Fighting boredom, parents and kids go teddy bear spotting and work with sidewalk chalk

Gannon Gonzalez, 6, wheeled around East Sacramento on Wednesday with a mission: Find all the teddy bears neighbors had posted on their front porches and in windows.

“Gannon, you just missed one!” shouted mom Jessica Gonzalez, who kept a scorecard as Gannon flew past houses on his scooter.

Don’t worry mom, there were dozens of other opportunities to find some.

With families staying home to avoid spreading coronavirus, parents are being forced to get creative with activities aimed at getting out of the house.

Often, the outdoor activity involves sidewalk chalk. An army of parents and children have unleashed their creativity on the sidewalks of Sacramento amid the coronavirus shutdown.

A home in the New Era Park neighborhood Wednesday had an intricate chalk mosaic on the driveway created by using tape to frame out the art, then peeling the tape back to get a stained-glass effect. Not content to limit the visuals to the driveway, the fence was also colored in a square mosaic.

A few blocks over, Christine Shelley’s sidewalk has prompts for passers-by. “Hop like a bunny,” reads one message, with a rabbit and pink bunny tracks. Another says “Scitter like a mouse,” with whiskers and a few pieces of cheese.

“It’s something to do,” Shelley said. “It’s an idea we stole from our neighbor. She did the whole block.”

Shelley is assisted by her daughter, Liza Albright. The pair have chalked up the sidewalk at least five times since Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a stay-at-home order two weeks ago. Albright, 3, has a very specific way of helping.

“She shouts ideas at me,” Shelly said. “And she colors things in and she washes them away.”

The sidewalk chalk in front of Frances Facciuto’s house in the Marshall School neighborhood is a little faded, but the message is still clear: “Better days are up ahead.”

While there’s a rain cloud by the words, a rainbow sits on top.

“We go for walks around town and I’ve been inspired by some of the messages I’ve seen,” Frances Facciuto, whose daughter Meghan, 6, pitched in.

But it isn’t just sidewalk art. Some communities are taking a more organized approach to activity time. The Gonzalez family, which spent part of Wednesday afternoon hunting for stuffed animals, lives in East Sacramento’s McKinley Village. The community uses a Facebook group to try different ideas to keep kids entertained. For St. Patrick’s Day, there was a shamrock hunt. Then kids were encouraged to put their artwork in the front windows, so people could admire their work.

“This is why we moved here,” Jessica Gonzalez said. “We wanted this sense of community. We’re close to downtown; you can see the city skyline, without it being too big.”

The final tally: Gannon Gonzalez found 76 stuffed animals Wednesday. That’s better than the 65 shamrocks but not quite the 86 artworks he spotted.

“It’s so cute,” Jessica Gonzalez said. “I hope we can do it with Easter eggs.”

This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 11:30 AM.