As spring blooms, many parents of young children, especially parents who work remotely, are looking for inexpensive ways to keep their children engaged at home.

Have a teddy bear picnic

Spring is the perfect season for picnics, and you can have them right in your backyard. To make yours extra special, have your child bring their teddy bears or other favorite stuffed animals on the picnic. Pack a basket just for the bears with a blanket, napkins, pretend food, and plastic plates and teacups. You and your child can have fun “talking for” their furry friends and imagining their picnic conversations.

Create (and send!) flower cards

This notecard activity helps kids practice fine motor and social skills, and it’s a creative way to stay in touch with faraway family and friends. Collect small and delicate wildflowers from your backyard. Show children how to place the flowers between sheets of paper towels or newspaper and then lay them between heavy books. Give the flowers a few days to dry and flatten out and then work with your child to glue your pretty dried-flower creations to pieces of folded card stock. Help your child write a special message inside one or more of the cards and send them off to grandparents or other loved ones.

Build a rainy-day hideaway

What was more fun than a hideaway or fort when you were little? When May showers put the brakes on backyard play, ask if your children would like to build a special hideaway. Have the children build a tent by draping old sheets or blankets over furniture. Once they make their tent, they can play in it, eat lunch inside it, or read books together with a flashlight.

String a flower garland

Make this spring-themed decoration with your child to sharpen fine motor skills. First, help your child cut small flowers out of colored paper and punch a hole in the center of each one. Then, cut some drinking straws into pieces and paint them. When you’ve got all the pieces ready, show your child how to string the flowers and straw/pasta pieces onto a long piece of string. You can show them how to make a simple pattern; flower, straw, flower, straw. When your child is done with the garland, hang it up on your door or inside the house to celebrate spring.

Read together every night

End your days at home together by snuggling up with your child for some shared reading. It’s one of the single most important activities you can do together. Choose some spring-themed books or select stories that feature characters struggling with challenges or difficult emotions. Kids might find this type of story especially reassuring at a time of uncertainty and upheaval. Engage your child while you read and ask them questions about the story and the characters’ feelings.

Written in collaboration with the Milford, CT FRC. For more information on child growth and development and family activities contact the Danbury Public School Office of Family, School, and Community Partnerships at 203-797-4734.

Anne E. Mead, Ed. D. is the director of Family, School, and Community Partnerships for Danbury Public Schools. She can be reached at 203-830-6508 or by email at meadan@danburyu.k12.ct.us.