50 Ideas To Keep Your Kids Busy
Who else has kids that are bored? This crazy last few months have made me realize my kids really loved their activities! We’ve missed out on dance, friends, recitals, competitions, baseball games, practices, swim team, and so much more that they are involved in. I don’t know if you’re like me but you don’t know how busy you are until you aren’t busy anymore! Even though, we’ve missed the activities, we’ve discovered that we can be happy at home. We are having to stay on top of limiting screen time (because it’s so easy to do) but we are finding fun things to do individually and as a family! I wanted to to share 50 ideas we’ve done to keep our kids busy over the last few months. Many of these ideas are from my own kids and husband.
50 Ideas To Keep Your Kids Busy
- Duct Tape Art – take some duct tape and make designs on cardboard or poster board and then color in the spaces. When you pull the duct tape, you’ll have a beautiful piece of art!
- Nail & Hair Salon – my girls love to do each other’s nails and hair. Even Daddy lets Miss Tatyana brush his hair. Do a special make up for them. We did a “Wood Fairy” on Tatyana.
- Puppy Training School – my littles will take her stuffed animals out and train them. Better yet, she will “train” our dogs. I think those days are my dog’s favorite days this year.
- Learn a new instrument – my 14 year old decided to learn the piano.
- Start a journal – my youngest decided to start a journal. She writes down the things she’s praying for.
- Collages with painting – we take a huge piece of white paper and then join our artistic skills together to see what we can create.
- Bracelet making – you can make bracelets with beads. Or remember the braided bracelets we made in the 80s? My girls love making those.
- Start a movie series – we started watching the Marvel movies with my teenagers.
- Puppet show – my youngest puts on puppet shows for us all the time.
- Camping – in the backyard! (This is one that we haven’t done but is on the to do list this summer).
- Gardening – start a garden. If you don’t have room in the yard then you can do it in pots.
- Make an Amusement Park – my oldest daughter surprised her daddy, sister, and brother with a mock Disney World. She had their magic bands, made a “ride” in front of the tv and put videos of rides on it. She even sprayed them with a water gun when they did a water ride. 🙂 She also had favorite snacks and a gift shop.
- The Sock Game – silliest game but my kids love it. They have a sock and play “tag” with it.
- Writing Letters – my youngest has absolutely LOVED writing letters to people this last few months.
- Start a fun reality show – we started watching the Masked Singer with our family and just love it. We don’t normally have time to watch shows like this because we are never home at the same time but it’s been so fun!
- Read – start some new books! I never have time to read but I enjoyed some of my favorite Star Trek: Next Generation books. (Yes, I’m a closet Trekkie!)
- Sew – take on a fun sewing projects. Tatyana and I did dresses, blankets and pillows for her dollies.
- Head to a nature preserve – if it’s open. We head earlier in the morning so there aren’t many people. It’s the only time I like to wake up early!
- Butterfly Garden – we loved our Butterfly Garden. From caterpillar to butterfly, it was a fun experience.
- Zoom dates – my kids have loved keeping up with friends on Zoom dates. They minecraft together and play games. Tatyana even set up a dolly salon while her friend set up a dolly salon in her house.
- Movie Theater – set up a movie theater setting in your family room, pop some popcorn, and settle in for a fun, new movie or a family favorite.
- Talk about what’s important – we’ve had amazing conversations about how important our first responders are in this crisis. We’ve also had beautiful conversations about how to be allies to the black community.
- Donut races – we didn’t do this one yet but we plan on it. Get a bunch of donuts, hang them from a tree, and let’s see who eats a whole one the faster. Ha!
- Get a little pool for the backyard. With neighborhood pools closed, have some fun in a little backyard pool. The other day, I looked out and saw my husband, 14 year old, and 8 year old having fun back there!
- Water balloons – the kids had the best time while I took pictures of dropping water balloons over their heads. Haha. Really! It was so much fun!
- Sidewalk Chalk Art – can be so much fun.
- Yoga & Fitness – we started off quarantine all working out (it’s not quite lasted like I hoped but we tried). The girls picked up yoga.
- Make some fun videos – Tatyana started making make up and hair tutorials with the small family iPad. I won’t be making them public but it made her so happy as she spoke to her “audience.”
- Fly kites!
- Find an open field to kick a ball around.
- Bike rides.
- Long walks
- Old movies – I started Elvis movies with my oldest. She is loving it!
- Come in Costume Dinner night – we all showed up to dinner in surprise costumes.
- Learn a Tic Toc dance with your teenagers – I learned a dance. Short story… I can’t remember the name of it. My teenager loved me for it. We will never post the video. Done. Haha.
- Family fort – my family loves making giant forts in the dining room and living room.
- Family Dance Party – we will put a song on and dance it out!
- Laser Game – we used yarn and a bunch of chairs. We strung the yarn across the chairs at different levels and they had to try and get through without touching the lasers!
- Dance Party with Glow in the Dark bracelets and necklaces!
- Sleepovers – my youngest and I are doing this the 2nd Tuesday of each month. Games, a movie, and a treat for just the two of us in my bedroom. Then she gets to sleep with me (and she kicks her Daddy to the couch)!
- Food Truck – yes, we made a food truck! This kept my daughter busy for over a month. She would serve us snacks and drinks. She actually made money on it.
- Pajama Day – yup, we did that a whole lot of days. Especially on a rainy day curled up with books or movies and snuggled together.
- Obstacle Course – bring in some fun play toys from outside, hula hoops. jump ropes, chairs and make a fun obstacle course for your littles.
- Star Gazing
- Baking – who doesn’t love to bake together. Our easy favorite has been Rice Crispy Treats.
- Do days dedicated to things like Wacky Hair Days or Team Sports Jersey Days!
- Family Story Time – write a story together and let everyone contribute.
- Who knows each other the best – write down questions and each family member answers them secretly. Then share your answers and see who knows who the best. I kind of. sort of lost at this one.
- Lego Creation Contest
- At Home Car Wash – the cars get washed and the kids have fun!
There you go…50 Ideas To Keep Your Kids Busy! We had so much fun with a lot of these ideas. Let me know how it goes!
