Covid-19 and Homeschooling at Home

All our weekly activities are officially cancelled. I’m betting yours are too. Are you now totally filled with dread at the prospect of having to stay cooped up at home separated from your social circle? I am. I need my external structure and regular access to people in order to stay well.

So to calm my nerves, I’m going to dust off a DIY summer camp guide I wrote in 2013 when I ran a totally different blog in Cambridge. We were broke back then too and since summer camp was off the table I wrote up a plan of themed activities, crafts, books and snacks for 10 weeks.

I’m going to share them with you here to help you survive at home while we all get through this period of social distancing. Maybe some structure to your days at home with your kids will help you too. In general this guide was originally written for younger elementary aged kids, but I’ll try to add things for people of all ages.

For each theme, I’ll write a single post and link them here as I write them. Here are the topics:

My original guide included several field trips for every week. I will only include out-of-the-home activities if they take you places where you won’t be in close contact with other people.

The Mayflower comes to Boston in May

The replica of the Mayflower is coming to Boston in May and you can get FREE tickets to take an on board tour! In our coop we just did a section on the Voyage of the Mayflower. If you too are studying our early colonial past, this is a perfect way to bring home the reality of the voyage, and just how difficult the conditions were on board for the passengers.

What: Tours of the replica of the Mayflower
Where: Charlestown Navy Yard
When: May 15-19, 2020
Why: To celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Voyage of the Mayflower
Cost: FREE (but timed entry tickets required)

Click here for details and to get tickets!

While you’re there, you can visit the USS Constitution ship for free, just be sure to bring valid ID. The USS Constitution Museum is admission by voluntary donation, which means free if you need it to be!

More MLK Jr. Day Free Admission – ISGM & The ICA

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is just around the corner from the MFA. Both museums are offering free admission and activities to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The Gardner limits the number of people in the museum at any given time, so it may be a better option for people who don’t want to deal with the crowds at the MFA on free days. Though you may have to wait in line before getting inside.

The museum opens at 11 AM, and MLK Jr. Day activities run 1-4 PM.

Join social justice project Wee The People for an interactive, family-friendly workshop that guides young and old in unlearning and reclaiming the legacy of MLK. Together we will explore MLK’s practice as a radical disruptor and honor his most important act of love: resistance. Activities include sign-making tributes to protest movements, a #ReclaimMLK photo booth, and timed acts of resistance inside the Museum.”
https://www.gardnermuseum.org/calendar/event/mlk-day-20200120

Free general admission to the Gardner is a rare occurrence. If your name is Isabella or your family is Active Duty in the military, you can get in free anytime. Children 17 and under are always free as well. EBT cardholders can get $2 admission for up to 4 adults. The BPL has a $5/person museum pass available that admits 4 people on weekdays, 2 people on weekends.

Update, January 16, 2020: I’m no longer recommending the ICA as a family destination.

The Institute of Contemporary Art in the Seaport is also offering free admission on Monday 10am to 5pm. One great feature of this free admission day is that there will be FREE, first-come first-served tickets for Yayoi Kusama: LOVE IS CALLING. Right now tickets are sold out through the end of the month, and ticket sales for February go on sale today (1/15/2020) at 10am. So if you want to see Yayoi Kusama’s exhibit and can’t get tickets, head over first thing to the ICA on Monday!

It doesn’t appear that they have any special MLK Jr. Day events, but the ICA is opening two new exhibits that day: Tschabalala Self: Out of Body + Carolina Caycedo.

The ICA is accessible by Silver Line Waterfront out of South Station. You can walk from either the World Trade Center stop or Courthouse. I do not recommend parking for BBHSers because of the expense. The ICA does not have its own parking lot, but you can find their recommendations for parking here.

Summer Plans – Community Boating, Near Charles/MGH

Community Boating Inc. has a 10-week Summer program for kids ages 10 to 17. Called the Junior Program, it offers lessons in sailing, canoeing, paddle-boarding and wind-surfing. They have STEM classes, games and activities through the season.

A group of tweens and instructors in life vests standing on a dock in the Charles River on a sunny summer day. There are sailboats in the background. — *First day of a beginner sailing class in 2018, source: BBHS*

Last year I sent my two for beginner sailing lessons and because of their extremely generous sliding scale program, they qualified for $1 memberships!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!! (Please pardon my excitement, our BBHS household doesn’t typically qualify for aid programs though we totally need them)

Anywhoo…the best way to describe the overall program is that it’s kind of like a Boys & Girls club where kids can come and go during open hours, no adults besides instructors are allowed inside during Junior Program, and there are specialty classes they can choose to take.

Once a kid passes their sailing tests they can check out various kinds of boats and go out on their own.

There are some drawback to this program you should be aware of. It’s not an easy thing to get to the CBI location. You have to take the pedestrian bridge over Storrow Drive and it’s a long walk. (I’m getting older and the walk over from train platform to CBI was really long for me.) There are no reliable cheap places to park near the pedestrian bridge. We saw many parents pull over near the base of the bridge and let their kids out to take themselves to CBI. This is fine for older kids, but might be tricky if your kids need accompaniment. Other families, like ours, took the T. Some kids take themselves to and from the train.

Another drawback – if you need to accompany your kids to and from – is what to do with yourself while they are there. If they go for the whole day, it’s not so hard because you can easily leave and have time to get things done before returning. But if they only go for the lessons, that’s 3 hours you have to fill for yourself. The West End branch of the BPL is reasonably close enough if you want a free place to be to get out from the sun and heat.

Registration for Summer 2020 has already begun. I whole-heartedly recommend this program!