Like most of the world right now, I am home. Not that I’m happy about the reason we’re all told to stay home, but I am happy about having a break from my fast-paced life, so I’m trying to make the most of this time.

The #GenX memes and tweets have me pegged; I love being alone. I was a latchkey kid with a wild imagination, so I grew up knowing how to occupy myself.

My 8-year old daughter, however, is not quite as happy about being home with no one else to play with. Before now she played in after-school care with a ton of kids until I could pick her up and then race her off to her extra-curricular activities. So now we’re home. Just us two. And her eyes are drilling holes into my soul. So although I’m perfectly content milling around the house doing nothing, I have a bigger role in supporting my daughter’s childhood.

So I’ve decided to take this time to introduce her to some of my favorite childhood activities. I taught her to ride a bike. We hula hoop, dribble the basketball in the driveway, go on nature walks, and draw chalk art on the sidewalk. Yesterday I set up the tent in the backyard and told her she now had her own she-shed. She glamped it up and sat in there reading books all day. We ventured back to it at night to gaze at the stars. I moved my beat-up old Ikea table from the shed to the spare room for her to use for slime-making, painting, and other crafts. We’re building LEGO sets and piecing together jigsaw puzzles. And the board games! I taught her how to play Sorry, Chess, Monopoly, Life, Clue, Chinese Checkers, Mancala, and Battleship. We pulled out the deck of cards and I’m teaching her how to play versions of Solitaire. We plugged in the Pac-Man joystick to the TV. Now if only I had kept my Nintendo with the power pad!

It’s been a true joy to play with my daughter in the ways I used to play as a child. I look at her and think, “I bet we would’ve been friends if we were both young at the same time.” And then I catch myself and realize, we can both be young at the same time. It’s not so hard to revert to my childhood, especially when given the gift of opportunity.

I like to think that being home is keeping us safe from the storm. And I also think a lot of us are experiencing nostalgia.

So what did you play as a child? What do you wish you could play again? And what’s stopping you?