Spending time with our children is important, but we often lack ideas of things to do with them. When we are trying to limit video game use, it makes coming up with options all the more challenging. Keeping kids busy can seem like a full-time job, but spending even 15 minutes of quality time with them is what makes memories. We have put together a few fun and easy ideas of things you can do right at home to get you started. Keep this list handy and refer to it whenever your child says: “but I’m bored!”.
- Art Time– coloring, painting, etc.
- Bike Ride – skate, scooter, or ride a bike around your neighborhood.
- Blocks – see who can build the highest block tower.
- Board Games – having a good collection of board games can bring hours of entertainment.
- Cards – Hearts, Gin Rummy, Go Fish, the options are endless.
- Care Package – you can make a card together, gather treats, or bake goodies and send a care package to a loved one or a soldier.
- Create a Puzzle – put together your own puzzle by cutting up photos or postcards.
- Decorate – your bike with streamers or stickers, or your room with glow in the dark stickers.
- Draw a Map of your neighborhood.
- Edible Activities – Baking or cooking together is fun, tactile, and of course, you have the treat to enjoy after.
- Family Walk – get in some exercise and play a game of ‘I Spy’ along the way.
- Lawn Games – Cornhole, Badminton, Croquet, Ladder Ball, and even Chess. There are so many great lawn games to choose from, and you can have prizes for the winner.
- Movie in Bed – Saturday morning family movie in bed with breakfast.
- Movie Outdoors – set up a screen and watch a movie on the lawn or while floating in the pool.
- Obstacle Course – make your own obstacle course outdoors or indoors.
- Performances – sing songs or put on skits for each other.
- Picnic – Have a picnic in your own backyard or at a local park.
- Planting Seeds from something you ate (watermelon, peppers, etc.). It’s fun for kids to see the cycle of things and how they can regrow.
- Pool Games – In Miami, many of us are lucky to have a pool, not only is swimming fun, but you can play games like Marco Polo
- Potato Sack Races – you can use pillowcases if you don’t have sacks.
- Puzzles – Building puzzles together is so much fun. This is a family activity that can grow along with your child and do together through adulthood.
- Rock Painting – you can even give rocks as gifts or write positive messages on them and scatter them on your neighborhood walk.
- Scavenger Hunt or treasure hunt
- Science Experiments – baking soda and vinegar, mentos and soda, raisins in bubbly water.
- Sell Something – host a lemonade stand, sell avocados, or host a garage sale.
- Sensory Tables can help kids with their motor skills.
- Sewing – make clothes for dolls, sewing pillows is also easy and fun.
- Sidewalk Chalk- draw with sidewalk chalk and when you finish, make a hopscotch game to play.
- Sock Puppets – making sock puppets with markers, or you can glue fun items to them. Use your creations to put on a show.
- Spa Day – host your own spa day with DIY masks, paint each other’s nails; dads can enjoy this too.
- Taste Test – put on blindfolds and do a taste test of different random foods.
- Tea Party – Host a tea party for teddy bears.
- Tie-dye – coffee filters with food coloring and hang them in a window like stained glass.
- Wash the Car – washing the car is a fun activity that also gets a chore done.
Simple ideas are usually best and what is most important is the quality time you spend together as a family.
