COVID Safe Weekend Fun for Change of Pace?

[bisous]

My kids have seen zero of their friends since quarantine. They've zoomed and now they're in remote schooling. We've prioritized our grandparents and we've got some high risk family members so we aren't doing anything in person at all. Thankfully they really like each other. We've even done a vacation this summer (our family in a cabin about 5 hours away--included the grandparents). But although they're not showing too many overt signs of mental anguish or strain, I do try really hard to prioritize getting them in new environments/outside and changing up the pace as much as possible.

What kinds of things do you guys feel ok about that are very low risk for COVID?

Some of the things I've come up with are a nice drive with the family up the coast.

A hike (these are actually pretty crowded around me--maybe the mornings would be better?)

The beach (this is not too crowded if you know where to go and go early)

A picnic somewhere outdoors? Like a not crowded park?

Other things we do to not get too cooped up include daily walks, and being outside as much as possible. Through gardening, yard work, and backyard bonfires in our firepit.

This weekend I am planning on picking up some books from a local library that is doing driveup distribution. My kids will actually find that diverting since they'll eat the books up in the car!

Would love other ideas!

My parents will be done "quarantining" after Sunday since they spent time with my SIL in very unusual circumstances, that some of you might remember from a prior post. We will probably do a backyard BBQ with them on Monday.

TIA!

[smilequeen]

We do almost anything outdoors and not crowded. On vacation we went horseback riding and white water rafting which was really fun. Hikes, bike rides, backyard bbq, swimming, etc.

[georgiegirl]

I can message you with the name of a beach that’s usually pretty empty. My sister takes her kids several times a week.


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[Liziz]

I've been taking my kids to quieter playgrounds at off-hours. I feel fine about it as long as there's not a ton of people there -- and it was a huge excitement since we went such a long time without going to any. Not sure if that really counts as a family activity or not, but it's something else to include.

Another simple but fun idea can be to go pick up drive-through/carryout food and eat it picnic style somewhere -- especially fun if it's a place that's a bit of a drive but some place exciting. We eat fast food extremely rarely, and don't have a Wendy's very close to us. So one time recently we just took a drive and I got the kids Wendy's for lunch and let them eat it at a nearby park -- they were thrilled!

I'm happy to hear you can get a drive-up book fix! We are such avid readers in my family -- it was a huge exciting day when we could get library books again! (Also through a drive-up style pickup).

[California]

It sounds like you’ve given your kids a lovely summer!

We’ve framed some of our outings as if we were making a tour guide of our area. For instance- visit and compare five local parks. What do you like about each one, what don’t you like, which would you recommend? For some reason this generates good discussions, especially among my younger two. (And then my oldest will jump in with his opinion.)

We’ve done this with beaches, scenic walks along the coast, hikes, boba places, and a couple of other themes. The next one, by popular demand, is donut places :-). My plan is to combine donuts with walk-and-talks.