Anne Giangiulio is a graphic designer and UTEP professor. Via social media, I’ve been observing her naviagate her new normal of teaching graphic design from home all while keeping her kids busy…they’re getting pretty crafty over there.
I asked her to share some of the fun projects she and her kids are creating these days. (El Paso) Love in the time of Coronavirus, or how to #StayHome, keep your kids busy and keep your sanity while in isolation.
Non-computer/non-electronic activities:
• Go visit the El Paso poppies in the Northeast before they are out of bloom! Park in the Archeology Museum lot or google map it to Chuck Heinrich Park.
• Chalk encouraging messages on your home sidewalk (or driveway, or complex courtyard, etc.) for neighbors to see.
• Backyard Olympics—using random stuff you have at home (jump over this box!) - tie cans to strings and use as stilts, carry a ping pong or golf ball or balled up piece of paper on a spoon and see who can win the race without it falling off, go back and restart if it does.
• Actually teach your kids to make their beds first thing when they wake up. If their bed is against the wall, they can have fun laying across the bed and shoving the sheets in.
• Older kids read to younger kids
• Chess and checkers!
• Puzzles and board games
• Play piano
• Make stuff out of boxes
• Train your pets to do tricks (have treats on hand!)
• Clean and organize closets and drawers (make up bags to give to Savers or identify friends or family to give hand-me-downs or other household items)
• Workbooks from the Dollar Store
• Origami! (so many websites)
• Make a mobile from sticks or plastic straws. Hang things from it using different lengths of string
• Make “healthy mom lunchables”—place little things in sections of their plate, like turkey, cheese, almonds, berries on a bed of lettuce, fruit, etc.
• Peanut butter and banana burritos!
• Have kids help you cook dinner!
• Teach them Roman Numerals!
• Teach them the sign language alphabet!
Online Resources:
• Our fave is simply the El Paso Public Library. You need a library card to utilize all their online resources.
Go to:
• http://www.elpasolibrary.org/
• Click on “My EPPL” in blue strip at top of screen
• Click on “Log in” at top of screen (to the right of the library logo)
• Enter in your library card Number (from the back of your card) and your PIN. If you’ve never done this before, or need a card, click “Need a Library Card? Register Here”
• If you are able to login, use the drop-down menu (that says “everything”, click it downward), and choose the very bottom option in the drop-down menu: “downloadable”, the you can search within that same green bar’s other fields either by the title of the book you want, author, etc.
• When the search results appear, you see a link within each that says “Click here to access Overdrive materials
• You can then click the “borrow” button. You will be asked to enter your library card # and pin again.
• You decide to either download the book, or read it directly from your device’s browser window (phone or computer). If you choose the latter, you simply swipe left or right to turn the pages of the book.
• Once you have books “checked out” with Overdrive, you’ll receive emails telling you if it’s time to renew, etc.
• Lunchtime Doodles with Mo Willems. If you’re not aware, Willems is perhaps best known as the writer/illustrator of the Don’t Let the Pigeon… books, and many others. Here, he lets kids in on his secrets of creating fun characters.
https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/mo-willems/, or you can search for “Lunchtime Doodles with Mo Willems” within YouTube. You’ll only need paper and coloring supplies.
• Instagram video chat with goofy effects
• Join the Facebook page: MOB—Families of El Paso (formerly Moms on Board) for great tipe multiple times of day.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/315001342278731/
• Local storyteller Joe Hayes has a YouTube channel—it’s bilingual. Just go to YouTube and enter his name into its search engine. You’ll find his stories in both English & Spanish.
• The El Paso Zoo Facebook page does their “Sofa Safari” Facebook Live events Weekdays at 10:00am & 2:00pm where you can watch them feed and exercise different animals around the zoo.
• GoNoodle on Youtube for kids to dance and parents to work out
Coding apps and websites: (I did Codemoji and Code Combat with my 6-year old)
https://codewizardshq.com/coding-for-kids-free/?fbclid=IwAR1wtGEf-C2bQElf1ajblW8G1-2AuC9omFzIDI09aKQDa6KZDo5mMJSlLkI
• Slow audio fairy Tales in Spanish:
https://www.thefablecottage.com/spanish?fbclid=IwAR2ZpeaMSMHFHR5X9XAhmb6wvPeugztv7_aulPcR4QVPqboMo9dDp7dQFTA
• Walt Disney Imagineering Partners With Khan Academy To Bring You ‘Imagineering in a Box’:
https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2019/08/walt-disney-imagineering-partners-with-khan-academy-to-bring-you-imagineering-in-a-box/?fbclid=IwAR2ZE5T_PqJKDuwXkHR5wy0F-5JVPX4KagUXeNNTAegP0qwTYGPSqOKA1TI
• Free virtual tours of the Paris catacombs & the Winchester Mystery House:
https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/322066/housebound-horror-fans-can-take-a-virtual-tour-of-the-paris-catacombs/
• Take the U.S. Census together! It just takes 10 minutes to complete.
https://2020census.gov/en/ways-to-respond.html
• Audible just made hundreds of titles completely free to help during coronavirus crisis
https://www.radiotimes.com/news/radio/2020-03-20/audible-just-made-hundreds-of-titles-completely-free-to-help-during-coronavirus-crisis/?fbclid=IwAR36hwBRypnTd15b9CrQznUyJ301LDdUaRspknBH840VAZEvzceGydciAeU
“Asrtsy" Stuff:
• Free Ballet and Opera to Watch:
https://secretldn.com/royal-opera-house-free-performances/?fbclid=IwAR3DbOyNYWPrWrbe0wojt7ux5ZHBVKEQFH9sZJlr3eteDLsjTmadkc-hlx0
• 45 places you can download tens of thousands books, plays and other literary texts completely legally for free:
https://nothingintherulebook.com/2017/01/10/55-places-you-can-download-tens-of-thousands-books-plays-and-other-literary-texts-completely-legally-for-free/?fbclid=IwAR0Et20IZSUn74ZngF_InCGVQoNj17w5k-M_Q9o35W-ZoE-QN225z2VzLoA
• 10 Binge-Worthy Art Podcasts in the Age of Coronavirus
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/arts/design/art-podcasts-coronavirus.html?fbclid=IwAR3dbHMT4740F-YEGPuoBfy0mxAj2oiP87D1Hw99kKgP8CyLa8mBDHNtyvQ
• Tour the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, watch Russian Ark:
www.openculture.com/2020/03/a-5-hour-one-take-cinematic-journey-through-russias-hermitage-museum-shot-entirely-on-an-iphone.html?fbclid=IwAR3T_C32LQOlY2pUTClJbPGbsmXdMgApQTcib2RYsyXs0y_77frx_MO7BdY
• Check out the Bauhaus show at the Getty:
https://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/exhibitions/bauhaus/new_artist/index.html
Shows & Movies to watch:
• Queer Eye, YES! Queer Eye. It is SO positive and the entire family can truly enjoy it—when does THAT ever happen!?
• The Short Game A documentary about kids that are on the semi-pro golf tournament circuit. It’s ADORABLE. Players from France to South Africa come together to play in the U.S. and make new friends, learn sportsmanship and work really hard.
• Microcosms A wordless documentary about bugs on Amazon Prime.
• Nature, on PBS ANY episode is great. We recently watched Leave it to Beavers and it blew my mind.
• JoJo Rabbit with our 12-year-old, only because I know she is well versed on WW2, Hitler, and the holocaust. They did a whole unit this past year at school on the works of Elie Wiesel, read the Diary of Anne Frank, culminating in a field trip to the El Paso Holocaust Museum, etc.
• Moviemom.com: Neil Minnow recommendations on all good things from kids to watch
• PBS kids shows (Odd Squad is a fave with our 6-year-old)
Originally Broadcast on March 28, 2020
