After several months of two parents working from home with childcare gaps, we’ve learned to get creative. While there’s no shortage of inspiration for kiddo activities on the internet, I’ve found most of them require parent participation – which is great, but not when what you’re after is a way to finish up a task before clocking out for the day WHILE keeping littles happy. Trust me – there are few things I hate more than working while my kids are around, but the pandemic has made it unavoidable at times. If you find yourself in the same situation, I thought I’d offer up a few activities our crew has found especially enjoyable and entertaining this spring and summer. Hint: just add water :) A few disclaimers:— My children are (almost) 2 and 4, but even if yours are the same ages, these activities may or may not be developmentally-appropriate. Always use your best judgment!— I classify these activities as hands-off, but that doesn’t mean they don’t require supervision. Even small amounts of water require supervision! What I mean is that these activities capture my children’s attention without my direct participation – and usually for a long time, to boot. Typically, I’ll take my laptop to our backyard or front porch to work while the kids splash a few feet from me. So grateful to have these spaces! Without further ado… Under the sea sensory bin | Sensory bins are the bread and butter of Montessori preschools, so although we were very familiar with them, we’d never attempted one at home. Turns out they’re very easy: dump some small animal figurines (or the Arctic version), an aquarium plant or two, some rocks, some shells, and anything else that strikes your fancy in a big plastic tub, then add water.