During this truly bizarre time of social distancing and isolation, I think it’s safe to say that most of us are pretty bored! I know I am and so are my three kids. I feel like I spend a lot of time looking for fun family activities to keep them entertained and the rest of the time tossing their Ipads at them and hoping for some peace!
In a world where most of us spend a lot of time looking at screens instead of truly interacting with each other (myself & family included), this is a great time to try to focus more on having fun together as a family.
I’m not saying that you should ONLY be doing fun family activities while you’re stuck at home social distancing – I’d quickly lose my sanity if I went that route. Personally, I will take every opportunity I can to get a break from my kids right now.
And if that means some days it’s Xbox and YouTube videos all day, I’m fine with it! I am 100% using a “whatever works” attitude right now because my sanity is more important than trying to be a perfect mom.
Now, with that being said, I still think we have a unique opportunity to do some fun family activities together that we probably wouldn’t normally do. Beyond just keeping your kids busy for a bit during these long days, you’ll be making wonderful memories together.
Studies have shown that the simple act of having nightly family dinners does wonders for the emotional, academic, and even physical development of the children in the home.
Imagine how much more could be achieved with regular, fun family activities that will also help you bond and become even closer as a family!
Below are thirty days of fun family activities to get you started…
Baking
Making something together in the kitchen is one of the most fun activities that we do together as a family. Plus it’s something that all kids seem to enjoy. Let everyone choose something they want to bake together as a family. It could be cookies, cake pops, muffins, a pastry—anything yummy and bake-able!
If your kids don’t know how to already, this is a great time to start working on showing them how to read a recipe and use the correct measurements.
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When we are baking together my kids love to wear their dress-up chef’s hat and apron. There’s just something about this little outfit that makes the experience of cooking with mom or dad so special.
Related Post: Simple Outdoor Scavenger Hunt for Kids
Gardening
Gardening is a very useful skill and can be a really fun family activity to do together. You can start a little vegetable, herb, or flower garden depending on the space you have. If you have a lot of space, everyone can have their own little plot where they can grow what they want as well! Gardening is a great way to show your kids how patience, hard work, and perseverance can pay off in big ways!
Bonus: If you have a picky eater you MAY get them to eat a vegetable if they grew it themselves.
Story Time
To get the whole family involved in a favorite story, try acting it out instead of just reading it! Everyone will become part of the story, and you will all have an amazing memory to look back on forever. Bonus points for going all-in with costumes, funny voices, and homemade props! The more ridiculous you act, the more your little kids will love it!
Board Games
Sometimes just a relaxing day of playing board games is a great way to pass the time. If you want to add a little something extra, try making up some new rules and change the same old games up a bit! You can also create your very own games like themed charades, or scavenger hunts! Unleash your creative side, and play by your own rules. 😉
Some of our favorites to play as a family are Clue, Rummikub and Uno.
Have a Craft Day
Coloring, collages, slime making, painting are all fun crafts you can do with your family. Kids love arts and crafts, and they love it even more when mom or dad join in!
My kids love doing arts and crafts and I love it because it keeps them busy. But the downside for me is the mess. My favorite purchase to prevent messes while still letting my kids have lots of fun has been paint sticks!
The paint is concentrated in the stick so there is no need for water or brushes or protective layers! Just take them out and start painting.
My kids usually get paint EVERYWHERE so these have made my life so much easier as far as setup and clean-up go. If the kids want to paint they can just grab the sticks and they don’t have to wait for me to pour the paint, find brushes, and set things up so they don’t ruin my table.
Pizza Night
All you need is dough, toppings, sauce, and an oven to have your very own family pizzeria! You can either give everyone enough to make a personal pizza or make larger family-size pizzas. Cooking together is always a lot of fun and kids love seeing how their creations turned out.
Make a Giant Fort
Making forts is an activity that all kids love to do! And it’s usually an activity that is discouraged (at least in my house) because of the giant mess it makes.
So, having mom or dad not only approve, but join in on the fort making, will make your kids so happy! Plus, this will make for a great memory.
Use cardboard boxes, blankets, couch cushions, pillows, and more to create a giant fort to hang out in.
Movie Marathon
After you finish building your fort, get comfy and watch movies all afternoon. Hang out in your pj’s and cuddle under blankets and just enjoy relaxing together for a while.
Learn Sign Language
Sign language is a very useful language to know, and it is actually a lot of fun to learn. You can use books and/or online tutorials and help each other practice.
You could even try having a little competition and see which kid can go the longest only communicating with sign language. I think this is a win-win for everyone – especially mom!
Related Post: Simple Outdoor Scavenger Hunt for Kids
Film For A Day
Use your phones to document a whole day with your family. Then you can watch it back and even edit it into a fun family movie if you want to! As the years go by, it will be fun to look back and remember what a fun day you had, and how you lived at that time.
Dance Party
Make a playlist with everyone’s favorite songs, and have big dance party! Go crazy and have fun just shaking out all your troubles. You will get a great workout for it, too!
We have been using YouTube a lot in the past few weeks, and a family favorite is GoNoodle. They have really fun dance videos that will get everyone moving.
Yoga/Pilates
Speaking of workouts, Pilates and Yoga are fantastic ways to help with flexibility and fitness. Start with beginner positions, and practice daily until everyone is super comfortable with learning gradually more complex positions.
Our favorite yoga videos are from Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube. My kids really love these and it’s been a really fun family activity to do together.
Picnic
This can be indoor or outdoor, depending on your situation. Pack up some food, drinks, snacks, pillows, and blankets. Then set up a nice little picnic spot in your house or backyard! Picnics are always a lot of fun and much more relaxing than a typical formal meal at a table.
Another fun twist on this would be to have an ice cream picnic on a blanket in the family room while watching a family-friendly movie together.
Make Cards/Write Letters
Letters and cards can mean so much to the elderly in nursing homes and troops overseas. Make some handmade cards with happy messages, or write some kind letters, and send them out to senior homes and military bases. This is a wonderful way to boost morale and spread love to people who may be lonely and discouraged.
Fashion Show
Let the kids try on some old clothes from your closet, and make the craziest outfits they can think of… Then, the parents can pretend to be fashion show judges and score everyone’s costumes. The judges can even have their own eccentric outfits on for extra fun!
Write A Story
This can be done in a lot of ways. You can use a white/chalkboard to add words while everyone takes turns adding one word at a time. You can also write one altogether and put it on paper you can bind together into a homemade book. This also works with filling in Mad Libs Jr. if you need a starting point to get your creativity rolling!
Tie-Dye
Tie-dye is a lot of fun, and is also a great outlet for creativity! You can tie-dye just about any article of clothing, and there are a million ways to tie and dye them! Once they are all finished, you will have a great memory every time you wear whatever you made!
You can also grab this Tie Dye Kit from Amazon that comes with 12 colors, 4 white T-shirts, 12 pairs of gloves, 90 rubber bands, and 2 disposable table cloths. Everything you need is in this kit!
Learn To Sew
Sewing is a skill that always comes in handy at one time or another. Even knowing how to sew on a button can be the difference between an awkward situation and a quick fix with no fuss. Basic stitches are also good to know in any future fashion emergencies.
Build Models
Order a model airplane, building, robot, car, etc., and build it together as a family. Model building is an awesome way to learn about how things go together, and how to work together as a team.
Family Video Games
A lot of modern video games and systems have awesome multiplayer options that make family fun super easy! The Wii, in particular, has some of the best games and features for this (MarioCart is my fave), but you can use any system if you take turns playing one single-player game.
Check Out Old Photo Albums
Learning about family history is a great way to keep memories and traditions alive. Great grandma’s cookie recipe will mean that much more if your kids have a face to place with the stories. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and they also preserve the memories of the past.
Make A Scrapbook With New Photos
To make your own memories for your family’s future, take pictures and add them to a new album! You can even try out scrapbooking to make it even more meaningful and organized. Everyone can fill out a page in their own style and write their own little memory notes next to each picture.
Life-Sized Drawings
Get a big piece of poster board and have someone lay down on it. Then you can trace around their body so you have a template. Once that is done, everyone can work together to fill in the template and make a life sized drawing of the family member!
Karaoke
Karaoke is a lot of fun and making it a family affair is sure to get lots of laughs. You can even hold a contest for the silliest song/voice combo.
Look For Four Leaf Clovers
Clovers with four or more leaves actually do exist, but they are very rare. So, because the likelihood of finding one is so slim, this is an activity that can take up a lot of time!
I’ve never found one before, but if you do it would be pretty exciting! If the thought of only looking for one item sounds a little dull, you could add some other things to look for like dandelions or any other type of wildflower that is native to your area.
Make A Critter House
A typical birdhouse can be a home for lots of animals besides birds! Chipmunks, squirrels, mice, and other small mammals can also make their homes in birdhouses. This is a great way to keep these little guys warm and sheltered in the rain or cold that may be coming up where you live.
Follow An Online Tutorial
This can be anything from cake decorating to wreath making, to knitting a scarf! Just find a beginner video of something cool, and if you have the supplies you need—give it a try! It can be a lot of fun to see how your finished product compares with the videos.
This can be a team effort to do one big project, or each family member can work on one small project! This is a great way to see how differently each person can do the same thing. Use this as an opportunity to teach your kids about individuality, and help them see that everyone is different in awesome ways!
Play In The Rain
Rain is usually an excuse to stay indoors, but you can have a lot of fun stomping in puddles and playing in the mud. My kids absolutely love putting on their rain boots and jacket and getting outside while it’s raining.
Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are really awesome ways to get the brain and body moving. There are also lots of ways to set up a scavenger hunt! You can theme it by color, size, room, and more! Family days and activities should be all about fun!
Check out my post Simple Outdoor Scavenger Hunt for Kids where I created two different outdoor scavenger hunts that you can download and print. This is a family favorite activity because the kids love it plus it gets us all outside and away from screens.
Paint Rocks
Have everyone find a cool rock outside. Then, you can use your imagination to see the shape of something specific in that rock. Once you have figured out what your rock looks like, you can paint it so it becomes that thing.
For example, a lumpy rock might look like a toad; so you can paint legs and eyes and spots on it to make it look like a real toad.
Quiet Time
Quiet time is an opportunity for the kids to think, play by themselves, and give mom and dad a break!
Here are a few ideas to try for quiet time:
1. Puzzles
2. Word Search – You can download my Family Fun Activities word search that has all of the activities I’ve suggested.
Download Fun Family Activities Word Search
3. Reading
4. Educational worksheets
5. Extra chores…my personal favorite lol! If you need help figuring out what chores are age-appropriate for your kids you can find a chart on my post Create a Chore System for Your Kids That Works.
Family activities are wonderful opportunities to bond and create amazing memories with your kids. Always be sure that everyone can enjoy themselves, and that not everything is a competition. Just be creative and have fun with it, and it will be a wonderful thirty days of family activities the whole family will love.
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