Spring Break Spirit Week: Enjoying Life in the Midst of Uncertainty

I live with my family in Northern Italy, essentially ground zero for the Coronavirus. I’m not going to lie—some days are hard—but we are adamant about finding the joys and the silver linings all around us. We are going into our fifth week of schooling from home and each week, while the “schooling” portion of it gets progressively easier to navigate, the restrictions and mandates by the Italian government get harder and harder. We are quarantined, and if I am honest, this is not how I planned to spend our final months in Europe.

DoDEA Europe hasn’t even gotten to Spring Break yet—we have two more weeks before we dive headfirst into staring at each other without the distraction, continuity, and structure of school. As I laid in bed last night after Italy imposed more necessary and important restrictions, I tossed and turned worrying about all the things I know I can’t control. I started fretting about how we are going to amuse two children for 10 days of Spring Break. I mean, there are only so many movies, Netflix, board games, and books that we can tolerate before we pull our hair out. But then suddenly, I was inspired!

Ready? Over Spring Break we are going to have Spirit Week! Every day, we are going to have a theme and base movies, activities, crafts, and fun around the theme.

Day 1: Sports Day

Everyone can wear their favorite sports gear, and it’s a day full of board games, an obstacle course in the backyard (the place where we can legally still be outside of our house), and a menu of game day food. I don’t know who is more excited for this one—the hubby or myself.

Day 2: Let Your Inner Artist Shine

Get creative and have a blast exploring different types of art projects. We don’t have a ton of artsy items at the house since we moved to Europe, but we can play around with chalks, oil pastels, watercolors, and regular paints, and create art projects to hang around the house. Maybe we can even make suncatchers for the windows and press flowers that are in bloom into bookmarks. I always save one kind of craft my kids make: anything that includes their little hand prints. I’m guessing I will incorporate handprints into the day’s activities as well.

Day 3: Child of the ’80’s!

Obviously, this doesn’t apply to my kids, but my husband and I were born in the early ’80’s so we thought it would be fun to dress the part and introduce the kids to classic metal and pop from that decade. I mean, seriously, I’m failing my children if they don’t know all the words to “Walking on Sunshine” or ‘Walk Like an Egyptian!” We have some awesome ’80’s movies we been waiting to show the kids and topping it off with a troll hair art craft, pin the shades on Ferris game, and pop rocks painting.

Day 4: Tourist Day

Each person in the family has to come with their favorite place we have traveled since we have been in Europe. You have to research a bit and tell the rest of the family about the place you chose and why. Since Mommy knows all the things, I can do a little pre-planning and can find crafts, activities, games, or little extras that go along with each person’s location. For me, my favorite place has been Scotland, so I will make short bread cookies for everyone and we will make our own thistle, the flower of Scotland.

Day 5: Your Favorite Childhood Book

We all have that one book we just loved to read as kids or love to read to our kids, so this day my family will each pick their favorite book, dress up however they think their favorite character would dress (obviously with only what’s available at our house), and share the book with the rest of the family. If it’s short enough, we can take turns reading the book aloud to each other. My son’s favorite is Harry Potter, so it’s not practical for him to read the entire book, but he can read his favorite part and share what the book is about. Then, we can make Harry Potter chevron tie bookmarks since we are all in different Hogwarts houses.

While we’ll have to stay cooped up in the house instead of traveling over Spring Break, we can at least find some fun and togetherness to make the most of it. How will you Spring Break? Let us know in the comments!