With 92% of the United States under stay-at-home order, no one will be leaving their home for for the foreseeable future. I gathered a list of the most exciting, fun, entertaining things I have been doing to keep my kids and entire family busy.
Creative Activities–
A Tea Party with Real Treats and Tea. Sit by a window and enjoy a lovely snack via a tea party.
Spa Day. If you have sheet masks you are ok with parting with, enjoying a spa day with “facials,” nails, hair. Everything and anything you can think of that would fall under spa.
Create a Fort. If your kids are old enough, they should be able to do this one their own. Gran pillows, blankets chairs, whatever you need to make a fort. Might take lots of effort to get it together esp. if your kids are on the younger side but it will give you hours (maybe not hours but you get the idea) of alone time.
Movie Night. Set-up the chairs so you feel like you are in a movie theatre. Make movie tickets for your guests to enter the theatre. Don’t forget the popcorn.
Camp in your backyard. BBQ, make S’more, play out door, sleep in real tents.
Obstacle Course. Create an obstacle course with various objects you have at home, have them hip-hop on the sofa, around the kitchen through the tunnel.
Superhero. Create capes with old sheets. You can have the kids decorate them or not, depending if you want to use them again. Have them run and jump throughout the house protecting the house from the evil Coronavirus.
Create a Puppet Show. If you have puppets use those. If not, create puppets with brown paper bags or old socks. Decorate them and enjoy. My daughters have a puppet show stand so we will be defiantly be doing this.
Fashion Show. Try on old clothes and create a fun fashion show.
Create a Treasure Hunt.
Play Kitchen. Make a delicious pretend meal and enjoy it with your family.
Ninja Tournament. Use crap paper or masking tape attaching one side of the wall to the other so the kids and climb through it.
Make a Castle. Use boxes from all the shipments you are receiving and make a fortress or castle. Your kids will love it.
Dress-up. Use those Halloween/Disney customs you have collected over the years, be in character all day.
Makeup. Put makeup on your kids and have them put makeup on you. It’s a great activity, that is fun, and they love it.
Creative–
Crafts. Lots of fun easy ideas on Pinterest to make fun projects to keep the kids entertained with things you have at home. If you were like me, you stocked up on projects before things went crazy.
I created a folder per person the kids will be making crafts for. I have one for grandma/grandpa, my mom and Bruna (their old nanny). I will give them their envelopes at the end of this. It’s an easy way to keep the artwork separated and organized.
Coloring. Everyone has paper, coloring books and crayons.
Paper Airplanes. or Origami.
Finger Paint.
Tie Dye. We all know Tie Dye is coming back with a vengeance, make shirts/shorts/leggings in the biggest summer trend.
Mother’s/Father’s Day crafts. I created a few blogs that will be published soon for these holidays. Quarantine is the perfect time to make presents for loved ones you might normally be too busy to do so.
Write a Short Story. Sit down with your laptop and write. Take the time, write character sketches, build a story, have fun.
Make Friendship Bracelets. Use strings and create simple or difficult patterns. Either send them to your friends in the mail or keep them to give to your best buddies when you see each other when this is over.
Pasta Jewelry. If you have pasta to spare during the quarantine, make necklace and a bracket. Then let the kids paint/color the pasta. You can use these for Mother’s Day gifts.
Write Thank You Notes. Speak with your kids about who are the essential workers during the quarantine — mailmen, UPS/Fed Ex delivery people, trash pick-up, etc. Have your children write thank you notes. You can tape them to your door, your trash bin or in your mailbox.
Outdoor Activities–
Bike Ride. When the weather is nice, take advantage and ride bikes/scooters.
Follow the Leader. We love to play this all over the neighborhood. Hop, skip. touch your nose, anything fun and zany just make sure you follow the leader.
Snowball Fight with Paper Balls. Create a forte, and attack your opponent using paper balls. The perfect “mess” free afternoon. And the kids will have a ball.
Tag. Run around the backyard. Play your heart out.
Sidewalk Chalk Games such as Hop Scotch.
Garden. Order seeds, soil, and other gardening needs online and grow some fun flowers, vegetables, etc.
Activities for the Entire Family–
Bake. Bake your favorite dessert your entire family will enjoy.
YouTube Drawing Lesson. Search simple drawing ideas on YouTube and try it out. My Daughter loves this one.
Take a Drive. Anywhere. You don’t have to get out of the car. Go somewhere within an hour of your home. Make sure to use the restroom before you leave your home and no drinks on your drive, so you won’t have to go when you are out.
Picnic. Enjoy a lovely picnic with delicious food on a comfortable blanket inside if it’s raining or in your backyard.
Join TikTok. if you have not joined already, join and then start filming. Have fun!
Tic-Tac-Toe.
Bubble Party.
Lego building competitions. See who can build a Lego or block tower the highest, biggest which tower could stay standing the longest.
PE–
Yoga. YouTube has lots of great channels for kids Yoga.
Pillow Fight. Make sure you use soft kid friendly pillows.
Soccer. Play in the backyard. I picked up these goals. We have not received them so I can’t speak to how amazing they are, but I am hopeful.
Tag. Good old fashion tag. Play with your kids or have your kids play together.
Ring Toss. I got this one. It’s so easy to put together. Combat and easy to use. The kids love it.
Cornhole. You can either make them or buy. I found a few options on Amazon. Or you can find customized ones on Etsy.
Dance Party. Find Dance Parties on Facebook and enjoy yourself.
Stay Connected with Friends–
Pen Pal. Write letters to your best friends you can see any more in person. Bring back letters. Who doesn’t love getting mail?
Zoom/Facetime. playdates with friends.
Bake. Leave treats for your friends by their front door with a note.
Egged your friend. Hide eggs for your friends in their yard. Leave a note saying they have been egged with the amount of eggs you hid for them. Such a fun, cute idea for friends. Who would not love this!
Activities for the Entire Family–
Puzzles.
Every Card Game. Old Maid. Go Fish. Uno. Etc.
Board Games: Candy Lane, Count Four, Monopoly, Hungry Hungry Hippo, Sorry, Let’s Go Fish, etc.
Checkers/Chess.
Charades. This will be challenging with young kids, but the older ones would do well with this and have a blast– especially when you remind them Elsa and Ana played in Frozen II.
Pizza. Make the pizza dough with this easy recipe. Use marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese and any toppings you would like to enjoy a delicious pizza.
Music Videos. Choose a fun song and make a music video with your kids. Learn how to edit together and show them the process.
Learn–
Story time. Read books to your little one out-loud using fun voices for each character.
Visit. Take a virtual trip to museums all over the world without leaving your living room– The Louvre, Yellowstone National Park, Boston Children’s Museum, local zoos have tours. Check them out.
Mars. Check out the surface of Mars. What an awesome way to learn something new!?
Flashcards. Make cards to review words, letters, numbers, math problems, etc. that your kids are having issues with. Shapes, colors, etc. would be good to help the younger kids.
Watch. Bill Nye the Science Guy and learn about Science.
Scavenger Hunt with letters. Ask your child to find as many items as they can that start with any letter you call out. Have them bring the items to a box in the other room. Time them. And go through each letter at the end of the game.
Memories–
Journal. Create a journal of your daily experience of quarantine. I am typing a journal entry daily after the kids are in-bed. You could even have your children write a journal daily of their experiences. Dylan is writing a 1-2 sentence journal to practice her writing for school.
Photo Book. I am going to create a photo book on Shutterfly to remember all the fun we did while on quarantine. I hope to start it soon and will work on it a few times a week so it will be nearly done when we are freed.
Plan–
Plan Upcoming Events. I will plan my daughter birthday’s while we are in quarantine. I hope to have themes, ideas, favors, etc. purchased. Once we know when we will get out of this, I will pick a date.
Plan Your Next Vacation. Take this time to figure out where you want to go next, figure out what you would do there, what to see, etc.
I have been trying to do something fun a few times a week with the girls. The days I have been have been remarkably better. Yes, some days, I am tired and it’s hard for us all to motivate but once I get going, it makes a world of difference.
What fun activities have you been doing while on quarantine to keep your kid’s busy? Comment below and share. I would love to hear any ideas I have not thought of yet.
Markdowns and Letdowns 