The 2020 Summer Olympics may be postponed until next year, but we parents everywhere are engaged with challenges that make us champions every day. We have neither trained for our tried out to compete in these events forced on us by a global pandemic. Yet we continue to face them day in and day out with no finish line in sight. A stopwatch would be overwhelmed by the millions of seconds of quarantine with our kids we’ve already endured. If we all judged ourselves at the end of the day, I’m doubtful anyone would give themselves a perfect 10 (although maybe our kids would). In reality, we all deserve a gold medal for just participating in quarantine.
I created this gold medal craft for my son for a game we like to play called “Dinner of Champions.” Whoever eats the most broccoli (my son’s favorite vegetable—and the only type he’ll eat, go figure) wins the medal. But the magic of the medal quickly wore off on him (although somehow he still eats his broccoli (sometimes)), and I started wearing it for fun (sometimes). At the end of an especially challenging day, this makes total sense. After all, I was the one who got him to eat a vegetable, which meant that after working from home, managing childcare, and doing all the adult things, I cooked dinner during a global pandemic. Or just steamed broccoli. Because let’s face it, the meal included microwaveable Dino Nuggets.
In any case, here’s how to make your own medal. Adapt the design based on the supplies you have on hand. (Your medal doesn’t even have to be gold if you don’t want it to!) Or you can order a medal for yourself just as easily on Amazon. Zero judgment!
If your children are old enough to handle glitter, consider doing this craft together and assigning quarantine champion titles for each member of your family and/or creating quarantine-related games to compete in to win medals. (And if the magic of the medals wears off on your kids, you’ll have more medals to parade around in while you’re doing chores later!)
Supplies
- A lid from any container (bonus points if it’s clear and round, but it doesn’t have to be)
- A hole punch
- 1 or 2 paintbrushes
- Yellow paint
- Gold glitter
- A glue that dries clear
- Any kind of string or ribbon
Instructions
- Punch a hole anywhere on the lid.
2. Paint the entire lid yellow.
3. Cover the paint with glitter and shake off the excess.
4. Let the paint and glitter dry. This may take a few hours. Settle into whatever chore heptathlon you’ve created for yourself that stands between you and bedtime after a day of working, watching kids, cooking a dozen meals, and doing all the dishes. Or collapse in front of Hamilton on Disney+. Either way.
5. Paint over the glitter with glue. This will seal the glitter so there is less of a mess when you are wearing the medal. Because you really don’t have time to be cleaning up glitter right now or ever during quarantine.
6. Let the glue dry. This may take a few hours, so turn out the lights and get some sleep!
7. Thread string or ribbon through the hole. Tie it on one end so that it’s like a necklace. Leave enough space so you can just put it over your head when you’ve deserved a gold medal, which is basically every day you participate in quarantine!
So, if you find yourself with some spare time during quarantine like I did one night when my kids didn’t fight bedtime (once), make your own medal and wear it with pride. You can even allow your partner to wear it if they are especially deserving after spending a day parenting/working/cleaning during the global pandemic. Or surprise an essential worker you know and love with this medal to let them know you’re thinking of them.
Participating in quarantine during a global pandemic is hard. But each day we pull through, we’re champions.
