4 frugal and educational ideas for families at home during COVID-19

Liz MacKay has some ideas for parents and kids to save money and make the best of self-isolation orders and physical distancingrulesin place on P.E.I.

MacKay isMainstreet P.E.I.'s Fighting to be Frugal columnist, and she told host Matt Rainnieshe knows the current pandemic has presented many challenges for Islanders with schools and businesses closed, workers laid off and the uncertainty over everything COVID-19-related.

There are some online resources to help people manage their daily lives, such as the Islanders Helping Islanders Volunteers Service Directory and the Caremongering group on Facebook.

MacKay suggests checking in with your children's teacher to see what they could be working on.

Take a virtual field trip

One example MacKayhas found doable is an online "field trip."

"Many museums and national parks have put up all of their virtual tours so that you can go and explore everything and still be out there and discuss every item of art that you could find," she said.

"There's ballets and operas and everything to be very cultural through this time."

As well, the East Coast Art Party is offering free live online sessions on their Facebook page.

History lesson from grandparents

MacKay has assigned one grandparent to each of her four children.

Their assignment is to Facetime with them, and collect a story from each decade of their grandparent's life.

"It's some great family history to be able to have to and it keeps everybody motivated to visit each other."

Experiment in the kitchen

MacKay said it's a good idea to have a few weeks of food on hand, such as pasta, rice, canned or dried fruit, peanut butter and nutritious cereals.

She urges people not to buy large quantities of food and hang onto it indefinitely, but rather to plan ahead and eat what you store.

"You want to make sure that you're not hoarding but you're able to have your family survive on what you need in case the paychequedoesn't come or you're ill and can't get to a store or something like that."

Consider ordering your groceries online together instead of going into the store, she said, to be extra safe.

"This is a great time to start to get your children cooking as well or your partner to be able to do some of the cooking and learn those skills as well."

Start your garden inside

There are many things you can teach your children while you have a captive audience, from sewing a button on a blouse to baking bread.

And since it is officially spring, after all, why not start your garden?

MacKay said parents might remember growing beans in milk cartons when they were elementary school. You can take that one step further and start all your transplants inside.

There are many online tutorials on how to start your garden, and MacKay notes that many seed companies are offering free shipping because their buildings are closed to the public.

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