175+ Fun Activities for Kids at Home
If your family life has been turned upside down as schools close for weeks on end, we hope this resource offers you a lifeline.
While we’re “all in this together,” our situations differ widely. That’s why we’ve included ideas for both easy low-tech activities as well as online adventures. This is a crowd-sourced list with input from many sources, and we are open to adding more!
- Make a daily schedule of activities and use our free printable routine charts
- Complete a simple science project with things on hand
- Take a virtual field trip to visit museums from around the world
- Get outside if you have an uncrowded area you can access
- Make salt dough (like Play-Doh)
- Need to get out? Take a short road trip and play tech-free road trip games
- Write a letter to someone in a nursing home. Help the child with writing if needed.
- Make a secret code and take turns writing a short note each day
- Take a walk or hike with kids, away from others
- Have a giant bubble blowing contest to see who can make the biggest bubble outside
- Make a tent in the living room and “camp out” over night
- Set a time each day to do Facetime, Skype, Whatsapp, or Hangouts with friends and relatives
- Order supplies for a felt board and let the kids create different scenes
- Buy shaving cream and create art on the kitchen counter or in the shower
- Keep track of how many books are being read with free printable reading charts.
- Organize a family play to perform.
- Dream a little! Plan your next family vacation together—real or imagined
- Collect stones outside and paint them (or see this kit that includes rocks and paints)
- Check to see what your local library is offering for e-books and audio books without having to go physically
- If you have Lego Lovers in the group, do a Lego Challenge
- Plan an exercise routine and take turns leading the class
- Watch a favorite movie or cartoon, but come up with different endings
- Create a band with homemade instruments.
- Write stories together
- Paint or draw together
- Watch cooking videos online for making food from another country, then prepare it.
- Make a scrapbook together
- Play card games like Old Maid, Go Fish, and Rummy
- Write and mail a letter to grandparents, other relatives or friends.
- Do word puzzles and word searches
- Make your own beaded necklaces
- Teach kids a new skill to help around the house.
- Do yoga as a group! You can find virtual classes for different ages online
- Plan menus for the next 3 days; see what children can help with
- Do jigsaw puzzles. Here’s one for young kids and one for older kids.
- Do a household scavenger hunt
- Make art from stickers and construction paper.
- Save delivery packages and let the kids make towers or buildings with the boxes
- Play dress-up.
- Hide and seek with objects in the home
- Have kids make their own list of ideas of what to do when they feel bored.
- Plan for at least one board game each day
- Have everyone keep a journal and read from it when this “isolation” is over!
- Use glitter sidewalk chalk outside
- Schedule time to bake together a few times each week
- Include music practice in the daily schedule
- Build a house of cards.
- Teach kids basic sewing or knitting tips
- Pick a favorite song and have your child learn the lyrics to it.
- Learn to make origami animals
- Start an online blog about each day’s activities and experience
- Draw a map of your neighborhood together and include street names
- Blow bubbles outside
- Make up trivia questions about each other and do a guessing game
- Pack a “picnic” lunch and eat it on a table cloth or sheet on the floor
- Get bikes and strollers and take an outside break
- Make popcorn
- Create your own mazes or puzzles
- Do finger painting
- Make homemade mini pizzas
- Clean out a closet together
- Play freeze tag
- Decorate an old pair of jeans
- Teach kids to play chess. “No Stress Chess” is a great way to start.
- Create a family scrap book and include information about each person
- Build paper airplanes and have a paper airplane flying contest
- Search through the house to find things you can donate
- Have a family dance party at home—crank up the music!
- Paint each other’s faces. Here’s an inexpensive face painting kit.
- Take pictures of nature and share them
- Have a water balloon fight in your own yard. Get this to fill a lot of balloons at once.
- Play “school” with a child being the teacher
- Take turns saying tongue twisters. Here’s 20 of them!
- Have a karaoke night
- Put ideas for building Lego shapes in a jar and pick one
- Play video games together (include parent!)
- Go on a virtual zoo or aquarium adventure
- Bake cupcakes or cookies and decorate
- Play Rock-Scissors-Paper
- Learn and tell each other jokes; write them down.
- Learn to juggle (YouTube has demos)
- Do jumping jacks once a day between activities
- Let kids play supervised in the bathtub
- Watch some classic TV like Sesame Street
- Make sandwiches with special cutout shapes
- Plan dinner and movie at home; make it special
- Play a sport outside if you have a back yard
- Play Emoji Uno
- Wash the car as a family
- Create a playlist and have a dance party
- Make a fort with pillows, blankets and sheets; let kids read in the fort with a flashlight
- Have children clean and re-organize their room
- Learn 25 basic ASL signs for sign language
- Put on an art show
- Have a staring contest to see who laughs first
- Set a timer and play hot potato
- Learn the art of making hand shadows
- Create a gratitude board and add to it each day
- Make a time capsule
- Play “Simon Says”
- Write a letter to a soldier Details here
- Search on Google for “How to draw…” adding special interest (Spiderman, Princess, etc.)
- Make special cards for friends, teachers, relatives
- Go to a local park
- Create a picture book and staple pages together
- Make a collage from old magazines
- Jump rope outside
- Tidy up toys and select some to give away
- Make tie-dye clothes with old white t-shirts (directions on YouTube)
- Set up a little play store with items and prices
- Play dominoes
- Get some butcher paper and tape it to the kitchen table for painting
- Find age appropriate chores to keep kids busy
- Decorate place mats using construction paper
- Keep the balloon in the air—try to see how long kids can keep it in the air with their hands or make a “paddle” with a paper plate.
- Customize a chore chart for each child and print it
- Build a city – Flatten out a box and sketch a road with marker or crayons. Add elements to the city using little toys. Make trees with paper.
- Wash toys in a big bin. Let kids do this outside or in the bathtub; they will love playing with the water
- Have a stash of crafts in a box that you can pull out to let the kids get creative. Check Michael’s for inexpensive items.
- Break out the board games! Find your old favorites or explore some of the newer ones
- Go for a neighborhood walk
- Have an arm wrestling or thumb war contest
- Fly a kite. Make your own kite or purchase a kite.
- Do a little yard work. Most kids will enjoy being outside and can learn to help.
- Find a task related to laundry and teach new skills
- Make holiday ornaments any time of the year!
- Do watercolor painting
- On a clear night search for constellations/stars
- Have a family barbecue with no outside guests
- Teach kids social manners they might not be aware of
- Play a game of would you rather
- Create a family tree on paper
- Make a “favorites” recipe book
- Introduce child to some basic home repair skills
- Watch a movie or cartoon and critique it like professional critics
- Play laser tag outside
- Watch reruns of old shows
- Play hide-and-seek
- Clip pictures of a dream home and describe what you like
- Learn some beginner magic tricks or purchase a magic kit with over 350 tricks
- Collect leaves or other items in nature
- Start a flower or herb garden
- Have water fun outdoors with an inflatable pool or a slip-n-slide.
- Have kids pretend you are having a formal dinner and set a fancy table
- Snow outside? Teach how to shovel a driveway
- Sock toss: Arrange baskets or buckets in a room and keep score tossing wadded up socks in!
- Play cards with a regular deck. Look up the rules to games like Rummy, War, and Solitaire
- Feed the birds or ducks
- Make snowflakes from coffee filters that have a circular bottom. Fold 2 or more times then cut out little circles and triangles
- Play classic board games like Scrabble, Candy Land, Trouble, Sorry, or Monopoly
- Keep to a schedule and include a few “recess” breaks
- Play checkers or backgammon—lots of kids haven’t been taught these games
- Write in a diary
- Set up indoor hopscotch with masking or painter’s tape
- Use flashcards as a quick 5-minute learning period during the day
- Play charades
- Play “opposites and synonyms” for a word list you develop
- Practice cutting with safety scissors to strengthen fine motor skills
- Take a virtual tour of a farm
- Interview each other for a pretend job
- Play freeze tag
- Start an online book club with children’s friends
- Listen to Wow in the World for interesting info
- Make a sticker book with paper, stickers and staples, then decorate it.
- Study clouds—learn about different types and draw pics of them
- Set up an obstacle course
- Practice spelling using fun words
- Take a virtual glider around the world from the Smithsonian
- Try sensory sorting of objects, like colors and texture
- Set up an Easter egg hunt any time of the year with plastic eggs (avoid candy)
- Teach your kids morse code
- Play tic-tac-toe
- Make slime from glue
- Solve a maze
- Plan races in the yard (sack race, hop on one foot, walk backwards, etc)
- Check out free educational websites
- Turn on Zumba or Dances on YouTube
Have any other fun activities that we should add to the list? Feel free to let us know by leaving a comment below.