Are your kids starting to get cabin fever? With beaches, hiking trails, and parks now closed in San Diego County, it can be tough to find ways to keep your kids entertained. Luckily, there are plenty of activities you can do at home with your kids!
Stay Active
1. Build a Fort: Get their engineering brains going with a pillow fort. Prop up the living room cushions, hang some sheets, and bust out the flashlights for some indoor camping.
2. Camp Outdoors: Pitch a tent in the backyard! Take advantage of the wonderful spring San Diego weather to get your kids outdoors without leaving the neighborhood.
3. Make an Obstacle Course: Set out things for your kids to jump over, crawl under, or tiptoe around. Just don’t forget to put away anything fragile first!
4. Hold a Scavenger Hunt: Hide some objects around the house, make up some clues, and watch your kids entertain themselves for hours!
5. Play Hide-and-Seek: It’s a classic for a reason. Get your kids occupied with a good game of hide-and-seek! Or switch it up with Sardines, a variant where one person hides and when they’re found, the finder hides in the same place as the hider.
Arts & Crafts
6. Vegetable Stamps: Get your kids creating their own art with vegetable stamps. Just cut some vegetables or even fruit in half and get them stamping away. Learn more about how to do it here.
7. Finger Knit: Don’t trust your kids with pointy needles? Get them finger knitting! Find instructions here.
8. Hold a Coloring Contest: Search for coloring pages online, print them out, and get ready to color! Give out prizes for the most colorful, most creative, or prettiest drawing.
9. Have a Shaving Cream Bath: Make bath time fun bysquirting some shaving cream on the walls of the bathtub. Kids will have fun creating their own art or playing with the foam. You can even add a few drops of food coloring beforehand to create different colored “paints.” When you’re done, just rinse down the shower (and your kids) for easy cleanup!
10. Fold some Origami: Give your kids some paper and teach them some patterns from the internet, or let them go wild with their own imagination! After they’re done with the activity, you can showcase their work around your home.
Family Time
11. Movie Night: Rent a movie digitally or put on a DVD. With some homemade popcorn and cozy blankets, your kids will love movie night with the family.
12. Solve a Puzzle: Grab a puzzle and sit down for some family time. You can order puzzles online or from many local stores. Pick a theme your kids are sure to love like dinosaurs, outer space, or Disney. Remember: the more pieces, the tougher the puzzle!
13. Play a Board Game: Board games are all the rage today, and there are plenty of kid-friendly options on the shelves. Revisit your own childhood by playing the classics like Chutes and Ladders, Monopoly, Candy Land, and more. Or pick out more modern games like Monopoly Deal, Blokus, or Taboo. If you don’t have any games on-hand, check out your local game store and ask if they’ll ship to your house.
14. Blow Bubbles: Mix together some dish soap and water, and use wire hangers to make custom bubble wands for a day of fun.
15. Read Aloud Together: Discover a new book together or read one of your favorite childhood books aloud!
Food and Drink
16. Bake Something: Pull up your favorite recipe and get baking! Kids can help measure ingredients and mix. As a bonus, you get to enjoy your baked goods at the end.
17. Make S’mores: You don’t need a campfire to enjoy some s’mores. Toast some graham crackers and chocolate in a toaster oven for an easy homemade version of this gooey goodness.
18. Build Your Own Hot Chocolate: Set up a hot chocolate station with peppermint sticks, marshmallows, and more. Let your kids decorate their own hot decadent chocolate mugs!
19. Make Fresh Lemonade: Lemonade is easy to make in your own kitchen.With plenty of vitamin C, lemonade will help keep your kids’ immune systems going strong.
20. Cook a Meal Together: Now that your kids are home more, it’s a great time to get them involved in learning how to cook. Get them involved in hands-on activities, such as washing fruits and veggies, forming meatballs, and mixing sauces and dressings.
These are just a few kid-friendly home activities to try. What fun things are you enjoying with your kids? Let me know in the comments below.
