kept going but I think you get the idea.

Valentine’s Day Crafts for Kids

Valentine’s Day is more than just a holiday for lovers. It’s the holiday for showing love and appreciation to those near and dear to our hearts. For kids, it’s the perfect holiday for homemade crafts to give to the special people in their lives.

Try out some of these Valentine’s Day craft ideas for kids to give to their parents, siblings, teachers, babysitters, or whoever else makes a big impact in their lives. They’ll have fun with hearts, bows, reds, and pinks, and their recipients will love the thought behind them. You can even use them for fun decorations to spread a little love in your home!

Handprint Lovebugs

Handprint crafts are always fun for kids, especially when making homemade gifts for family members who love to watch your little ones, and their adorable hands, grow.

For Valentine’s Day, turn your kids’ handprints into little Love Bugs, a Valentine’s Day version of a butterfly. Paint one of your child’s hands a desired colour using washable paint. Help her gently place her hand on a sheet of construction paper, gently pressing her hand and fingers into the paper to ensure her whole handprint stamps well.

Turn her hand print upside-down, so her fingers are pointing downward. Then, have your child cut out two large hearts for the “wings” of her Love Bug. Have her finish the creation with wiggle eyes, construction paper antennas, foam hearts or stickers to decorate the wings.

Design a T-Shirt

Have your child design a piece of Valentine’s Day art for someone special. Whatever makes your child think of Valentine’s day is fair game: a portrait of your family, hearts, or even red and pink scribbles, depending on his age.

Then, look for cheap shirts to transfer his one-of-a-kind design to! He will love seeing his art come to life on a real shirt. This is the perfect gift for a grandparent who would be proud to showcase a personal, handmade design on a t-shirt from a loved grandchild.

Ceiling Hearts

If you’re looking for a fun, and easy, way to get your family into the spirit of Valentine’s Day this year, start with a simple craft to decorate your home. These Valentine’s Day ceiling hearts are good for even the smallest hands to create.

Using red, white, purple, and pink construction paper, cut out several sizes of hearts. Then, attach some ribbon to your hearts with tape. You can use a simple, white curling ribbon, or get more creative with a variety of ribbons in different widths and festive designs.

Attach your ribbons to the ceiling with tape or thumb tacks, and you have fun craft that instantly puts you and your family in the mood for love!

Foam Love Bracelets

Use craft foam in pretty Valentine’s Day colours to create homemade bracelets with your kids for them to share with their friends. This is a good craft idea for them to make something special to hand out to their friends in class, along with their Valentine’s Day cards during the class exchange.

Cut strips of foam long enough to encircle a child’s wrist (use your own child for a good measurement!). Place adhesive Velcro strips on each end for an easy clasp. Then, let your child decorate each bracelet with foam hearts, glitter, or Valentine’s Day stickers.

If he or she is old enough, he or she can even write her friends’ names on the bracelets, or a sweet message for the holiday.

Candle Holder

This craft can instantly make a room feel the spirit of Valentine’s Day, and is an excellent gift for a babysitter or teacher.

Find a large, empty glass jar, like a pickle or sauce jar. Make sure it’s completely clean, inside and out, and remove any paper and sticky residue from the outside.

Cut out hearts in a variety of sizes and colours from tissue paper. Let your child paint some glue onto the jar and stick the hearts wherever he desires. Leaving some space between hearts for light to shine through creates a cool effect, but it’s just as pretty if your child wants to cover the whole jar!

Place a small votive candle inside, and you have a beautiful, handmade Valentine’s Day gift that your child created on his own.

Recycled Seed Paper Valentines

One of the most unique Valentine’s Day crafts for kids is also one of the most educational and eco-friendly! You can use recycled paper to make adorable hearts that hold seeds that will grow once you place the heart in a container with water.

To make recycled seed paper Valentines, like these beautiful ones from jamonkey.com, you’ll need some thin seeds, paper, water, food colouring, a heart-shaped cookie cutter, and some sort of screen, like a window screen, to dry the hearts on.

Your child will have fun tearing up the paper and mixing it with water and food colouring! She can even use a blender, with your help, to shred and blend the paper. Once you drain off the excess water after the mixture sits for several hours, let your child sprinkle the seeds into the mixture and stir.

Shape the mixture into hearts with a cookie cutter and place on the screen to dry in the sun. When they’re fully dry, you can attach them to your child’s Valentine’s Day cards, or put them in a festive baggy, for her to hand out to friends.

How do you get crafty with the kids for Valentine's Day?

Amy is a former preschool teacher turned freelance writer living with her two children and two cats. Amy graduated college in 2014 with an A.A. in Elementary Education and a B.A. in English. When she's not playing "super heroes" with her son or toting her daughter to sports practices, Amy writes for Babygaga, AdvisoryHQ, and several other blogs, including her own mom-business blog: theworkathome-mom.com.

Pinterest Round-Up: Keep boredom at bay over the holidays!

I'm one of the lucky ones who will have time off in between Christmas and New Year's. And the way the holidays fall this year, my manager has given us an extra day so that we head back to work the same time the kids head back to school - Monday January 5th. So that's exactly 11 days we have at home as a family. I imagined us getting outside a lot - sledding, hiking and maybe even trying out some skiing. But alas, the weather man is predicting a very rainy Christmas in these parts. No snow, and possibly ice once temperatures drop again.

So I'm turning to Pinterest in an effort to plan some fun activities that will amuse my girls all week. We have no family visiting - no meals we have to cook (other than for our family of four), no outings scheduled and no "awww, Mom, do we hafta go?"

So here are several great Pinterest pins, appropriate for younger children:

Make your own play dough!

Get little bodies moving indoors

Indoor physical activities

Make a kazoo!

DIY Moon Sand

Tell me, what do you have planned for the holidays?

Puff Paint Decorations

I am not very good at coming up with ideas for crafts that I can do with my daughter. She's four now and she's much better than I am at sitting down with paper and scissors and glue and getting creative. This is why I have created a board on Pinterest called 'Things to do with the kid' where I can go for ideas when she wants to do a craft together. It was on Pinterest that I found this idea, that worked out very well and helped to decorate our home for the holidays. It's very simple and all you need are puff paints in whatever colours you like, wax paper and copies of designs you want to follow. Put the design under the wax paper and start copying your design with the paint. I taped the wax paper down to make sure everything stayed in place while we were painting.

Once you're happy with your painting, let everything dry thoroughly.

This might have been the hardest part, it took a full day and the kid was getting rather impatient. When it's dry, you can peel your design off the wax paper and stick it to your windows.

I was actually really impressed by how well they stuck, though some of our artwork didn't peel off the wax paper as easily as I had hoped.

We started out with snowflake designs – simple ones and more complicated ones – but you could decorate your window with any number of designs. I even took a shot at doing some freestyle designs that I was very happy with.

This craft was easy for the kid and will brighten up our house a little bit. It was also easy to clean up afterwards. Now that I know this is something that she enjoys doing together, we can decorate our house for different seasons and holidays if we feel like it.

Pinterest: Or, Falling Down the Rabbit Hole

So I'm planning my daughter's birthday party....can you guess what theme she wants? That's right - Frozen!! My daughter jumped on the Frozen bandwagon a little late, as she was quite young when the movie was first released. I eventually took her to see it at a small theatre months later, and she loved it. We now hear "Let It Go" on repeat, and she's bouncing off the walls in anticipation of her birthday party on Sunday. It's hard to plan a birthday party for a 5 year-old. I never know if I'm doing too much, or too little. She started off asking to go to the movie theatre, but the helpful sales person at Cineplex suggested that 5 might be too young. I then checked out gymnastics centres, but given our strict budget, I can't afford $160-$175 for a party.

So, we took the easy (hard?) way out. We're hosting the party at our house! And what better way to plan a party than to look at ideas on Pinterest?

But Pinterest is dangerous. First I coo over the adorable glasses of frosted blue jello. Then I giggle at the Olaf party favour bags. Soon I'm yelling to my husband that we need giant blue drapes, fake snow for the walls, and twinkly lights. By the end of one hour on Pinterest, I'm frantically writing lists. Panic is making my heart beat louder than the sound of picks on ice.

But no. No, no, no. I'm not Martha Stewart. Martha Stewart is not even a distant cousin of mine. And so I calm down (thanks to my practical husband), and I decide on a few special things:

1) The twinkly lights we have in Christmas boxes are pretty accessible. And they'll make a lovely backdrop to our movie-themed party (the kids are watching Frozen, and will be served popcorn in their own individual buckets).

2) Pin the Nose on Olaf is a great game for a group of 5 year-olds. And bonus that a friend gave us an Olaf poster after throwing her own Frozen birthday party.

3) Frozen grapes and Olaf noses as snacks

4) If there's time, the party favour bags are pretty cute, no?

5) As much as I'd love to make my own pinata, I think I'll head to Bulk Barn and get something simple, filled with a few snacks, stickers and pencils.

Easy peasy, right? Hmmm, talk to me on Monday ;)