New challenges can often call for new ways to do things that people have taken for granted. Nowhere has that been proven more than in the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Schools are closed. Students are learning from home. Extracurricular activities have largely been cancelled. As parents adapt to suddenly finding the space to work remotely, not only are people spending significantly more time indoors than they are probably used to but also spending significantly more time together than perhaps they have become accustomed to.

This can be a good thing. But there's no denying that it can be a significant challenge.

Val Choo-Foo, the In-Motion Community Facilitator with the City of Swift Current, says that how families react and adapt to this new normal will be different for everyone, and offered a few tips on feeling the stress of it.

"First of all, don't be hard on yourself. It looks different for everyone. I think you need to look at your individuals, try to keep it fun. Try to keep it positive. Everybody is under stress."

The city of Swift Current is hoping to help with that by creating a dedicated portal for parents to find ideas that can not only keep the household busy and entertained, but stay physically active and support the new education normal of the children.

The website contains a variety of activities that vary in length and time, and Choo-Foo says that they try to keep activities updated weekly and varied for different age groups.

"I've just tried to come up with a few different things that might be easy to incorporate within your day to motivate kids. there's always kind of a physical activity component, but also some learning and some fun exploration that can be done at home."

Some examples include nutrition jeopardy, an ABC Physical activity game, Indoor and outdoor scavenger hunts, and a game called Bookopoly, which is a monopoly style board game that begins today where the challenge is to complete the game by reading a book on each space.

She added that the amount of time commitment was really up to each individual family; from diving in and spending a whole lot of time on each, to just using it as a five-minute distraction so that parents can get some work done.

"So it depends. It depends on the age. It depends on how many people in the family. How much they want to invest in the activities. It also just might lead to a different conversation and then might explore some more activities in that area."

More information and an up-to-date list of activities can be found on the city's at-home website.