Being in quarantine with a week of spring break in the middle, is not as easy as I thought it would be. I realized that kids do need some structure, especially our youngest. But even our 12 and 13 year old kids make their own little schedules in their heads.

Do kids need a schedule?

The first 2 days of home school before spring break, the kids were overwhelmed and confused in having a school-like schedule at home. The weekend after that was….nothing!

Normally we have things to do on weekends, like sports, Destination Imagination, visiting grandparents, doing chores, family time activities etc.

A lot of these activities are canceled because of the Corona virus pandemic (read about or first and second week here). Our weekends are empty now.

And what about a week of Spring Break? We made sure we explained to the kids the risks of going out during these times. There was no schedule during this week. I personally noticed that our youngest had a hard time (and myself as well) with figuring out what to do on the spot!

So why do kids need a routine or something like a schedule?

• Consistency gives kids security.
• Schedules helps build trust between kids & child care providers.
• Inconsistency creates emotional anxiety.
• Allow for flexibility within the day
• Parents should be consistent when children are at home.
• Source

How was our Spring Break?

I was surprised that our 13-year old started baking a lot more and went for walks. Our 12-year old went outside to go for bike rides. Our youngest started to bike more and more too. She was afraid to go down a little hill on Tuesday and on Thursday she raced me to the next gazebo in the park.

• Yoga
• Sewing fun stuff
• Baking and helping with preparing food (Recipes with pantry ingredients you’ll find below)
• Games (below you’ll find our favorites)
• Netflix and movies (see our favorites below)
• Giant list of ideas for being home with kids (big thanks to the Princess Awesome & Boy Wonder community)
• Going outside and bike, nature scavenger hunts.
• Painting master pieces (go to Pinterest and type in something like “painting examples for kids”)
• Virtual play dates with friends and grandparents who are at home (and lots of times alone and isolated)
• Helping mom to get the vegetable garden ready and trying new things (scroll down further to see which new things we tried)

Recipes

Soups

Every Monday I make a soup and it is often Indian Dahl soup, because 1. the kids eat it. 2. I can hide put tons of vegetables in this soup and 3. which is very important at the moment, it has all kinds of spices in it to fight viruses and boosts the immune system.

Minestrone soup is my husbands all time favorite and it is so easy to make. You use some pantry items and most of all it’s super delicious. Eat it with a baguette (Our oldest made 4 of them)

Lunch ideas

It is different having everybody at home for especially lunch time. Normally I pack a lunch box in the morning for all three of my kids, but now I can make other lunches like Dutch pancakes, quinoa bowls (for example this one), pasta bowls, like this one, grilled cheese or tuna melt (my favorite and I just found out, a favorite of our little one too). And these Black Bean Burgers are always a hit too.

Baked goods and desserts

We bought a good amount of fruit, but if I don’t put a bowl of bite size fruit pieces on the table, they won’t touch it. So I had some left over oranges and we made these Orange Sugar Cookies.

And I had some left over apples with some bad spots. I just cut those out or peeled it off and made this wonderful Dutch Apple Pie.

Games

Not everyone here likes to play board games. They want to do their own thing. Here are our favorites we play with our 6-year old:

• Trivia Pursuit for family
• Sequence Junior
• Dutch “Ganzeborden”
• Domino’s
• Memory
• Headbandz
• Suspense Junior

Netflix shows and movies

It is funny, but the only Netflix shows we watch with everyone, are cooking shows. From “The British Baking Show” to “Nailed It” and “The Final Table”.

Our little one and I watch also shows like “The Repair Shop” or “Tiny House Nation”. She really wants a workshop of her own with tools and enough wood to make cool things. She’s thinking about a tree house with swing and slide….

We haven’t watched movies really, besides “Frozen” 1 and 2 and “Trolls”.

Garden projects

First we saw several garden projects on Facebook, which were interesting like planting lemon seeds and re-growing butter lettuce. We’ll see in a few weeks how these projects turned out!

Our real garden is a bigger project. There are 3 wooden boxes for vegetables. I started digging the weeds up. I couldn’t just pick the weeds. There was a layer of at least 2 inches of roots eating into the wooden boards. The weather is getting better. No frost, so time to put those seeds in the ground!

What did you do? Any ideas for games, shows and recipes? Let me know in the comments below!

Danielle

Hello everyone,

Welcome to my Crafty Dutch Girl blog! Grab a cup of “koffie” and browse through fun blog posts about our Dutch family expat life in the USA, Dutch history, Dutch recipes, Dutch things to do in the USA and all kinds of crafts and activities. Don’t forget to connect with me for new ideas! “Groetjes en tot ziens”.