117 Handy Kids Activity Ideas for Busy Mums and Dads
by Evie Winter -Read more about The Playground Mission.
Once homework is done, have you found yourself being roped in to endless games of Hide and Seek or with a complete brain freeze, thinking "I have no idea what to do with the kids now and it is only 1pm!!!”
Let me tell you, even with a background with working with kids and as a home educator - I frequently have these moments.
So after one too many games of hide and seek I decided to create a list of the kids activities we love and the ones we want to do, feel free to print off and stick up for your info, or save this page to your bookmarks. Some of these have the added benefit of being quite educational and supporting your child’s education and learning.
Which one do you think your kids would love?
Evie
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Playdough
Cornflour
Painting
Drawing
Handwriting sheets
Dot to Dot
Colouring
Papier Mache
Pasta Worms (cooked spaghetti hiding in flour).
Water play
Pass the parcel
Pin the tail on the donkey
Find a new kids podcast to listen to
Watch a nature show
Learn to sign the alphabet
Learn to knit
Learn basic greetings in a another language
Watch a cartoon in a different language
Day time bath
Puddle Walk
Nature Scavenger Hunt. The rain might be out, nature isn’t going anywhere
Read aloud. Let your child pick a book and just read.
Cooking. Plan a menu that your child can get involved in, how about home made pizza?
Baking. From cheese scones to cupcakes.
Plan and rehearse a concert, present to friends or family over zoom
Have a zoom play date
Build a blanket fort
Face painting
Jigsaws
Lego buildings
Board games
Scroll through old phone photos, choose some to be printed.
Educational apps like Reading Eggs or equivalent for your child's age!
Google at home science experiments
Write wish list of things to do after lockdown is over
Write and post small mail.
Take some artistic portraits through the raindrops on the window
Hide and seek
Bowling with bottles or loo roll
Indoor obstacle course
YouTube keep for videos
Create slow motion videos
Create a photo booth
Learn from YouTube or choreograph a dance
Make a fairy Garden
Have a snail race
Visit an online aqurium
Get out your old wedding dress and wedding photos
Look at baby photos
Have a movie afternoon
Have a dance party
Create a Lockdown time capsule.
Origami / paper airplanes
Write a story
Write a poem
Research your family tree
Layout all small world toys to make a small town
Design art for dolls House walls
Play shops
Play cafes
Play hospitals
Play cutting and tearing
Play with sellotape
Play with coloured rice
Create a project on something child is interested in
Make a baking soda volcano
Make a necklace out of pasta
Make a friendship bracelet
Make a weather dial
Paint rocks
Make shadow puppets
Have an impromptu party
Finger painting
Afternoon movie
Play Simon says
Have a fashion show
Hairdressing and pampering afternoon
Treat your children to a formal dinner, you be the waiters and waitresses
Go for a run abt I'm the (just before the hot bath we talked about
Discover some new audio books
Rescue worms in puddles
Bath toys in puddles
Make mudpies
Take daily rain measurements
Glue and pasta to make pasta pictures
Create a art gallery of their work, have an exhibition
Teddy bears picnic
Have afternoon tea
Try out morning baskets
Make a watercolour salt painting
Create a terrainium
Practice sewing skills
Learn some of the life skills like sorting washing out how to dial 999
Explore a city or a museum using online resources available %
Hide fairy messages when you go out for walks
Play airports, go on holiday
Create a salt dough thumb / hand print family moment.
Google "famous birthdays on this day", pick one of the people to learn about and celebrate their birthday.
Visit daysoftheyear.com to find an interesting day to research and celebrate. Today (Tuesday) includes Superhero Day, Pay It Forward and Cubical Day where people can decorate / personalise their working space. There is good potential for kids activities there!
Make and hang a bird feeder
Go on a bug hunt
Have a garden bird watch
Make a scrapbook
Create some family portraits
Make a video of your family taking about lockdown to watch back in years to come.
Indoor hopscotch with making tape
Make pictures for the window
Potato painting
Turn the bath into a water tray
Make popcorn
Fried chickpeas
Nursery songs with actions
Pinata
Make a treasure map
Read in a party of the house you've never read in before (even the hallway has novelty factor for us).
Make a scrapbook
Create a reading nook with tea lights and pillows
Hope you enjoyed these!
Evie Winter is a mother and lifestyle photographer based in Winchester, Hampshire.
Read more about me here.