When my firstborn son was a toddler, I had a particularly memorable bad dream. I was with a small group of familiar faces. In the way that only makes sense in dreams, we knew we needed to get to a certain destination and we were headed in that (ambiguous) direction. Determined though we were, around every corner of our journey we were met by another life-threatening obstacle. Quicksand, falling rocks, medieval weaponry—the obstacles became more and more terrifying and relentless. In the dream, I remember feeling real fear. I also began to dread the next turn in the journey because I knew something else was coming, most likely more awful than the previous passage.

Certain moments and seasons of life require that we stay home more than is typical. In my case, more than me or my people would like! Staying in because of inclement weather, illness, or any other reason typically requires a bit more creativity in keeping young troops from getting too restless. Sometimes I struggle to drum up this creativity. I am so thankful for the myriad of free, online education resources and activities available, but I do occasionally find myself slipping into what feels like a black hole of trying to find the right activities. So I asked three Kindergarten teachers what activities they recommend for parents and preschoolers spending extra time at home. Here are some of their suggestions, along with related links that I've sifted through...

I typically let my kids pick out what books we read at bedtime each evening (I hold veto power over their choices if it's longer than I have the energy for). One of their go-to picks these days is the Little Golden Book classic Home For a Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown (author of the classics Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny). A cute story about a bunny in search of a proper place for himself, this book's first pages accurately sum up how I feel about this time of year: