Beating the Boredom of Home Isolation with Books, Puzzles & Games

With so much extra time on our hands because the entire country has shut down, we have been filling our time with crafts (you can read about that here), puzzles, games and reading books.  Who knew puzzles could be so fun and addicting. We started with a puzzle that we had bought before everything  shut down.  This puzzle had different iconic buildings from around the world.  We enjoyed this puzzle because as we put the pieces together and saw the different buildings, we would talk about the ones we have been to, and start talking about our favorite memories at the different locations.  It was mostly the two older girls that worked on the 1000-2000 piece puzzles.  While they worked on their puzzles, we had a few 30-100 piece puzzles that Monster and Little A would work on.  

Kevin found a 2000 piece puzzle that had four section of the four different seasons.  The issue started with the border.  The entire border was exactly identical.  The girls found all the edge pieces, attempted to find matches and pretty much called it a lost cause.  One particularly dull and boring day, Big Sis went downstairs and since she had nothing else to do, she actually was able to complete the entire border.  I was shocked!  Once the border was complete, it gave a bit of hope to the rest of the family and as we would walk by the puzzle we would get drawn into the complexity of the jigsaw.  In no time at all, the girls were separating the pieces painstakingly by seasons according to the slight color changes.  Big Sis said it felt therapeutic.  She really enjoyed seeing the puzzle come together.  She found all the border pieces that separated the four seasons, which divided the puzzle into four sections and the girls started attacking the puzzle one season at a time.

Towards the end, everyone including Monster were all in the puzzle room and helping to finish the puzzle.  The older girls honestly did 80% of the puzzle by themselves, everyone else just came in at the home stretch to take the glory from them.  

We started doing puzzle swaps after this.  We would trade puzzles with friends, by doing a front door drop and run.  We borrowed a bunch of puzzles from friends, and even got two puzzles sent to us from my sister, Lisa in Idaho.  Puzzles have become a downtime favorite and a great way to spend time together as a family. 

Reading books has also become a surprising benefit of all the downtime and boredom that comes from being at home all the time with nowhere to go.  When home isolation started, Little A never read a book and would always complain.  I found a few books from my old 3rd grade library from when I taught.  Little A found my Magic Tree House books and was hooked.  I didn't have all the books, so I asked around and found someone in our church that had about half of the books, she dropped them off on my doorstep.  Little A is now reading about one book a day.  She is loving the story and loves reading.  It has gotten to the point to where I ask her to come down and she is replying, "in a minute" and comes down about half an hour later.  Little A has now finished all the books that my friend dropped off, and luckily the school has an account with MackinVia, and MackinVia has the rest of the Magic Tree House books that we don't have.  It has been a small miracle that she has found the love of reading during this time.

Big Sis has also found a love of reading.  She was spending a lot of time just wasted on games and virtual cross-stitch on her phone, so I presented her with my absolute favorite series, "Poison Study".  It has a few adult related content, so I won't let my book worm M&M read them.  I used this to my advantage, and said she could read my favorite books, but M&M can't read them for a few years.  I explained the adult content (spoiler alert: a girl gets raped, although it doesn't go into details, it is just mentioned in the book because it helps to understand the character) and I made sure she understood what it was and we had a little teaching moment, then I let her have the three books to the series.  Now, let me explain, up to this point, unless she was required to read, Big Sis wouldn't be caught ever with a book.  She had some eye problems while growing up that made reading actually hurt her head, so she has avoided reading whenever possible.  It was crazy having her come down the next night all excited because there are three more books in the series that I didn't know about.  She had already read the three books we did have and was thirsty for more.  Score!!  Luckily, Lauren, my niece came to the rescue.  She had the books on her kindle, so she let us use her kindle account so Big Sis could read the books.  It has been so great seeing her fall in love with reading.  She has now read two separate series by the same author.  Thank you Maria V. Snyder!!

M&M has read every book in our house.  She is now re-reading pretty much the entire house.  And Monster is learning to read.  With Kevin home more often, we have taken this time to teach Monster to read.  He has completed the Bob Books and is moving on to simple books.  He even drew me a picture the other day that said "T Mom From".  I was so amazed.  Monster has memoized Dr. Suess's ABC book and requests it every night.  He knows all his letters, all the sounds and we have been doing sight word flash cards with him.  He is just taking off.  It feels like there is magic reading powers in our house right now, it is so wonderful.  I can just feel all their little brains getting smarter.

I would have to say that my most favorite reading moment is when we all sit down and read Harry Potter together.  Since the home isolation started, we read the last half of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, we have read all of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and are now about half way through Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix.  Every single day, whenever there is time, the kids all beg me to read Harry Potter.  There is hardly a day that goes by that we don't open the book and read.  We own the illustrated books 1-4, so when I read The Prisoner of Azkaban and the Goblet of Fire, Little A would follow along with the illustrated book.  Sadly, they are still working on the illustrated book for book 5, so now the kids just sit and listen.  It has become a special time that everyone looks forward too.  We bring the book with us anytime we hike or ride bikes or take a picnic. I wonder if this has attributed to the love of reading becoming stronger in our home.

Another thing that we have loved doing to pass the time is play games.  We are a game loving family and will always have a game with us wherever we go.  In the same backpack that carries Harry Potter, you will always find a game or two.  Monster can play about 7 games in our house, and they are always littered throughout the house as he plays them at least three times a day.  His favorites are Toy Story Yahtzee, Headbands and Spot It Junior.  If the day is super nice, we just take a blanket outside and play in our amazing backyard.

When the little kids go to bed, Kevin and I invite the two older girls to the table and we play some of the strategic games that are a little too hard for the littles.  We are a super competitive family, so sometimes someone goes to bed a little grouchy because they got cremated during a nightly game.  It's been wonderful to truly spend time together and find things to do that strengthen our relationship as a family.  I love my family so much.  I have the best kids ever!

A 'Rona Hike to Rapunzel's Tower

Because of the Coronavirus, the current law restricts travel to 30 km from our place of residence.  We found a really neat hike in Kaiserslautern, just 23 km from our house.  We called it the Rapunzel Tower hike, because when the kids saw a picture of the tower, they said it must be her tower because it looks just like it.  Finding parking was super easy because there is an open parking lot right next to the trail head.  The hike was labeled ingeniously by painting a picture of the tower on trees to show the correct direction.  It was a beautiful day and perfect weather for hiking.  At the start of the hike in the shade of the trees, Monster was cold, so I gave him my running sweater, and he wore it like a dress, but was happy to be warm.

It only took us about 40 minutes to hike through the forest to get to the tower.  The trail was super beautiful was birds chirping everywhere.  The path was easy for all the kids.  It was an incline the entire hike, but since the kids knew it was only about 30 minutes, they didn't complain.  One crazy thing that we saw on the hike was a huge hole.  The older girls called it a crater, but it looked more like a sink hole.  It was huge and a tree was growing right in the middle of the hole.  Maybe it was an old bombed out section that grew back over all these years, who knows.

The tower just pops right out of the middle of the forest, literally in the middle of nowhere.  We were all surprised when it just suddenly came into view.  The kids all ran to the tower, excited to explore.  We had packed a picnic lunch, and it was almost 1:00 and the kids were pretty hungry.  We all decided it would be better to eat lunch, then walk up to the top of the tower.

After filling our tummies with sandwiches, veggies, fruit and pastries from our local bakery (which Kevin and the two older girls picked out right before we left), the kids and I went to explore the tower.  We found out that the tower is actually called Humbergturm and is 118 feet tall with 130 steps.  It was built in 1899 as an observation tower.  This same tower was used in the first World War as an air traffic observation tower and an air communication squad was stationed here.

We took the spiral staircase up the tower to the very top observation deck.  Originally the plan was that I would take Big Sis and Little A, then Kevin would take M&M and Monster.  Little A was a little scared of the stairs since they were super skinny on the inside and just went on forever.  There wasn't any light in the stairwell, the only light was from a few windows every few flights of stairs.

We made it to the top and were rewarded with a spectacular view of Kaiserslautern.  The top of the tower just wrapped around in a small circle all the way around the tower, giving us a full view of everything around us.  As Big Sis and I were enjoying the view, Little A walks around and had a super confused look on her face.  After asking her what's wrong, she expressed her concern that there isn't a room up here, and there isn't any place to stay warm.  She asked how Rapunzel was able to get things done and make food and sleep since there wasn't a bedroom.  I had to explain to her that it really wasn't Rapunzels Tower, we just called it that because it looked like it.  She nods her head and says, "I understand mom, but I think you are wrong.  I think this was her tower, maybe the room is in a secret place so people can't steal her hair." What a cutie.  We start walking down the staircase and start hearing the loud voices of M&M and Monster.  We meet up with them and M&M says that Kevin wants us all at the top so he can get a picture.  So, we walk back up to the top.  The kids and I look over the railing at Kevin, who is way way way down below and a super small dot, so he can take a picture.  You can barely see us in the picture looking out over the edge.  We then very carefully make our way down.  Big Sis holds Little A's hand, and I hold Monster's hand.

After we get back down the tower, we all spend about an hour playing in the open space in front of the tower.  The kids brought a frisbee and a bullet ball to throw around.  We enjoy the vitamin D from the sun rays and each other's company.  After the kids are tired, we sit back down on the blanket and read a little bit of Harry Potter.  It was an amazingly beautiful and relaxing afternoon.

We packed up our bags, and made the hike back to the car.  The hike down was faster, with all the girls jumping on rocks and talking excitedly as they walked down the path.  It was so green and alive in the forest, and Kevin and I just smiled and we walked hand in hand watching the kids as they joyfully walked together.

Mountain Biking as a Social Isolated Family to Landstuhl Castle

The kids really wanted to try a new bike path today.  Big Sis and M&M have been wanting to bike up to the Landstuhl Castle, but Kevin and I didn't think the two littles would be able to make the ride.  The first mile of the trail is completely uphill, and Little A has a hard time just going on a straight path for 5 miles.  After talking to the kids, they all wanted to try, even Little A. Kevin and I didn't mind the change up and challenge, plus we figured if it got too hard we could just get off the bikes and walk up the hill. We decided to call it a 'BikeHike'. So we set off up the steep hill towards the castle.  I was so surprised because Little A made it up about half a mile before she completely fell apart.  What would have taken us about 20 minutes to walk, took only about 10 minutes to bike, we totally just cut our time in half.  I got off my bike too and walked beside Little A.  We talked about how much faster that was and about how very good she did.  We really only have the one uphill, the rest of the ride to the castle is small rolling hills and some flat parts.  Once we got past the big uphill, we all got on our bikes again and rode the rest of the way to the castle.  We had a choice to go through a residential area or up a big hill in the forest behind the houses. For Little A's sake we chose the residential street.  I'm glad we did because it was all flat, except the last part to the castle was a steep downhill.  All the kids had fun zooming down the hill.  We got to the castle and rode around to the side of the castle and just let the kids explore the outside of the castle for a while. We couldn't go in the castle because it is closed due to COVID-19.

  

We found a large grass area on the furthest side of the castle and made camp there.  We brought everything for a picnic, except the blanket.  One of the kids were in charge of packing the picnic blanket, and they sort of spaced it, so we sat on our jackets or the grass.  Luckily the grass wasn't wet and it was soft enough to sit on.  We got super lucky, because the weather was so perfect for a picnic. The kids all talked about their ride and how great it was.

As a family we have been reading Harry Potter, and we are now on book 4, The Goblet of Fire.  I brought the book and read to the kids for a while.  It has been so fun reading the books together as a family.  Little A especially loves hearing the story because she hasn't read it before. It has been fun to read them again, because I have only read the books once when they first came out, and there is so much detail in the books that I have forgotten.  I really do love the books a million times better then the movies.  That might be another reason Little A has loved reading the books too, I promised that after we finish a book, we can watch that movie as a family.

We spent a little over an hour just relaxing in the shade of the trees on the side of the castle.  It was a great use of family time, and we were so blessed with perfect weather and the beautiful scenery.  We loaded the backpacks back up and set off through the castle gate to make our way home.

On the ride home we decided to take the all forest trail home.  The beginning section just after leaving the castle was everyone's favorite.  We rode on a narrow trail that was downhill.  It was pure mountain biking and it was a blast.  All the kids were whooping and hollering.  We then hit about two pretty big uphills.  Little A was not happy at all with the hills and started complaining that her bike was not working right. When that excuse didn't work with me, she started blaming her legs, saying they weren't working right.  She and I ended up walking both the hills up.  We got past the hills and had some pretty flat sections for about half a mile. When we were about a mile from the house, I was a little way in front of Little A when I hear a skid and a howl.  I stop quickly and turn around to find her under her bike and on the floor crying.  We had reached a section of loose gravel, and her bike had slipped out from underneath her and she slid with the bike and fell off scraping up her poor knee.  She had a few pretty good gashes on her knee that were bleeding.  I didn't have the backpack, because Kevin and the older girls had left us in the dust a while ago.  My brave Little A, got back up on her bike bleeding and all and whimpered her way home.  Since we were on the last mile, it was all downhill the entire way home.  That helped her to keep going, knowing she really wouldn't have to pedal, and she wouldn't have any hills to walk up.  About half a mile down, there is an arm gate that keeps cars off the path, and poor Little A miscalculated the space and hit her handle bars on the gate and once again fell off her bike.  This time she scraped up her other knee.  The poor thing had huge crocodile tear and two bleeding knees by the time we got home, but she got back on her bike both times she fell, I am super proud of her.  We got her all cleaned up, and she said even though she got all banged up, she still had a really good time.  I am so proud of her, she did something really hard today, and got beat up in the process.  She proudly explained, "Mom, I can do hard things!"  That's my girl!

Finding Family Joy in Service during COVID Quarantine

This is Little A and we made masks for people.  The masks were purple.  What I did was cut the fabric and poked out the corners.  We made them because hospitals are running out of masks.  I had a great day.  For Come Follow Me, King Benjamin said if we serve others we are serving God.  I felt really really happy serving others and serving God.

This is Heather and I just wanted to add a little bit more to what Little A said.  I found out that there was a shortage of masks and material and a call was made out that anyone who is able to sew to help sew masks.  They needed the masks in about 3 days, and a nonprofit organisation would provide all the material, they just needed sewers.  Since I have two sewing machines and three girls in my house that can sew, we took on the challenge.  Everyone in the family wanted to help, so we took an entire day to make 40 purple masks.

Kevin had the day off, so he even sat down and helped.  He and Little A cut the material, I pinned the masks together, Big Sis and M&M sewed the masks together, while Little A would poke out the covers and turn them inside out.  I would then jump over to the iron and Big Sis would help me iron the pleats, then M&M would top sew the entire thing.  With everyone helping, we were a machine.  It was great to serve as a family.

We have been trying to think of small ways to serve those that are around us, but still keep the social distance rules and laws.  Another project that we did to help others know they are loved, is make them a little treat and drop it off on their door steps.  I'm going to let Little A continue with her story of service.  This is Little A and me and my family made COVID Monsters.  We made them to serve others.  We made them out of toilet paper rolls and we painted them.  I painted mine yellow, blue, purple, and red.  

Then we let them dry and then put eyes, mouth and hands on them and we got bags to put candy in.  We put lots and lots of candy in them and we put the bags in the monsters.  

We made cards for our friends, we wrote in the cards, "Hi guys, we hope you're making it through the Corona Monster well.  We miss you guys."  We had a good time seeing our friends from the car.  I had a good day.