I’m at the point of social isolation where I kind of just want to let JustaBXgirl live off of microwave mac & cheese and attend the school of YouTube and TV. Judge me all you want. Being home with an only child and keeping her happy, healthy, sane, and entertained is hard on a normal day. And we are not living in normal days.
I have relaxed A LOT of our rules at home when it comes to screen time but I still try to include a lot of off-screen fun even if it means I don’t get to accomplish much else for the day. JustaBXgirl has an amazing imagination and creative spirit so often I can just say, iPad off and she will find something else to do but I don’t want her to look back at this time and remember me nagging. Instead, I try to redirect her to other activities.
Thanks to this amazing industry and the fact that I don’t let JustaBXgirl unbox everything she receives for Christmas at once, we have a lot of fun items around the house to check out. I wanted to share a few of the items helping us get through the week.
Antsy Pants is known for their limitless play. And we love limitless play. I’m a huge fan of games and toys that can live more than one life. JustaBXgirl has a gift for finding ways to integrate new uses to old toys. We recently received Flamingo Ring Toss and Bingo from Antsy Pants and I was really surprised at the ways that JustaBXgirl decided to use them.
We used both games as what they say. We tried to get rings around the flamingos’ necks. We tried to get bingo before the other person. Yet, there was so much more fun to be had that I wasn’t expecting. JustaBXgirl decided to take her dolls to the zoo one day and they visited the flamingos. On another day, they went on a tropical vacation and found flamingos in the wild. She also used their rings as doll hula hoops!
You might be wondering how else you can use a bingo game other than playing Bingo! JustaBXgirl used the bingo cards as a scavenger hunt, How cool is that? These cards are very durable so it is easy to relinquish control of how they are played with when you don’t have to worry about them being destroyed! You would think it might be hard to find things like Saturn and sharks in a one-bedroom apartment but it didn’t present too much of a challenge for my child! She found some of her shark figures and located Saturn on her Space Rescuers game from Ojo and I located Saturn on a hoodie I have!
I would love to hear how you are repurposing toys and games at home. JustaBXgirl does it often and I am considering making this a mini-series to hopefully help you stay sane at home while keeping your littles entertained. I don’t want to look back on this time and be reminded of being stressed over creating content. I want to remember this time as feeling motivated and spending time just being with my baby.
