More ideas on how to make “sheltering in place” fun and educational (including a special snail mail offer from us!)

Hello again friends of Fairyland,

Last week, Fairyland librarian, Angela Moffett, passed along some terrific, and free, educational resources to help you pass the time with your young children while sheltered in place. Today, thanks to suggestions from our community, we have even more.

Pen pal time!

1. First up, check out “Lunch Doodles,” a daily must-see video art series by Mo Willems, creator of children’s favorites like Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and Knuffle Bunny. As the Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence (as he quips, “I didn’t realize the most impactful word in that title would be ‘Residence’”), he’s teaching children how to draw and encourages them to post their art on social media with the hashtag #MoLunchDoodles. New episodes post each weekday at 10 a.m. PST. Thanks, Nancy F.!
2. Oakland Librarian Margaret Rodriguez shared this evolving list of libraries that are hosting online storytimes. The focus is on early literacy, particularly songs, rhymes, movement, and stories. You can also follow the hashtag #kidlitquarantine to find out about more children’s literature resources as they come to light. (P.S. Fairyland is working on bringing our Toddler Storytime online again soon.)
3. Last, but certainly not least, we have a special offer for the young children in our community. As we’ve mentioned before, Fairyland currently has a skeleton crew of essential staffers who take care of our animals, water our plants, and check our snail mail. So, we thought, “What if the children in our community could correspond with some of our ‘elves’?”
   
   So, here's the offer. We invite you and yours to have some fun with us. Have your child draw a picture, color in one of the free Fairyland coloring sheets, or simply write a note, and then snail mail it to us. Our "elves" promise to write back promptly (on special Fairyland stationery designed by Oakland artist Michael Wertz, no less).
   
   Our address is: Children's Fairyland 699 Bellevue Avenue Oakland, CA 94610

We look forward to getting hand-crafted correspondence from your littles!

Your turn: If you have discovered fun and educational ways to pass the time with your children, please share them with us! Either write communications@fairyland.org or add your suggestion in the comment section.