31 Things to Do with Your Kids During Quarantine

Hi Parents and Kids! Here are a few fun activities to do during time at home. I know teachers are keeping kids so busy with lots of schoolwork, so I thought I would send a few suggestions just to chill and enjoy home! If you have more suggestions to add, please send ideas to my email at kimberly@behindeverydoor.org and I will compile another list of additional activities.

1. Have a creative scavenger hunt! One idea is to find things around the house and outside that begin with each letter of the alphabet. Take it one step above, and challenge other families a “scavenger hunt challenge!” Either FaceTime with other families or have the moms time each household. Ready.... Set..... GO!
2. Have a Sock Fight ... and mom is the referee! Roll up those socks in a ball, just like a snowball and have at it!
3. Speaking of socks.....Turn back of your couch into a puppet stage and use socks over your hands for puppets. Even take those old socks and create faces on them with sharpies, and even scraps of yarn can be added for hair. Can’t wait to see some video of these puppet shows!
4. Play Charades! Good old fashion fun with family!
5. Parents, create an obstacle course for your kids. The element of surprise will delight your children when they discover how creative their folks are when they experience your obstacle course!
6. Play restaurant. Let the kids plan the food, design a menu, decide the costs, and hostesses seat their guests! Don’t forget to leave a good tip, parents!
7. Make a fort with pillows, blankets, chairs, couch, etc. What fun they will have!
8. Get a sheet or blanket and cover a table. Cozy tents are so welcoming for a good book with a comfy pillow. Take it one step more, and give kids flashlights and bedding and spend the night in the homemade tent.
9. Do a puzzle! Then when you complete the puzzle, carefully turn it over, and draw on the back pieces of the puzzle. Now, you have two puzzles!
10. Create a to-do list of chores needed around the house that are extra than the regular expected ones. If anyone wants extra technology time, they can earn it this way.
11. If your kids are begging for a pet, have kids put together a presentation and reasons why they should get one! (This doesn’t mean they will get one, but give them at least the chance to give reasons why they should get one! Ha!)
12. Old Fashion Pillow Fight! Mom is the referee!
13. Time for a Broadway play! Have kids create their own script, make tickets, create props, create costumes, rearrange furniture to give them space. Maybe have the Tony Awards presentation for best actors, script, directors! Now this one, I really want you to send me pictures! I may even give out awards !
14. Have a birthday party for a favorite stuff animal. Cake and Candles and games!
15. Take turns hiding something around the house. When kids walk around searching, remind them they are getting warmer, warmer, hotter, boiling when they approach the hidden item and colder when they move away.
16. Mud paint play! Ok, this one is a little messy, but go ahead after a rain, and let the kids play in the mud, and make old fashion mud pies. Just have the hose handy!
17. Play Shark Tank! Have kids present an idea to you as the judge, and a business plan, and why this business venture is worth you pretend investing. They have to first search a realistic need for society, then create a product with the solution.
18. Take a penny hike around your home or apartment, Every time you come to a corner, toss a penny, tails go left and head go right!
19. Make some homemade GIANT bubbles! And these are HUGE bubbles! 6 cups water, 1/2 cup Blue Dawn dish detergent, 1/2 cup corn starch, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1 tbsp glycerine. Dissolve cornstarch in water stirring well, Add remaining items stirring softly not to make froth. Let mixture sit for one hour, stirring occasionally. While mixture is sitting, make your wand with two straws and a length of yarn that is 6 to 8 times longer than the length of one straw. Thread the yarn through the straws, tie a know and get ready for one of the best times ever!
20. Bowling Bash! Save empty plastic water bottles or drinking bottles. Use soft balls you already have or create your own balls with masking tape. Wad up the tape in a ball and continue to wrap the tape to make a ball.
21. Design your own board game. Create all the parts to play the game.
22. Create a Water Wall! This is an amazing outdoor activity for hours of fun! A Water Wall is a structure that holds containers, tubes, and funnels and when the children pour water into a container at the top, it pours, flows and drips through all of the items until it empties out onto the container or bucket on the ground. You could attach your water wall to a fence, baby gate or piece of lattice. Grab a piece of wood, and gather various bottles and containers to use. Attach the containers to the wood or item you will use as the backboard, then attach your containers by punching holes in them and fasten them with either zip-ties or any type of wire or twisties. This activity is a winner !
23. Create a Sand Wall- Same as above but use sand instead of water.
24. Muddy fun- Yes, more mud fun! Keep a container, bucket or wheelbarrow of mud, so the kids can just go create with mud and get their hands, all messy!
25. Pour a bag of pretzels on the table, and have the kids take nibbles out of the pretzels to make letters, to spell things.
26. Set up a buck and rope and create a pulley contraception.
27. Make homemade streamers for the kids to move and dance to with praise music. Grab a scarf, kitchen towels or any fabric and you have your streamers. Encourage the kids to dance and move all around.
28. Sidewalk chalk always is fun to decorate sidewalks.
29. If you don’t have outdoor chalk, make homemade sidewalk paint- So easy to make. Just need three ingredients, corn starch, water and food coloring! Grab a paint brush and have at it! Great gross motor skill activity!
30. Cardboard boxes are the best! Stack on each other, make houses, paint and create on them and build a town! And with so much delivery , save those boxes to cumulate for creative fun!
31. Paint with shaving cream. Add food color to shaving cream and create!

Well, this is a start for anyone that gets a little bored or needs a change of pace at home. Let this be a time and a season that we will all remember and will cherish our time with our children at home. Enjoy each day, and my suggestion, as a former homeschool mom of 15 years, is to start your day with your kids in prayer and get a few lessons completed. Then take at least one fun activity each day to lighten the stress of it all! Please feel free to call me with any questions or suggestions!

Next lists coming: Kid friendly cooking recipes, Art projects, STEAM experiments

Blessings, Enjoy, and Have Fun!