Below are some suggestions of activities for kids to do while at home. Feel free to use what works for you and your family!
- Resources from Physical Education and and Health Wellness at HES
- PBS Kids Daily for free resources for kids and daily e-mails are available with activities, tips, and videos.
- Set a schedule. It can be helpful to have school work and chores around the home first, followed by play and free time. Create a visual checklist for kids to use and mark when they've accomplished goals.
- Some may find it helpful to have a weekly schedule, such as Saturday mornings is for cleaning, Friday night is game night, etc.
- Make dinner interesting:
- Play restaurant for dinner
- Involve your kids in planning and cooking
- Use candles, decorate placemats, create name placards
- One night have a slumber party, sleep all together in one room, create a tent to sleep under.
- Read!
- Rubbings - you can rub many items such as leaves, puzzle pieces, coins, feathers.
- Place a few items in a sealed mystery envelope and have kids figure out what is in it by rubbing on top with a crayon.
- Homemade play dough
- Homemade slime
- Painting
- For an art project with less cleanup use a whiteboard and markers
- Create collages with old magazines and newspapers
- Dig for worms
- Plan a family garden
- Start a compost collection
- Make sock puppets or paper-bag puppets and put on a play
- Play salon - give your children haircuts, manicures/pedicures, massages
- Dance party
- Begin a journal of what you observe in your neighborhood. Who do you see, what birds or bugs, trees, pinecones etc.?
- Put together a sensory bin
- Phone calls to relatives and friends
- Make origami
- Make tissue paper flowers
- Yoga
- Home workouts - push-ups, sit-ups, wall pushes, jumping jacks, etc.
- Write poetry or a story
- Create a large box fort
- Make friendship bracelets
- Make candles
- Make soap
- Make letters in shaving cream
- Bake cookies and decorate them
- Blow bubbles
- Make butter
- Make paper airplanes
- Document with a camera what you see outside or on a walk
- Virtual field trips
- Family movie night
- Organize family photos, make a scrap book (digital or physical)
- Learn to Code
- Learn to Play Guitar
Games for Younger Kids:
- Red Light/Green Light
- Hide and Go Seek
- Rhyming Games
- Simon Says
- Board Games - Trouble, Candy Land
- Card Games - Memory, Go Fish
- "I Spy" in the home or on a walk
- Sing-a-longs
- Freeze dance
Games for Older Kids:
- Board Games - Monopoly, Clue, Sorry
- Card Games - Old Maid, Spoons
- Crossword puzzles
- Charades
- Coloring pages