At this point, I think we’re all pretty tired of social distancing at home thanks to COVID, but as the summer draws to an end, it’s time to start preparing for even more staying home. Whether we’re dealing with a pandemic like COVID or your average cold and flu season, families tend to spend more time indoors and at home during the colder months.
If you have a newborn baby, avoiding colds, flu, and COVID becomes even more critical. Let’s talk about fun home activities you can do with your family- pandemic or not!
No Prep Home Activities
Chances are if you’re looking up home activities for your family right now, you’re suffering from COVID burnout, and you need ideas. These are activities you can likely do right now with very little preparation!
1. Giant fort
Move the furniture and take all the sheets off the beds, and grab all the extra blankets. Make a fort as big as you possibly can. Allow your children to use their problem-solving abilities to help construct a sturdy fort, then let your child take the lead on where the home activity leads after the fort is constructed – you will be surprised at how creative they are!
2. Karaoke
You don’t need a real microphone for karaoke; just let your little ones put on a performance of their favorite songs for the family. Take turns singing and dancing. If you have a real karaoke machine, even better — kids love hearing themselves through a microphone.
3. Obstacle course
Move the furniture and get creative with large objects around the house. Create an obstacle course for your children. Be sure to make the obstacles tricky, but not unobtainable for your little ones.
4. The floor is lava
Like the obstacle course, you might need to move furniture slightly, so your little ones can move from object to object. Watch out for the floor – it’s lava!
5. Exercise
Play Simon Says, exercise style. Lead the family in a workout class full of jumping jacks, butt-kicks, high-knees, etcetera – but only after, “Simon says!”
6. Stack cups
Use any same-size plastic cups you have. Create pyramids and structures and knock them down with toys and bodies.
Some Preparation Home Activities
The following home activities might require some preparation or grabbing a few new items from the store.
1. Arts and crafts
Create something beautiful and seasonally relevant – like a Thanksgiving wreath!
2. Cooking/baking
Bake your favorite sweet treat with the family, or allow your child to help you cook dinner. Let your child choose what to make!
3. Woodshop
Allow your child to build shapes with a real hammer and nails and some scrap wood. Preschool-aged children can use real tools — with your close supervision, of course.
4. Scavenger hunt
Find each item as quickly as you can. Break into teams for added fun and competition!
- A family photo
- A game with play money
- A coffee mug
- Something that you charge
- Something you can fold
- Something new
- Something old
- A dress-up prop
- A book with a girl on the cover
- Something that tastes good
- Something shiny
- A green toy
- Something you use in the rain
- A note
A Lot of Preparation Home Activities
Lastly, for a more involved home activity, create a magical twinkle star movie night.
Break out the Christmas lights or grab some brand new twinkle star lights and string them all over the ceiling. Create a big soft blanket pile for everyone to lay on the floor together, and put on a new or favorite family movie. Serve popcorn or other movie snacks, and wear glow sticks.
It’s just a movie, but these extra details might make it a movie night your children remember fondly forever.
COVID or not, we all end up inside more often than we may like in the cold months. These fun home activities for your family will help to create meaningful memories of your time together and provide lots of entertainment for everyone.