Stay Home Activities for Kids and Parents

Alice Kuder • April 3, 2020

Stay-home activities for kids can be tricky to think up, but I’ve made a list of 23 and counting.

A couple of weeks ago I published a list of suggestions for things adults can do to make the time productive and enjoyable.

Here are 23 of the most creative ideas I found for how to keep kids occupied during the lockdown. Some are activities for kids to do by themselves, others are for adults and kids to do together. All are free.

Dad and son having fun playing air guitar with cleaning mops
  1. Go on a Teddy Bear Hunt
  2. Start a kids’ book club; meet for discussion on video chat site (e.g. Facetime or Zoom)
  3. Show your kids how to download e-books & audio books from the public library
  4. Play Read-at-Home Bingo
  5. Teach your child to write cursive (pretend it’s a secret code!)
  6. Challenge your kids to teach the dog a new trick
  7. Write a book together — each person creates a character
  8. Make origami animals as Mother’s Day and Father’s Day gifts
  9. Have the kids photograph the various birds and other critters in your yard or neighborhood
  10. Conduct a spelling bee
  11. Assemble jigsaw puzzles together (trade with neighbors!)
  12. Challenge the kids to make a crossword puzzle for you to solve
  13. Make a movie
  14. Play Charades
  15. Have an indoor or outdoor egg hunt, treasure hunt or scavenger hunt
  16. Make a giant tic-tac-toe board on your floor with masking tape
  17. Have a family talent show
  18. Download a karaoke app and sing your heart out!
  19. Have your kids write aspiration lists; 5 things they want to accomplish in the next 5 years
  20. Create dinner menus for the coming month — each person picks an entree and learns to make it
  21. Make a time capsule , bury it and set a date for digging it up
  22. Have the kids build an indoor or outdoor obstacle course ; see who can run it the fastest
  23. Make playdough
Parents and kids laughing and tickling each other, having stay-home fun.

If you need more ideas, here’s the source of much of my inspiration.

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