{"id":1136,"date":"2020-06-17T19:48:59","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T19:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/?p=1136"},"modified":"2020-06-17T19:50:45","modified_gmt":"2020-06-17T19:50:45","slug":"family-time-during-a-covid-19-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/family-time-during-a-covid-19-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Family Time During a COVID-19 Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Inexpensive, Socially Distant Evening Activities for Safe Family Fun<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>KNOXVILLE, Tenn. \u2013 COVID-19 continues to disrupt our lives. From diminished work hours and income to summer camps that are socially distant, 2020 has brought immense changes. As summer days arrive bringing extra daylight hours in the evenings, many families are looking for activities that are fun, inexpensive and adhere to social distancing guidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSummer nights mean longer daytime hours, and traditionally family time has included trips to theme parks, visiting friends or family, or even week long vacations,\u201d comments Christopher T. Sneed, University of Tennessee Extension consumer economics specialist. \u201cWith the disruptions caused by COVID-19, some families are struggling to make ends meet and looking for inexpensive options for some family fun during the summer months.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sneed suggests considering these options for nighttime entertainment as a family this summer:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Going for a walk in your neighborhood<\/li><li>Exploring a nearby park and maintaining a distance of 6 feet from people not in your household<\/li><li>Having a family game night, with board games, card games, or outdoor games like hide and seek or tag<\/li><li>Writing letters to family or friends you have not been able to see or visit<\/li><li>Playing charades, Pictionary or other games that use imaginations<\/li><li>Cooking dinner together as a family or baking a dessert for neighbors<\/li><li>Completing a scavenger hunt at home or in the neighborhood<\/li><li>Playing water games on warm sunny days, with water balloons, water guns or other discount toys<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Another option for family time is to plant and tend a garden together, says the expert. Not only will this help fill summer evenings, but the produce a garden yields can be healthy for the family budget and provide nutritious options at mealtime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLots of online retailers have also offered free content in light of the COVID-19 pandemic,\u201d adds the expert. \u201cTaking advantage of some of these offers can help break up the monotony of staying home and isolating during summer months.\u201d Sneed suggests looking for virtual tours of zoos, aquariums or museums first, as these options can provide supplemental education to children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For other ideas for family activities, visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/utextension.tennessee.edu\/\">UT Extension website<\/a> or contact your <a href=\"https:\/\/utextension.tennessee.edu\/office-locations-departments-centers\/\">local county Extension office<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through its land-grant mission of research, teaching and extension, the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture touches lives and provides Real. Life. Solutions.<a href=\"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&nbsp;utia-dev.tennessee.edu\u200b<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Inexpensive, Socially Distant Evening Activities for Safe Family Fun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[193,79],"articletype":[],"institute":[16],"topics":[144],"entities":[13,29],"class_list":["post-1136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-covid-19","tag-extension-news-you-can-use","institute-news-release","topics-human-development","entities-extension","entities-family-consumer-sciences"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 02:47:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1136"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1140,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136\/revisions\/1140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1136"},{"taxonomy":"articletype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articletype?post=1136"},{"taxonomy":"institute","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institute?post=1136"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=1136"},{"taxonomy":"entities","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utia-dev.tennessee.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entities?post=1136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}