Social Distancing Scavenger Hunt

In our little neighborhood in Cambridge in the UK, my children have a nice group of friends that they enjoy playing with after school and on the weekends. As for many children in the world at the moment, social distancing has been very difficult for them. Other than saying hello from a window or on a computer screen, they have not been able to play with their friends in two weeks and probably won't be able to for three months.

In order to make this time a little easier and to give them an indirect way to connect with the neighbor kids, my neighbor Michelle and I decided to start the Social Distancing Scavenger Hunt.

1. Getting started
In order to get prepared, the kids and I first picked up some large rocks on our morning walk, took them home, and then painted them. One of my boys painted dinosaur fossils on his rocks, my youngest just painted them with different colors, and my middle child had some funny ideas. I also painted a couple, including the very simple sleeping rock which is covered in the letter z. Once the rocks were finished, we put a sealer on them.

2. Hiding rocks
Then, on our next walk, we chose 8 large rocks to hide along the way and as we hid them we thought about clues and wrote them down. For example, one rock has the word "rabbit" written in brown on it. This rock we hid under a large white round sculpture in the dog park. The clue was, "Find the brown rabbit under the white planet." Another rock we hid close to the playground and made finding it like in a pirate's story, "go four paces forward, then five to the right..." Sometimes we made references to landmarks or street signs. It was fun making the clues. The final rock was put by our doorstep and I told my friend to ring the doorbell and we could say hi from the window. Then it was her turn to place the rocks and think up clues.

3. Precautions
If you are worried about cross-contamination and catching Covid19 when picking up the rocks, you can use an inverted plastic bag to pick them up (as if you were picking up after your dog). If you coat the rocks with clear nail polish or a good coat of sealant, then you can also wash them with soap and water. Make sure you always wash your hands when you come back inside.

I think you'll find that the more often you do a scavenger hunt with the same people, the more difficult you can make the clues and hiding places. I hope that you enjoy this idea. Please let me know what other ideas you have! Stay safe!

By the way, if this is your first time on my blog. Please check out my previous post about a children's book that I wrote and illustrated to help ease children's fears during this time. It's called The Day the Lines Changed and all proceeds go to Covid19 charities. For more info, see my website kelleydonner.com.

The Day the Lines Changed

The past two weeks, my children have asked a lot of questions about what the Coronavirus is, how it travels, where it came from, whether their grandparents will be okay, and why they can’t go to school. Sometimes their questions are really complex and I realize just how much their little brains are trying to wrap their heads around what is going on. My husband and I are trying to limit the amount of negative Coronavirus talk that we do in front of them. They don’t need to know how many people died in Italy today or worry about whether the British health system will fall apart. However, they do want the big picture and a lot of the info about the Coronavirus is way to abstract for a small child to understand.

Last weekend, while all of these thoughts were circulating in my head, I had a moment of inspiration. An idea for a picture book popped into my head and wouldn’t leave me alone. As always when I get some crazy, creative idea, my brain became obsessed with it and the following day I spent every second I could get writing, tearing paper and scanning and then threw everything into Photoshop and InDesign. What became of this is a story called The Day the Lines Changed.

Carefree and happy, the green line lives together with her family, goes to school during the week, and on weekends visits the town square. Then one day some of the orange and purple lines begin to turn crooked and suddenly, everything is different for the green line and her family. Just as the green line begins to worry if her own family might turn crooked, one line makes a fantastic discovery which changes the lives of the lines forever.

Excerpt from book: first page

After sending around the story to some family and friends, and getting positive feedback, I decided I needed to share it with others. I realized that teachers, parents, and caregivers need resources right now to help them explain to children what a pandemic is, while still giving children a much needed positive view of the future. Therefore, I hope that this story will help to make those difficult conversations with children about the Coronavirus at the moment a little bit easier.

Excerpt: beginning of book

My family has been very lucky. My husband has a job that has not been affected much by the lockdown. Although I find trying to do a full time Masters while homeschooling my kids at the same kitchen table difficult, I understand that many others have far worse things to deal with at the moment. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for so many people affected by personal loss or dealing with financial insecurity. I would feel very uncomfortable making a profit from this book.  Therefore, I have decided to give 100% of the profits through the end of April to Covid-19 charities.

Excerpt: middle of book

I appreciate all of the support from those who read my blog. Could you please help me in getting the word out and post to your social media about The Day the Lines Changed. It is currently on most Amazon marketplaces (see links below)

Together, we can help to make this time a bit easier for children to process, ease their worries, and let them enjoy just being young.

Buy on Amazon.co.uk

Buy on Amazon.com
Go to website and read more 

Keywords: Coronavirus, children's book, Covid19, pandemic, children's book about Coronavirus, picture book about Coronavirus