Get a list of 30+ fun things to do with kids at home, plus a few extra fun activities for the whole family!
Fun Activities for Kids at Home
Kids saying they’re bored? Tired of your kiddos sitting in front of their screens? Why not do some fun activities as a family?
Spending time together on a regular basis can help you bond and become closer as a family!
Below are thirty-one days of family activities that are fun for kids:
Make Your Own Bubbles
Kids love bubbles! With some simple ingredients at home, you can make your own bubbles.
We like to make scented bubbles here. They smell amazing and make bubble blowing even more fun! Try this recipe.
Baking with Kids
Kids really love to bake. I know it might not be as fun for the adults (the mess!), but it’s a great way to not only have fun with kids but to teach them some useful life skills as well.
Decide as a family what you’d like to bake. You can start off simple with cookies and work your way up to cakes and pastries.
Work together as a family to find the ingredients and equipment you’ll need. Use this time to educate kids about measurements and following instructions.
TIP: If you’re stuck at home and not sure if you have all of the ingredients for a recipe, you can make a list of the ingredients you do have and enter them into a website like Super Cook. It’ll help you find a recipe using the ingredients you already have.
If you have a large family like I do, you can even do a different baking project every other day until everyone has had a chance to choose what to bake!
And don’t forget about the clean up! Involve kids in the clean up process as well to reinforce life skills.
Gardening with Kids
Gardening is a very useful skill to teach kids, plus what kid doesn’t like digging in the dirt?
Depending on the space you have in your yard or even on your patio or back porch, you can start a vegetable, herb, or flower garden.
Small space? Try a container garden!
Gardening is a really great way to teach kids patience, hard work, and perseverance.
Learn how to start a vegetable garden from seeds.
Story Time
Stories have the ability to take your mind to a whole other place and to let your imagination take flight. Reading stories together as a family is a great way to spend some fun time together, especially when the weather isn’t cooperating or you need to have a change of pace.
Want to get the whole family involved? Act it out instead of just reading it! If you can, set up a smartphone or tablet to film it. You will have an amazing memory to look back on forever.
Bonus points for costumes, funny voices or accents, and homemade props!
Creative Story Writing
Run out of stories to read? Why not write your own!
You can do this in a few different ways:
- Use a white/chalk board to write down words. Everyone takes turns adding one word at a time until you have a complete story.
- Fill in mad-libs to get ideas.
- Flip through a dictionary and make a list of random words you’ll need to use in your story.
Once you’ve written your story, you can print it and put in a binder or add photos and have your story book printed.
Learn how to write stories with your kids.
Board Games and Card Games with Kids
Kids love games! The sillier, the better.
Some of our favorite games to play are:
- Candy Land
- Chutes and Ladders
- Uno
- Battle Ship (for older kids)
- Connect Four
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If you want to add a little something extra, try making up some new rules and change the same old games up a bit!
You can also create your very own games like themed charades, or scavenger hunts! Unleash your creative side, and play by your own rules.
DIY and Crafts for Kids to Do at Home
My kids LOVE to make crafts. They especially like to make upcycled crafts, using materials they find around the home.
Arts and crafts can be so therapeutic. Kids can have art styles that are all different, so there is no wrong or right way to be creative. Have fun!
Need inspiration? Visit this Pinterest board for great ideas.
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My kids love the KiwiCo boxes they get every month. They are crates filled with fun and educational projects and crafts to make. Every month, my three oldest kiddos get the Maker Crate, the Tinker Crate, and the Doodle Crate. They look forward to when they arrive and LOVE to put together their projects.
What I love about these boxes is that the projects are things that can be used over and over again, like the leather portfolio my youngest son made. Find out which KiwiCo crate would be perfect for your child!
DIY Pizza Night
Pizza night! Making a pizza is so much fun for kids.
All you need is:
- dough (or a pre-made crust),
- shredded cheese,
- toppings,
- sauce,
- and an oven.
If you choose to use dough, you can make little personal pizzas and add your own toppings.
Pre-made crusts are awesome too! We usually use these, which you can find in any supermarket. Want smaller crusts? Try bagels or english muffins.
We use Don Pepino pizza sauce, but any kind of sweet or savory pizza sauce will do.
I usually buy a pizza blend of cheese, but I also make sure that we have some shredded cheddar and mozzerella.
Once you put on all of your favorite toppings, bake and enjoy!
Living Room Fort
A childhood staple is a living room fort. Don’t you remember making those as a kid?
You can use cardboard boxes, blankets, flat sheets, couch cushions, pillows, bean bags, and more to create a huge fort.
Not a fan of the mess but would love a fort? Check out this awesome blow up fort that I got for my kids!
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Indoor Drive In Movies
Have your fort built? Or, if no fort, do you have some large cardboard boxes to make little cars? Why not have a drive-in movie day?
Get comfy and have a movie marathon with lots of yummy snacks and drinks.
Want to be cozy? Stay in your pjs all day!
Sign Language Lessons
Have you ever tried to learn sign language? It is a very useful language to know, plus it is actually a lot of fun to learn.
Try learning sign language with the whole family. Use books and/or online video tutorials, help each other practice, and try going a whole day communicating with just sign language!
Bonus: Using sign language alphabet to sign words is a great way to help younger kids learn how to spell!
Find more about learning sign language here.
One of my favorite Facebook pages that uses Sign Language to read children’s books is Mommy Gone Tropical. She often posts videos of herself signing children’s books. My kids really like to watch her!
Family Film Festival
Use smartphones, a Go-Pro, or an old camcorder to document a whole day with your family. Watch it back and even edit it into a fun family movie if you want to!
In the future, it will be fun to look back and remember what fun you had together, and what it was like during that time to live.
Karaoke
Like to sing? Karaoke is a lot of fun for the whole family. Hold a contest for silliest song/voice combo… Bonus points for dancing!
Dance Party
Not into singing? Create a playlist with everyone’s favorite songs, and have big dance party!
Have fun just dancing out all your troubles. Plus, it’s a fantastic workout for the whole family!
We have playlists in our Amazon Music apps with kid-friendly songs that we listen to when we want to sing and dance.
Yoga/Pilates
Speaking of workouts, Pilates and Yoga are fantastic ways to get exercise, plus they’re pretty easy for kids to do.
Start with beginner positions. Once you learn the basics, you can gradually learn more complex positions.
Learn a few moves to start the day, and some more to relax at night. You can practice yoga or Pilates daily.
Be careful not to overdo these exercises! This site might be helpful if you are a beginner.
Picnic
Kids love a great picnic! Picnics can be indoor or outdoor, depending on the weather.
Pack up some food, drinks, snacks, pillows, and blankets. Then set up a nice little picnic spot in your house or backyard!
Make Cards or Write Letters
Remember getting a card or letter via snail mail? I used to love getting things in the mail (and I still do!).
As a family, you can write letters or make cards for the elderly in nursing homes or even the troops overseas. Letters and cards can mean so much to them, especially when they’re feeling lonely or discouraged.
Be creative! The kids can use stickers or even draw happy pictures of their own.
You can use these links to send your cards or letters:
You can also call local nursing homes to find out how to send letters or cards locally.
Fashion Show
Kids love to dress up! Give the kids some old clothes from your closet (hello, Hawaiian shirts!) and make some crazy outfits. Then, you can pretend to be fashion show judges and score the costume creations.
Feel free to join in the fun with your own costumes!
Tie Dye
Tie dye is a really fun activity for kids. Just about any article of clothing can be tie dyed, plus there are so many ways to tie and dye them!
Every time you wear whatever you made, you’ll have a great memory to look back on.
Get 8 Easy Tie Dye Patterns here.
Sewing Lessons
Sewing is a handy and practical skill to have. Knowing how to fix a button or stitch a tear are skills that everyone should know how to do.
Start with basic stitches, which would be helpful to know for any future fashion emergencies.
Build Models
Find a model airplane, dinosaur skeleton, building, robot, or car that you can build together as a family.
Model building is an great way to learn about organization, how things fit together, and how to work together as a team.
Family Video Games
No matter what my kids say, Mom is definitely the champion of Mario Kart! It’s just one of the games we love to play as a family.
Multiplayer video games can be tons of fun for families. There are racing games, arcade games, strategy games, and more!
Keep it pressure free and just play for fun, or host a family tournament. Either way, remember to model positive ways to show excitement over winning and losing.
Check Out Old Photo Albums
Learning about your family history is a great way to keep memories and traditions from the past alive. Get out old or even new family photo albums and look through them with the kids.
Our kids love to see pictures of their grandparents and great-grandparents when they were kids. It’s always so funny when they realize that the adults in their lives were once kids too!
Make A Scrapbook With New Family Photos
Want to preserve your family’s members to look back on in the future? Start collecting family photos to put in albums. Try out scrapbooking to make it even more meaningful and organized.
Everyone can design their own page and write their own memory notes next to each picture.
Life Sized Drawings
Have sidewalk chalk? Have a family member lay down on the ground and trace around their body. Have fun posing in silly ways and coloring them in!
No chalk? Try shadow silhouette drawings. Hang a large piece of white paper on the wall and have someone sit sideways in front of it. Place a flashlight on a table or other surface a few feet away so that the shadow of the person is clear on the paper. Use a pencil or marker to carefully trace the shadow. Fill it in completely with a solid color or turn it into a collage with images cut out from a magazine.
Sidewalk Chalk Art
Speaking of sidewalk chalk, why not add some color to the sidewalks in front of your house? Have the kids draw anything they’d like, or pick a theme and have the kids draw something related to the theme.
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Want to make it fun? Create a sidewalk chalk obstacle course! Draw lines to practice balance or to jump over. Create little stations where kids have to complete a certain activity, like spinning around, hopping on one foot, or doing jumping jacks.
Look For Four Leaf Clovers
Clovers with four or more leaves are actually pretty rare. Looking for some in the backyard can pass a lot of quiet time!
Finding a four leaf clover is always very rewarding and exciting for young and old.
Can’t find any? Choose something else to hunt for, like large leaves, spider webs, or dandelions!
Make A Critter House
What kinds of critters live in your backyard? Birds, squirrels, chipmunks? Why not make them a critter house?
A critter house is a nice little shelter that can keep a small animal warm and dry and even provide a little food to snack on.
You can get a kit to build or even build your critter house using recycled materials! Just make sure that they’re safe and sturdy for your creature friends.
Follow An Online Drawing Tutorial
Do your kids like to draw? Follow an online drawing tutorial together!
My kids love the tutorials from Art for Kids Hub. They are very easy to follow and have tons of fun images to draw.
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Not into drawing? You can find other kinds of tutorials online, from cake decorating, to wreath making, to knitting a scarf!
Just search for family-friendly beginner videos, and if you have the supplies you need—give it a try!
It can be interesting to see how your finished drawing product compares with the video’s. You can even host your own Nailed It! competition while you’re at it!
Play In The Rain
When it’s raining, we usually stay indoors, but kids can have a lot of fun stomping in puddles and playing in the mud. Just make sure that there is not any lightning nearby.
Don’t forget to look for rainbows if the sun starts to peek through the clouds!
Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are really great ways to get the brain and body moving. There are a lot of ways to set up scavenger hunts! You can theme it by color, size, room, and more.
If you have older kids, set a time limit , and make sure if you have younger kids, that they can have fun without feeling too pressured to “win.” Family activities should be all about fun!
Paint Rocks
Have the kids search for rocks to paint in your back yard. Use your imaginations to see a shape of something specific in that rock.
No rocks? You can always order a rock painting kit ahead of time!
Once you have figured out what the rock looks like, paint it so it becomes the object you saw in its shape. For example, a lumpy rock might look like a frog; so you can paint legs and eyes and spots on it to make it look like a real frog!
You can also paint patterns or designs on the rocks. If you have paint markers, you can write inspiring quotes on the rocks and leave them on neighbors’ porches or in the neighborhood for them to find!
Quiet Time
Sometimes, the best thing a family can do is have quiet time. Quiet time is an opportunity for the kids to think and play by themselves.
Here are a few ideas to try for quiet time:
- Reading
- Puzzles
- Word search
- Educational worksheets or workbooks
- Journal writing
Helpful Links:
Family activities are such fantastic opportunities to bond with your kids and create amazing memories with them. Just be sure that everyone can enjoy themselves and that not everything is a competition. Be creative and have fun!
What Are Your Favorite Boredom Busters?
Do you have any favorite boredom busters? Share them in the comments below!
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