Plus, growing garlic in a can; ‘normalizing’ a face mask; an amazing gorilla webcam
|  | Sunday, May 3, 2020 | | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY FSTOP123, GETTY IMAGES | | By Rachel Buchholz, KIDS AND FAMILY Editor in Chief
Apparently I’ve been training for this moment since childhood.
Running out of streaming video series to watch? Hah. On Monday nights my sister and I fought over watching Little House on the Prairie versus The Bionic Woman because if we missed an episode, well, too bad. Tired of video games and not being able to venture farther than a few blocks? Please. Any utterance of “I’m bored” was met with a sharp parental side-eye and a choice between reading a book or folding laundry.
Yes, some of us are feeling pretty proud of ourselves right about now as we tout our ability to stay home, social distance, and do for ourselves. After all, we latchkey kids were putting casseroles in the oven and sewing buttons on shirts when we were barely out of grade school. And it turns out that doing things that my 11-year-old self considered totally unfair were actually lessons that would serve me for life.
Parents from all generations are now embracing that thinking as we continue to face long hours together at home. It’s especially true as parents realize that trying to be their child’s stay-at-home teacher is, well, hard. (After all, you are likely not an algebra or sentence-diagraming expert.)
Instead, “think about what you are set up to do: what you know a lot about,” Daniel Willingham, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, tells Nat Geo’s Jenny Marder in an article about teaching life skills. Gardening, auto mechanics, cooking, and, yes, sewing are just a few of the lessons parents are finding themselves totally equipped to teach—and things their kids actually want to learn.
Well, maybe not the folding laundry part.
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 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY CATHERINE KARNOW | | Take a shot: Just because your family can’t travel now doesn’t mean they aren’t able to explore. With tips from Nat Geo photographers, your kids can explore what’s right in front of them instead. “What seems utterly ordinary to you is in fact a slice of the cultural life of your world,” Nat Geo photographer Catherine Karnow says. The dog’s secret space, a little sister’s foot, even a staircase banister can bring new perspectives to your stay-at-home life.
You don’t need a garden to garden: Try growing garlic in a can. Or growing celery from the bottom of the bunch (all you need is a bowl). These are just two ideas from The Spruce. To the tougher question (what is celery for?), we’d answer: A crunchy companion to a) peanut butter, b) cream cheese, c) stir fry. What else are you growing? Let us know!
Don’t blame the teacher: They’re learning online learning, too. And they can only go so far with individualized messaging. Your curator’s sister, a longtime science teacher, recommends: Make sure kids ask questions in their own words in an internal discussion, and the teacher may respond with an answer to the whole group. For younger students, maybe a parent could help in framing the question. For high school seniors and college students, here are a few silver linings.
Family discussion: What if your kid doesn’t want to wear a mask? What if the neighbors’ kids just went to the recently reopened restaurant your family loves? What do you say without channelling your parents’ lame retort that “if Johnny jumped off a cliff, would you?” While it is true that few of the 60,000-plus people killed by COVID-19 are kids, your family might be susceptible with underlying health conditions such as asthma or diabetes. The bigger issue to communicate: What about other people? You could make them sick just by being in contact with them, or carry a sick person’s virus to other people you love. Dr. Aaron Millstone of Johns Hopkins says (and we know this is tough after weeks being cooped up): “If you feel calm and prepared, they are likely to feel similarly.”
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 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY BENJAMIN RASMUSSEN | |
Limit your Zoom (if you can): While your kids may enjoy Zoom calls with friends, you may be feeling deluged with video conferencing work calls. That overwhelmed feeling is normal, researchers say. Human beings look for visual cues, and a video call raises expectation of a level of communication that may be exhausting for work-at-home workers (and may hurt productivity). Maybe this article is worth distributing to work colleagues. Note: On old-fashioned audio calls, expectations are lowered, and the brain often relaxes.
Celebrating milestones (or just making them up): We celebrated a friend’s birthday by making cheesecake cupcakes and delivering them. They stayed on the patio and we took two folding lawn chairs to sit in the grass a safe distance away. We marked another birthday with a long-distance call while on a virtual “joint” walk around our respective neighborhoods. This is a great time to remember and invent “milestones” with family and friends to make each day distinctive.
What's your fam like? But how do you make each day distinctive for your particular family? Well, here’s one way to start, even if it’s a little surface-y: A just-for-fun personality quiz. If all else fails, and the day threatens to be a total washout, our Animals editor, Rachael Bale, suggests gorillas ... well, this particular gorilla webcam.
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| TRY THIS: BOREDOM BUSTERS FOR KIDS | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY KEVIN KOZICKI, GETTY IMAGES | | | |
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