Greetings! Watch this special message from yours truly for fun tips on how to make the best of your time at home…
Let’s Travel Together This Week
This year, Spring Break plans will look a little different than expected. I know most you had plans to go somewhere in the next few weeks. Maybe you were supposed to go to Europe or on a Caribbean Cruise, but now find yourself required to stay at home. This message is not meant to remind you of the scary facts that surround us today; but rather to find a silver lining or to find a positive twist to get through each day.
Let’s Stay-cation this week!
It has been no secret that my favorite place on earth is Italy. It is my goal to someday retire in a Tuscan Villa overlooking a vineyard where I can cook farm to table every day with the food that I either grow or purchase from the local market daily. For years now I have a ritual that, at least one night a week, I imagine that my kitchen here in Apex, North Carolina is actually in Tuscany. I clock off from work, head into the kitchen, put on the Italian music station on Pandora, pour myself a glass of wine, cut up a plate of delicious cheese and olives, and cook my pasta dinner using the same recipe that my Italian great-grandmother passed on to me. I look out my kitchen window, and instead of seeing a hundred pine trees in my yard, I see rows and rows of grape vines and cypress trees.
In my mind for that hour or so, I am transported to my “happy place”.
Why am I sharing this with you?
Because right now, we all need to take a “mental vacation”. Plan out your tour de world for the week. Each day go somewhere new. This can be just for dinner, or an all day escape. Especially if you have little one’s at home. Maybe pick a destination and learn about it together, discover games they play in that part of the world, and eat the food of that area. Watch youtube travel videos from that country. I have a suggested list below of 4 destinations you can explore virtually.
Day 1 – Mexico
- Best on Tuesday – aka Taco Tuesday
- Learn about the 9 different regions of Mexico
- Go on a virtual tour of Chichen Itza or discover the underground cenotes that dot the Riviera Maya
- KIDS CRAFT IDEA: Make your own pinata with a balloon, tissue paper and starch. Click link for instructions.
Day 2 – China
- Stir-fry for dinner!
- Take a Virtual Tour of The Great Wall of China Click link for tour.
- KIDS CRAFT IDEA: Discover zhezhi – The art of Chinese paper folding.
Day 3 – Italy
- Make Pasta From Scratch! Pour yourself a glass of wine and put on Italian Music. Pretend you are in the middle of a piazza watching the world go by.
- Take a Virtual Tour of The Colosseum in Rome Click link for tour.
- KIDS CRAFT IDEA: Make Venetian Masks
Day 4 – Go to the Beach
- Enjoy the outdoors in your backyard. Soak in the sun and get some vitamin D.
- Make lemonade or margaritas, and grill out for dinner.
- KIDS CRAFT IDEA: Build sand castles if you have a sand box. Take the classroom outside and look for nature in your back yard.
Share with us what creative things you are doing to change the scenery at home; and what you are doing to make the best of our current situation. Just remember, this too shall pass, and when it does, you will have learned of a few new places you will want to explore.