This Corona Virus has taken everyone’s lives into a spin. Adjusting to being quarantined at home and social distancing is tough especially for our younger kids. In this article I want to talk about different fun activities for kids that will keep your kids busy. From board games, new hobbies, and even some nature fun around your yard. Don’t let these long days stress you out. Let’s make the most of it together as a family.
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ABOUT COVID-19 AND SOCIAL DISTANCING
COVID-19, which is also known as Corona Virus, is a virus that is easily spread from person to person. The best way to keep yourself and your family safe during this time is by taking precautions. Here are a few things that my family and I do to make sure we stay safe and healthy.
- We don’t make trips to the stores as a family. My husband is the only one that goes to the stores to grab anything that we may need. Only essential trips such as groceries, items that we needed for a busted water pipe that he fixed, gas, etc.
- When my husband gets home from his trip he leaves his shoes by the door, puts his clothes in the wash, and takes a shower.
- I wipe down all handles and items he purchased carefully with antibacterial products and wash my hands with antibacterial soap. If any of the products touched my clothes, I will then change my clothes to clean ones.
- If you don’t have a spouse or someone to run errands for you I recommend wearing a mask, using hand sanitizer at all times and having a good conversation about the virus and touching with your kids. I will explain this below with more details.
- Once you get home have your kids wash their hands thoroughly and take a shower. Always leave shoes by the door or outside by the entrance to avoid bringing in any germs. Sanitize everything before bringing it inside your home. This includes your phone, wallet, purse, keys, door handles, and groceries.
- Take a daily multi-vitamin and also an extra vitamin c to give your immune system the boost it needs to fight anything that may be in the air.
- If you can do curbside pick up for your groceries, do it! It will save you the hassle of running into the store especially if you are with your kids. This is what we do. We also want to keep our car clean of any virus so we put all of our grocery bags in totes and then clean them out when we get home. You can also use boxes and then just throw them away but I highly recommend using something you can reuse.
EXPLAINING CORONA VIRUS AND PROPER SOCIAL DISTANCING TO YOUR KIDS
Young kids don’t quiet understand the madness behind it all. It is good though to discuss proper social distancing and COVID-19 with your kids. The best way we could tell our kids is by being up front with them. We explained to them that just like their are colds and the flu that now there is a new virus that can really make them sick and even mommy and daddy or their sister. That the best way to avoid it and not spread it is by being cautious and keeping their distance from other people.
NO TOUCHING – THE POCKET COOTIE GAME
It is important to break all of this down for them. Teach them proper precautions in a fun way. Tell them not to touch anything only their pockets. That whoever takes their hands out of their pocket loses the cootie game and needs to get hand sanitizer and start over. You can even bribe them that if they win they can get a piece of candy when they get home.
SOCIAL DISTANCING WITH KIDS
The best thing that we do is avoid the possibility of this the best we can. We keep them away from other people because I know my girls love to hug and play with others. However, the best way you can explain this to them is by staying to yardsticks away from others. We just learned about yardsticks and measurements in homeschool so they kind of understand the point of it. However, they do forget about these things immediately once their friends are around so always gently remind them, “Two yardsticks, please!” every time you see your child getting too close to someone else
BE SAFE AND HAVE FUN AT HOME INSTEAD
I know this is easier said than done when you have errands to run. The best advice I can give you is to do curbside pickup and dedicate one day out of the week to run all of your errands so this way you limit your time outside of home the best way possible.
During your time at home, make it fun. Take this time to create fun memories. Your child is most likely missing their neighbor friend or even friends from school or day care. It is hard for them and because of this, we need to keep their little minds busy the best we can. Don’t just glue them to the TV. I’m ok with screentime but be creative with them and do other fun things that they will enjoy as well. Finding some fun activities for kids to do is a great way to make this time more fun and easier for them.
DIFFERENT ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS TO DO AT HOME
There are many ways to have fun at home. Here are a few activities for kids that you all can enjoy together as a family during this time to make the most of your COVID-19 quarantine.
HAVE A MORNING WORSHIP
If you are a religious person, having a worship in the morning is a good way to start the day. You can sing some fun songs with them like “Deep and Wide” to make it even more fun. My daughters like to read a devotion with their grandmother through Facebook messenger in the mornings and this has really helped them bond with their grandmother on a spiritual level as well. They have actually been doing this for about 2 years now.
PLAY BOARD GAMES AND CARD GAMES
Other fun activities for kids would be playing games. We absolutely love playing board games and card games in our home. We have all sorts of games like Sorry, Monopoly, Charades, Spoons, Old Maid, and a tons more. Our new favorite is Slap Jack and Sorry. We also got a few new games from Chuckle and roar which are fun to play as a family too. You can view a list of all of our favorite games below.
- Sorry
- Monopoly: Mario Kart Edition
- Monopoly: Toy Story 2 Edition
- Chuckle and Roar: Charades Games
- and the list goes on and on…
RELATED ARTICLE: The Best Games for Kids from Chuckle and Roar
WATCH A NEW MOVIE OR A FAMILY TV SHOW TOGETHER
With streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and Disney+, you have an infinite number of movies at your finger tips. One of our family’s favorite streaming service right now is Disney+. They are releasing movies that should hit theaters during this pandemic early on Disney+ for families to enjoy. How awesome is that. We just watched Frozen 2, for the millionth time, and even the new movie Onward that just came out two weekends ago. We also like to watch our favorite family shows on Hulu like Lego Masters, America’s Funniest Home Videos, and The Masked Singer.
DO A SCAVENGER HUNT
Scavenger Hunts are so much fun. They’re probably one of my favorite activities to do with the girls. We have so many different types of scavenger hunts to do as well. From outdoor scavenger hunts to even indoor ones. Chuckle and Roar has a Scavenger Hunt that comes with 3 different scavenger hunts in it which is fun to do. It has one for the outdoors, one for the home, and one for the road.
I also create some fun and educational scavenger hunts as well that can help get your kids outside in the yard if you are needing some sun in your life. You can find a few of them in my Resource Library for FREE. We also sell this fun Colors in Nature Scavenger Hunt as well as in my Etsy shop here.
READ A BOOK
Another fun activity that you can do with your kids is read books. Not all children like reading books so you can make it fun. Pull out the pillows and blankets and build a fort. You can even add some Christmas lights around it to add more fun to it. Then lay all of the pillows inside and read books. You can even make it more fun by seeing who can read more books in a week by using these fun Reading Punch Cards or even this Reading Log. Whoever reads the most gets a specially treat.
However, let’s take things outside! You can bring out a blanket and lay it out in your yard so you can read. You can even make a fort outside instead with sticks and blankets that they find.
RELATED ARTICLE: Best Outdoor Books For Children
LEARN A NEW SKILL
At the moment we have all of the time in the world in our hands so why not learn a new skill? This can be anything from drawing, doing origami, painting, singing, dancing, and even learning a new language. You can let your child choose something that they want to learn and take an hour each day for them to learn it. You can use sites like YouTube and SkillShare to learn new skills.
PLANT A GARDEN
It is Spring and this is the time of year everyone starts planting. If you already have materials and seeds at hand I would highly recommend planting a garden. You can also buy seeds online and have them delivered to your house. We let my girls paint pots the other day and plant some flowers. We planted Black-eyed Susans and Daisies. They are so excited watching their little flowers grow.
RELATED ARTICLE: 15 Spring Activities That Are Fun For Kids
PLAY OUTSIDE IN YOUR YARD
Kids have a lot of energy to burn. It is important for them to get some outdoor fun in as well to burn that energy and get some exercise in. I highly recommend, if possible, to go outside and play games in the yard. Here are a few games you and your kids can play.
- Tag
- Hide and seek
- Catch
- Kick ball
- Ride bike
- Ride your scooter
- Do an obstacle course
- Blow bubbles
- Play with chalk
- Do jumping jacks and other kid friendly exercises
- Do a race
- Safely climb a tree
START A JOURNAL OR A DIARY
Another fun activity for kids is keeping a journal or a diary. It doesn’t have to be super complicated. You can make it fun by letting them draw something in it or use their journal in different ways. They can use it to write something positive from each day. This way you can help them keep a positive mindset. Your child can also use it as a prayer journal to write down special prayer requests or prayer thank-yous. It can even be a journal to talk about their day. However you and your child decide to do it, I believe it is a new way to look at the positive in life during this pandemic.
HAVE A PICNIC OUTSIDE
We love doing picnics in our backyard whenever we can or even having lunch on our deck. It makes lunch time that much more fun. To make things more fun I will even bring out special snacks or treats for when they are done with their foods. For instance, I would let them have a popsicle or a cookie while we read a book or watch the birds.
LEARN HOME ESSENTIAL SKILLS
Depending on the age of your children, I think it is very important to learn home essential skills around the home. For younger kids this can be unloading the dishwasher, sweeping their rooms, feeding the pets, or even picking up their toys and dirty clothes. Older kids, on the other hand, can learn more advanced home essential skills such as cooking, baking, washing clothes, or even sweeping and mopping.
I know that this may sound boring but it doesn’t have to be. You can make it fun by making it competitive and fun. You can use a Weekly “Chore” Chart and every time they complete a skill they place an acorn for that day on that task. If by the end of the week they have a certain amount of acorns on their chart then they can get a reward. These rewards can be anything like them picking the movie for movie night, getting to pick a new book or something that they want online to be mailed to the house or even cash.
I know not everyone agrees with this but I highly believe that if you teach your kids some age appropriate tasks, you are teaching them responsibility and how to earn their reward. Down the road this will help teach your child to work and keep their home clean as well as work outside of the home. I believe these values should be implied at home so they can continue to pursue life with the same work ethics. However, this doesn’t take away from them being kids. We should always have a balance. I’m not going to overload my children with chores either.
BAKE TREATS
Oh this is a very fun one. My daughters and I love baking. It can be cake, cookies, you name it. We love baking treats especially during the Christmas time. One fun thing you can do is bake sugar cookies and decorate them in the shape of flowers with frosting and sprinkles. You can also try a new baking recipe if you have all of the ingredients at home already. This will make it so much and also help them learn new kitchen skills.
You can take this time to teach them measurements depending on their age. What I do with my oldest is that I have her read the recipe to me and measure out each ingredient for me. I then would ask her questions like, “Is the teaspoon bigger or smaller than a tablespoon?” or “Is 1/2 a cup of oil smaller or larger than 1 cup of flour?” This will help her think and learn the differences in size in each measurement.
COOK A NEW MEAL TOGETHER
I usually do all of the cooking cause my girls are young. My oldest is slowly being introduced to it but she still makes me nervous around the stove. To play it safe in the kitchen it is important to teach them first a few things like what items are hot, how to properly wash your hands, cross contamination, about knives, etc. Don’t make it overly complicated but just the basics for them to learn. Oh and please never leave them unsupervised.
You can sit down with your child and scroll through recipes on Pinterest to see which one catches their attention. You can search something like easy recipes. I think pastas is a good way to introduce the kitchen to your child. Once you have a recipe picked out, you can have your child go through the kitchen and pull out all of the ingredients that are needed on the recipe. Also have your child grab any measurement cups or spoons needed. Once all of the items are on the counter have your child read and do each step on the recipe and just help them out as they go.
Once the meal is complete tell them how proud you are of them and how grateful you are for their help. They will be so proud and excited about cooking dinner for the family that night.
CAMP IN YOUR BACKYARD
Sadly our yard is on an incline so we can’t do this but I have seen other parents do it and think it’s so fun. Like you can’t go camping out, why not camp in your own backyard instead. Just set up the tent, bring some flashlights, their sleeping bags, and have some outdoor fun. Best of all, everything you need is just inside.
HAVE A FUN “SLEEPOVER” IN THE LIVING ROOM
Can’t go camping in your own backyard? That’s okay. Bring the camping into your own living room. You can either make a fort, set up a small tent if you have one, or just take out that sleeping bags and have a “sleepover” in your own living room. You can even make popcorn and make it movie night too.
LEARN SOMETHING NEW ABOUT NATURE
This one is another fun activity for kids. You can learn so many new things from nature and even the world around you. You can take this time to learn something new with your kids. Here are a few ideas of things you can learn with them.
- The different types of clouds
- Birds: identifying, their song, eggs, and types of nest.
- Wildlife around your home
- The life-cycle of water
- The different trees in your area
- The different planets and constellations
I have a very fun and FREE Constellation Scavenger Hunt in my Resource Library if you want to snag it up too.
DO ARTS AND CRAFTS
We always have arts and crafts stuff laying around our homeschool room but you can use pretty much anything. Pinterest also has tons of arts and craft ideas for kids that are perfect to bring out their creativity. It can be anything from painting, coloring, making a collage, and many more ideas. You can scroll through Pinterest with your child and see which ones they want to do most. Most of the items you can purchase on Amazon and have shipped to your home if you don’t already have it.
SUMMARY
Well I hope that this blog post on fun activities for kids at home will help you make the most of this pandemic and that all of these activities for kids will be very beneficial for both you and your family. There are so many other things I can add to this list too but then I would never finish so I tried my best to narrow it down as much as possible.
I’m still praying that all of this will be over soon. Stay safe during this time and make the most of it with your family.
What are some fun things that you and your kids are doing at home at the moment? Let me know in the comments below.
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