Having had my grandson all week has given me an opportunity to stretch my creative muscles in new ways. These are trying times. Many of you are feeling the distress of realizing there is nowhere to go. No aquariums, no museums, no playgrounds, no libraries, no schools, no breakfast outings or even time at the beach. Our children are struggling to comprehend the nature of this sudden change.

I’ve tried to think of projects and activities to entertain him. Although not all of them were winners. I wanted to share with you something we did that was a hit.

I think if we can help each other with ideas to implement, there is much to gain. So for some of my next few blogs, I’d like to share some of these hits. (If I come up with any more)

We did an activity called “rock investigations”. He is almost 4. The investigation part was a big word for him, which he loved saying. I believe this activity reaches from toddler and beyond.

I had some river rocks in my yard. We made multiple trips to deposit them in a bucket. We added water to watch them change and shine. We gave them a bubble bath with dish detergent. We sorted them by color. Then by size and shape. We chose what was most interesting. We watched them dry in the sun and morph again.

We arranged them in circles, in squares. We put little farm animals in their respective handmade rock enclosures.

We found an extra-large one and took out some paint to decorate him. He looked like a baked potato who was crying out for a set of googly eyes.

I enjoyed it as much as he did.

Not everything was as much of a winner as this activity.

I think it was the element of nature that pushed it toward the top of the favorite activity pile.

Perhaps we have overlooked this kind of natural fun for far too long. I believe connecting with the earth was a great comfort.