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Early in the pandemic, I came up with a lot of activities to keep my kids occupied. As the pandemic continued into forever, all my mom friends were really struggling, but my Toronto friends faced the most restrictions and fears. I started making activity care packages for them, inspired by what my kids had enjoyed. Now that I have the ideas put together, it doesn’t take long to make one for other mom friends who get burnt out.

Main Criteria:

• All activities are individually packaged in bags with easy instructions on the front (written with a Sharpie).
• All prep has already been done (cutting, folding, etc).
• Activities shouldn’t require too much help from Mom. It’s to give her a break.

Activities: Ingredients and Instructions

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Easy Pantry Activity:

• Ingredients: Oats, steel cut oats, lentils, buckwheat groats (or whatever pantry items you have on hand)
• Instructions:
  • Pour out one bag into a pan.
  • Let your child zoom the truck around.
  • When the child gets bored, pour in another bag, and so on.

Colouring:

Teddy Bear Picnic:

• Grab your favourite teddy bears and have a picnic!

Feed the Birds:

Paper Dolls:

• Draw your family’s faces on these dolls.

Popsicle Stick Building:

• Build something.
• Note: Notice glue is included. You don’t want your friend having to run around looking for glue when already worn out.

Marshmallow Structures:

• Build something.
• Note: The drink umbrellas make this activity extra fun.

Movie Night:

• Pretend you’re at the movies.
• Note: This can be done as a family, but I often let the kids do it while I do dishes (and watch something I like on my phone).

Paper Bag Puppets

• Decorate paper bags or make puppets.
• Note: I cut the unused stickers out of some of my kids old sticker pages, as a way to reuse them.

Prank:

• Eat the raisins, then fill the raisin boxes with rocks and prank someone by offering them raisins!

Make Caterpillars:

• Colour with markers or paint.
• Poke pipe cleaners through as antennae.
• Add googly eyes if you wish.
• Note: I loved making caterpillars as a kid, but as a parent, sometimes I don’t have it in me to keep cutting up egg cartons. That’s why pre-cut ones makes a great gift.

Make a Fort

• Grab a sheet and the clothes pegs and make a fort.
• Have a snack in your fort.

Paint Something:

Note: I almost never have the energy and conscientiousness to clean off my kids’ paint brushes right away, so later they come back to crusty brushes. That’s why I included paint brushes in the gift. Also, new paints are awesome for kids because their old paints usually end up getting mixed with other paint colours and aren’t as fun to come back to.

Cloud Soap:

• Unwrap soap and put it on a large plate.
• Microwave 1-2 minutes and watch it expand into a cloud.
• You can poke it and even use it in the bath, but it does require a little clean up of the tub afterward.
• Note: You can only do this with Ivory soap because they whip air into it.

Fun Bandages:

• These are a combination of Paw Patrol bandages and mini bandages that are the perfect size for a doll.
• Kids have fun putting them on each other and on their dolls.
• It’s an easy, and cheap gift if you can just grab a few out of your own stash of bandages.

Pretend Sand:

• Make a sand castle.
• Notes:
  • This gift is extra fun in the winter when kids have been away from sand for a while.
  • Brown sugar is easy to shape and easier to clean up than Kinetic Sand because it dissolves in water.
  • I like to include a few sea shells and something to use as a bucket, like little cups or medicine cups. If I have plastic spoons, I include those to use as mini-shovels.

Fortune Tellers:

• One has 8-ball answers so kids can ask it questions.
• One just has potty humour. This one is printable from this website.

Packaging it All Up:

• I like to use clear plastic freezer bags because you can see what’s inside, and write instructions on the outside.
• The post office has options where you can buy a box for a flat rate (comes in three sizes) and then put as much as you want in the box until it is full. I managed to send a lot of packages that way.
• In the picture below, I just used a little laundry basket because it was for a friend close by.

But What About the Cost?

The cost of these gifts can really add up. That’s why I would use as many of the things we already had around the house as possible (stickers, soap, paper, glue, paper bags, raisin boxes, snacks my kids didn’t want). When the cost was getting too high during the pandemic, I posted on the Kincardine Swap and Sell to see if anyone wanted to contribute donations toward care packages for moms who were struggling. People contributed games, toys, markers, books, and kids magazines. I was able to tell my friends that the gift was from me and the community of Kincardine, and it reduced my main cost to just the shipping. Friends were so touched by the generosity of our community. I know there are so many other people out there who would be glad to contribute spare things they have to help someone in need, if you just reach out.