• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise With Us
    • Our Advertisers
  • Distribution Locations
  • Past Issues

The Denver North Star

Your Guide to Community, Politics, Arts and Culture in North Denver

Hot off the Presses!
Check out the Apr 15 – May 14 issue here.

  • Community
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Arts
  • Dining
  • Community Calendar
  • Become a Member

No Place Like Home

April 15, 2020 By Jill Carstens Leave a Comment

 “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”  Winston Churchill

Jill Carstens

As I observe my husband take way too long to make his move playing Chinese Checkers, I sort of regret bringing out the board games. At the same time, I’m marveling that our young-adult son is actually playing with us. We all need a dose of patience and creativity right now, as home becomes our everyplace. Here are some ideas for keeping the kids busy:

First of all, stress less about screen time. That doesn’t mean to never put a limit on it during these weeks but to engage in media with more intention. Encourage kids’ online creativity by putting them in charge of a new Instagram account or making silly videos. My friend’s pre-teen daughter is creating “how-to” videos for art projects on YouTube.  

Kids ages 10 and up are completely capable of being in charge of a task that is useful for the whole family, like finding a good movie for everyone to watch, looking for unique games or art projects to do or maybe even finding out who has more toilet paper! FYI, Michaels fulfilled my online paint order within hours for curbside pickup.

Ask teens to look up a recipe you can use with what you have in the house and give them the task of making dinner. You can encourage them to look through old cookbooks you might have and improvise.  Also, here is a website where you can enter the ingredients you already have at home and it will come up with recipes for you! https://www.supercook.com/#/recipes  

I am encouraging my son to learn new things. We just discovered Masterclass.org.  Another is Blueprint, which offers lots of cooking and art classes. And YouTube is free!  Encourage older siblings to teach younger siblings a new skill. Additionally, if you feel like your kid needs more academics as online learning ramps up, here is a place to start: https://www.weareteachers.com/free-online-learning-resources/

Look at your home and what’s in it with new eyes. Cardboard boxes and many recyclables are toys to children under 8. Extra sheets or tablecloths are potential forts. Bring Xmas lights back out and let your children create their own fairyland. 

Heed the advice from last month’s column and try to let the messes go for a while. Children can be more invested in what they are doing when they know they can go back to a project and add to it day by day. 

For those with very busy younger children, here are a few easy activities to do at home:

Fill a sink or the bathtub with just a few inches of water and supply your child with water-filled squirt bottles, old shampoo bottles, and other containers to dump and pour. Add shaving cream for extra fun! Maybe let them wear their bathing suit.

Pull out some flour, salt, cornstarch, baking soda plus water or vinegar. Put about a cup of each ingredient in a series of bowls with spoons then instruct your child to put one spoonful of ingredient in their own bowl at a time, adding liquid periodically, and mix.  In preschool we call this “Potions.” If you add food coloring, that’s a bonus. When the children adhere to using just one spoonful at a time, this activity can last quite awhile. In the end we usually try to use whatever they combined and convert it into play dough.

Cutting paper. Using tape. Kids usually LOVE to be given free reign to just cut. And cut and cut and cut. It will make a mess. You can try having them cut over a cookie sheet to contain the scraps, but you will need to vacuum after. Children love to be able to use tape with no limits – like using it until it runs out. If your child cannot tear the tape on their own, we have a method where we adhere the end of the tape to the edge of the table, pull about two inches out, then cut it that way.

Have your younger child dictate a story to you or an older sibling as you type it on the computer word for word. Print if possible and encourage them to illustrate their story.  They can “read” it to you later. For pre-readers this is a powerful tool for children to see their verbal words in print!

Also, it’s Colorado, so get outside whenever possible.

Since I stopped working I have revisited my first love, art.  I started an Instagram account that exhibits some of my paintings with some, hopefully, nurturing thoughts: @graphittirainbow  Check it out.

Filed Under: Community Voices, Parenting

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive email updates about The Denver North Star, your new guide to community, politics, arts and culture in North Denver.

Community Events

The Denver North Star community calendar is coming back! We’ve updated our form to better accept physical and virtual events, as well as to collect additional information possible attendees would like to know.

Please use our new form to submit your event!

Apr 20 2021

Walking Tour of West Colfax with Phil Goodstein

Apr 20 2021

Berkeley Regis United Neighbors (BRUN) Monthly Meeting

Apr 20 2021

Highland United Neighbors Monthly Meeting

Apr 23 2021

Project Angel Heart Dining Out For Life

Apr 24 2021

National Cohousing Day: Aria Virtual Open House

No event found!
Load More

Connect With Us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Keep Up With Us

The Denver North Star

Recent Comments

  • Jamie D on A Student’s Guide to Colorado Flowers
  • Julie Ann Thornton on A Student’s Guide to Colorado Flowers
  • Ana on A Student’s Guide to Colorado Flowers
  • Michael Vela on A Student’s Guide to Colorado Flowers
  • Kevin “Gayper” Lederer on Metro Area’s Commissary Kitchens: Where Chefs Cook Up Community
  • Emily Green on Metro Area’s Commissary Kitchens: Where Chefs Cook Up Community
  • Burt Smiley on North Denver Artist Opens Exhibit Space in LoHi

Our Columnists

  • Educator and mom Jill Carstens writes about parenting in her column, Letters from Miss Jill.
  • Librarian Hannah Evans discusses great reads in her Checking Out: Book Reviews column.
  • Dennis Gallagher tells all in his column, Shaping Our Future by Remembering Our Past.
  • Erika Taylor advocates for community wellness in her Taylored Fitness columns.
  • Kathryn White focuses on issues of interest to older adults in her column, The Gray Zone.
  • District 1 Community Resource Officer Bob Anderson focuses on public safety issues in his monthly column.

Our Archives

  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019

All Categories

  • Arts and Culture
  • Cannabis
  • Checking Out Book Reviews
  • Community
  • Community Voices
  • Coronavirus News
  • Denver North Star News
  • Dining
  • Editorial
  • Education
  • Environment
  • Featured
  • Globeville
  • Guest Column
  • Health
  • Legislature
  • Local Dining
  • Opinion
  • Parenting
  • Politics
  • Public Safety
  • Shaping Our Future by Remembering Our Past
  • Student Voices
  • Taylored Fitness
  • The Gray Zone
  • Transportation
  • Uncategorized

Copyright © 2021 · All Rights Reserved