Mom to Mom

[1Snickers]

 In several neighborhoods nearby and mine there is a chat line and people are putting a teddy bear in an inside window. 🐻 

  When parents are taking their children for a walk they search for the bears. It makes the exercise more fun!

 The Moms know where the bears are so can include those houses. I saw some on a bench.
  I'm putting some in an upstairs balcony window waving to the kids! 🐻 

[Kachina624]

They're doing that here too, but having no children, I didn't know what the object of the game was.

[teainlondon]

Rainbows in our neighborhood. People used colored chalk and drew raibows in the driveway or painted a rainbow and put it in the window or colored a rainbow and tacked it to a tree. Kids had maps of the neighborhood and keeping social distance they went around and found the rainbows. It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday and gave the kids something to do and let them enjoy being outside while following the virus rules. I think a lot of neighbothoods are doing different activites to keep people connected from a distance. I wish we'd do something different every few weeks.

tea

[Lucylu12]

Started doing it our neighborhood in Georgia also🧸

[Shanus]

Oh Rats. All the kids in our neighborhood are teenagers or older...I love these ideas. 

[tucsongal]

I put a little bear up yesterday, keep watching for someone to walk by 🙂. 

[Tangocash]

I just put up a picture, of a teddy bear, that I found on the internet, in my front window, and the back window, just in case others are doing it.

[daisysmom09]

In our neighbor hood the website Neighborhood Nextdoor had the following ideas for entertaining small kids who were outside for a walk or even driving around.1) For several blocks neighbors put the teddy bears in their windows ( and it could be any stuffed animal) so that the kids could count how many they found. One man hung 3 stuffed bears hangiing on a rope from a branch on a tree --sooo cute. 2) others are doing "rock art" and take small to medium rocks and paint them with acrilyc paint and then set them in people's yards near the sidewalk for the kids to find--they could be plaIn colors or with pictures and sayings. 3) One lady put a bunch of pink flamingoes all over her yard ---so funny! 4) Other adults and kids are doing chalk art on the sidewalk --all kinds--for kids to find.5) Some neighbors come out of their houses at the same time each evening and either sing the same song  or clap for the EMS workers and healthcare provides as a tribute. Also video conferencing with groups of frends or family at a time so that they can stay in touch.

I love Neighborhood Nextdoor as a way of staying in touch with your extended neighborhood. You just go to Google and put in the Nextdoor name for their website and put in your zip code and you are hooked up with the neighbors in your extended neighborhood. It is free. You may never see the person in your life but we become fast friends. You get a message like " I lost my dog--can you help me find it at such and such a street corner." So many pets are found that way. People get in their car and drive all over looking for the pet. Or it may be a message like do you know of a good car mechanic, or they list lots of free stuff that people can come and pick up at their house outside. The topic can be anything that a neighbor can help you out with especially spotting a suspicious person in the neighborhood. Several households are making masks at home from tutorials they find on You-Tube. It is not just the N-95 masks that people need, but for folks who are on chemotherapy or have compromised immune systems. One lady posted a joke today that said, "I am so excited about taking the trash out today--what should I wear?" Of course there were all kinds of funny responses. There are so many sweet and kind neighbors. Some are helping invalids get their groceries deliverd to their door after shoppng for them, Others are doing babysitting. --carefully of course within our guidlines for safety. Just thought these Ideas could be encouraging especially finding new thing to do with small children.