The phrase “stuck at home” can fill families with dread over looming boredom. However, time spent at home can be anything but boring! With some creative thinking, parents can find tons of fun things to do at home with their kids. Here are 100 ideas to get you started.
Make Your Home More Homey Together
Your home is your family’s sanctuary, the shelter from life’s storms, the place that houses some of your most precious memories. Make the indoor and outdoor space your family resides in as beautiful as possible together.
Revamp a Bedroom
With a few cans of paint and a paint brush, you can totally transform a bedroom space together, all in the span of a day. Have kids help with cleaning and prepping, choosing the paint colors, and even putting a few brushstrokes on the walls.
Create Amazing Wall Art
Grab some canvas and colors and create stunning wall art that will brighten up any space.
Plant a Pretty Perennial Garden
A flower garden is a perfect addition to any yard space. Get your family outside, give them a shovel, and plant a perennial garden that will beautify your outdoor area each and every year.
Team Up With Tools
Does your home need a few fix-its? Make those simple home projects a family affair with your kids. Be a team with tools as you address your home’s needs. Your kids can help hand you the proper tools, do some measuring, and maybe even bang a few nails.
Decorate Your Mailbox
If your neighborhood permits it, decorate your mailbox so everyone will always know exactly where your home is, simply by the creative mailbox on the curbside.
Create Stepping Stone Paths in the Yard
Make a winding stepping stone path through your yard. Purchase the stones at a local landscaping company or make them as a family.
Add a Bird Bath to the Garden
Bird baths are pretty and functional, and this one is easy enough for the whole family to make. Bonus: it won’t break the bank.
Fashion a Sand Box
Fashion a sand box in your backyard space so that the kids have plenty to do outside during the warmer months.
Build a Book Nook
Build a book nook for your family of bookworms. Using purchased wooden crates, or ones you scored at an antique market, make a space in your home devoted to snuggling and reading.
Create a Chalkboard Wall
Make a space for your family to literally draw on the wall. Chalkboard walls are easy to make and serve as a creative place where kids can draw, and families can write notes to one another. When it gets filled up, it can be erased so that the fun can start all over again.
Decorate Your Fireplace Together
A fireplace and mantel beg to be decorated. At the turn of each season or before every holiday, transform your mantel into something genuinely awe-inspiring together!
Make a Fire Pit
If your yard has unused space, work together to make a fire pit. Chilly weather and warm summer nights both lend themselves to evenings out at the family fire pit. Tell spooky stories, roast marshmallows, and relax in a spot that feels miles from home, but is really twenty feet from your backdoor.
Create Crafts That Are Fun for All Ages
Kids love a good craft, and creating interesting projects is a perfect way to spend time together, no matter the weather or the season. No one will be whining about being bored when you pull one of these ideas out.
Build a Bird House
Build a bird house in the backyard to attract feathered friends. Take up birdwatching as an extension activity.
Make Slime
There are a million different ways to make slime. Kids love creating and playing with it, and parents love that it keeps everyone occupied all afternoon.
Create Sidewalk Chalk Paint
Whip up a batch of sidewalk chalk paint and transform your driveway and sidewalk into the talk of the neighborhood.
Design a Family Motto and Emblem
What does your family stand for? Come up with a family motto and a creative emblem to show what is essential to your brood.
Make a Family Yearbook
Pull out pictures, awards, and artifacts from the last year and make a family yearbook showcasing the many highlights experienced over the previous 365 days.
Fashion Jewelry for Loved Ones
Grab wooden and plastic beads, string, pipe cleaners, and other materials found in craft closets. Gather around the kitchen table and become jewelry designers. Make something for family members, neighbors, and friends.
Build a Fairy Garden
Fairy gardens are easy to make, and once completed, they add a perfectly whimsical touch to an outdoor space. Make one together, or create a few for special corners of the family garden.
Get Busy With Bubbles
Play with DIY bubbles in the backyard. Who can make the largest bubble? Whose bubble stays in the air the longest? Observe the many colors in each bubble shape.
Make a Family Time Capsule
Make a family time capsule specific to your family. Put pictures, mementos, and clippings signifying major current events in the world. Bury the capsule in your yard and decide on a date in the future to dig it back up and see how the family and the world have changed.
Build Indoor Forts
Cold or rainy days keep kids cooped up indoors, but that doesn’t mean the family can’t make some fun together. Create cool indoor forts to allow imaginations to run wild.
Make Musical Instruments
Grab pots, pans, boxes, rubber bands, spoons, and anything else that might be useful for making musical instruments. Fashion shakers, drums, stringed objects, and kazoos and make some noise.
Decorate Pots for Plants
Bring the outdoors inside with pretty pots for plants. Use terra-cotta pots and plenty of color, glue, jewels, and rocks to make stunning pots to grow things in.
Design Your Own Lip Gloss
Kids love making things they can actively use, which is why crafting lip gloss is a favorite activity for youngsters. The gloss recipes are simple enough for older kids to try out sans parents, or you can help young children create their own.
Build a LEGO Village
Gather up the millions of tiny LEGO bricks you have lying around and work together to plan and create a massive LEGO village on the dining room table.
Move With Your Sporty Family
Some families were made to move. If your kids love being active, get out there and play with them. You don’t have to head past your driveway to engage in any of these sports or games.
Hold Backyard Races
Spend a sunny afternoon challenging each other to races. Create interesting ways to compete with your loved ones, including backward hopping races, wheelbarrow racing, egg and spoon racing, and potato sack racing.
Do a Fitness Challenge
Get your workout on. Do an at-home fitness challenge together. Set some sit-up, push-up, jumping jack, and lunge goals, and then try to achieve them together.
Make a Family Workout Video
Create your own family workout video. Put your moves to music and upload the finished product to YouTube for the world to see.
Learn the Basics of Certain Sports
Introduce the fundamentals of soccer, basketball, baseball, and gymnastics to kids in your very own yard. See what your children really gravitate to, and look at future recreation activities in those areas.
Jump Some Rope
Everyone will be left with smiles on their faces and sweat on their bodies because jumping rope is hard work. See who can get the most consecutive jumps. Try a bit of double dutch jumping for families in need of an extra jump rope challenge.
Have a Dance Party
Turn those tunes up, and dance like no one is watching. Have fun freely dancing about with your family, or try to make up a choreographed dance routine.
Play Freeze Tag
If you have space in your home or yard, play a round of freeze tag. This is a great way to get some energy out before mealtime.
Make an Obstacle Course
Make an obstacle course in your home or your yard. Create simple ones for young kids or complex ones for older children and teens.
Play Race the Clock
Race the Clock is fun and productive. Give kids a certain amount of time and a task (pick up shoes, put toys away, gather the trash in the house). Can they get the task done before time runs out?
Try Some Gentle Yoga
Try some gentle parent-child yoga poses before bed. This is a perfect way to stretch out those bodies before ending the day.
Have a Handstand Contest
Get out in the yard and have a family handstand contest. Who can stay upside down the longest?
Cook With the Kids in the Kitchen!
The kids likely see you in the kitchen every day preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Kitchen chores and activities don’t have to be all work and no play. These family-centric activities feed the family and create fun with food.
Have a Chef for the Day Week
Everyone chooses one day in the week to create an inspiring dinner for the family.
Try a Make Your Own Pizza Night
Gather items needed to make homemade pizzas and fashion delicious pies for a Friday night dinner.
Do a Cook-Off
Split the family into teams and set a time limit. Each team has to work together to create the best dish. Who reigns supreme in the family kitchen?
Bake Something Sweet for Neighbors and Friends
Make cookies, brownies, or other sweet treats for loved ones. Spend the day working to make many batches of your favorite snacks, and then pass them out to friends and family.
Bake New Loaves of Bread
The smell of freshly baked bread will leave everyone drooling. Make bread baking a family affair. Pair your loaves with a warm and savory soup or stew on a cold winter’s eve.
Make Homemade Popsicles
Homemade popsicles are a perfect summer treat. Use your kids’ favorite flavors to make a few batches to keep on hand in the freezer.
Cook Up Yummy Dog Treats for the Family Pup
If a pup is part of your family, work together to make him tasty dog treats to reward his good behavior.
Use Veggies From the Garden to Make a Meal Masterpiece
For families with vegetable gardens, make a meal using what you can find in your garden. Use herbs, fruits, and veggies to create healthy dinner delights.
Design a Fancy Family Meal
Set the table with candles and turn on the music. Make a favorite family recipe together, and then dress in your finest frocks, creating a fancy home dining experience!
Try a Meal Subscription Box for a Month
Consider trying a meal subscription box out for a month or two. Choose the entrees as a family, prep and cook the box’s contents, and enjoy new recipes together.
Host a BBQ
Keep it to just family, or invite the neighbors over for a fun backyard BBQ.
Make Homemade Ice Cream
Homemade ice cream is easy to make, and it tastes so much better when made right in your own kitchen.
Learn New Kitchen Skills
Get in the kitchen and teach the kids what they need to know to prepare their own meals someday. Hold lessons on washing fruits and veggies, slicing and dicing (for older kids), mixing, and mashing. Choose a new kitchen skill to focus on each day or each week, depending on how much time you devote to kitchen activities.
See What You Can Make With Science
Exploring scientific concepts and experimenting is a perfect way to spend an afternoon with loved ones. You don’t have to head out to a city science center to discover the answers to these burning scientific questions. You can perform plenty of cool experiments right at home.
Make a Lava Lamp
DIY lava lamps are pretty to look at once completed, but the magic is in making them. This experiment focuses on liquid density levels. The heavier oil and lighter water never mix, creating the effect you see in the finished product.
Create DIY Bath Bombs
Before you end the day with a long soak in the tub, make some DIY bath bombs. This is a fun experiment/activity for everyone to help with, and the best part is, kids get to use what they made at the end of a long day of fun.
Write Messages in Invisible Ink
Spend an afternoon writing messages in invisible ink. This at-home lesson is fun for kids of all ages, and teaches a bit about the oxidation process.
Make (Edible) Chocolate Playdough!
You can play with it and eat it, making it a major hit in many families. Edible chocolate playdough is as much fun to nibble on as it is to create and explore with.
Make a Tiny Terrarium
Make a tiny terrarium together to better observe and learn about how elements of the environment interact. Be sure to assign watering duties to different members of the family each week!
Sink or Float Experiment
Learning about objects that sink and float is an excellent experiment for young kids to partake in. Fill the tub with water and gather plenty of waterproof objects. Make educated guesses as to which ones will sink and which ones will float. Now drop the objects in the water. Did they sink or float? Were your guesses correct?
Have Fun With Rainbow Celery
Rainbow celery will capture everyone’s attention. How water molecules move through objects is a fascinating science topic for kids. Have them explore the concept at home using celery, water, and food coloring.
Amazing Egg Experiments
Who knew you could do so many science-tastic activities with a little old egg? Do a single egg experiment, or have an egg experiment marathon day, whatever your family has the time and attention span for.
Design a Nifty Rain Gauge
If you can scrounge up a plastic bottle, a ruler, and a permanent marker, then you and the kids can create a rain gauge. Use your rain gauge to measure the rain that falls near your home.
Make a Sundial
Make a DIY sundial to help kids hone in on measuring skills as they create a knowledge base for how the sun moves across the sky.
Explore Nature in the Yard
Nature opens up a whole new world for families to get lost in every single day. While nature hikes, canoe trips down a winding river, and camping in a deep, lush forest are all amazing family adventures, there is plenty you can do with nature in your own yard.
Have a Nature Scavenger Hunt in Your Yard
Use what you have in your yard to go on an epic nature scavenger hunt.
Check Out Little Critters
Look for bugs and butterflies in your backyard. Catch them, observe them, and release them when you are done.
Plant a Tree
Plant a tree in your yard to watch it mature throughout the years. Someday you can hang a tree swing from it, read under it, and make new memories with your family tree.
Be Birdwatchers
Do some birdwatching right from your windows or back deck. Keep track of all the birds you see in a family journal.
Take Turns Being the Daily Weather Man
Take turns being the daily weather man, reporting on the weather elements you observe right outside your door. Extend on this activity and have kids make appropriate clothing suggestions per the weather forecast they make.
Camp in the Yard
Do some camping ten feet from the living room! Set up a tent in your yard and sleep under the stars.
Make a Flower Headband
If you have clover, long grasses, or wildflowers near your property, make headbands, bracelets, and necklaces from what you find in nature.
Make Flower Mats
Use the flowers in your yard to make flower mats for the kitchen table.
Plan a Picnic
Spread a blanket out in the grass and dine on your favorite picnic snacks alfresco.
Pretend With Mud
Get dirty while making flower soup, mud pies, and much more. Be chefs and bakers using the dirt, sticks, leaves, flower petals, and stones from your yard.
Get Goofy With Games
Parents spend so much time and energy planning and executing the ins and outs of daily life that they sometimes forget to stop and play. Kids will get a kick out of watching their moms and dads be a little silly (and maybe even competitive) with a few fun family games. You know what they say, the families that play together, stay together!
Play Cornhole in the Yard
You can make cornhole game pieces pretty easily, and use the wooden boards for hours of family fun.
Try Animal Charades
Keep the gang entertained with a round or two of animal charades. Everyone will be giggling while watching the parents act like elephants.
Hold a Talent Show
Have a family talent show! Everyone chooses a special act to share and practices it before showcasing it to their family members.
Be Together With Board Games
Spend a Saturday or Sunday playing board games. See how many games your gang can play in an afternoon.
Play Flashlight Tag
Once it gets dark, pass out flashlights and play flashlight tag in the yard. Be sure to remove any objects that could pose a tripping hazard, and try not to wake the neighbors with your giggles and screeches of delight.
Play Cards
There are tons of games to play with a deck of cards. Learn a few new ones as a family, or play a few rounds of a family favorite like Euchre, Old Maid, or Hearts.
Try Would You Rather?
This is a game of questions, and no one loves questions as much as kids do! Play Would You Rather? with your family during dinner, on a low-key evening, or while you are working through household chores.
Play Who Am I?
Everyone gets a mystery person, and they must figure out the name of their person by asking yes or no questions of their family members.
Make a Hallway Maze
Use painter’s tape to make a massive hallway maze for the family to crawl through.
Partake in a Game of The Floor Is Lava
Remove chair and couch cushions from furniture and scatter them on the floor. Everyone then moves about the living space standing on anything (safe) BUT the actual floor, because remember, in this game, the floor is lava!
Try Fun Evening at Home Activities
When the day has drawn to a close, and the stars are hung high in the sky, it’s the perfect time to try a few of these evening activities made for family bedtime bonding.
Have a Puppet Show
Use the daytime hours to make puppets and the evening hours to host a cute family puppet show.
Start a Family Book Club
Have a family book club. Choose one book to all read independently (if you have older kids), or read books with younger children as a family. Discuss the chosen book and wrap each book up with a family project.
Try Stargazing
Look up at the stars. Can you work together to spy common constellations?
Have a Bonfire
Bonfires are fun evening activities no matter the season. Spend a warm summer night outdoors by the fire, or bundle up and brave the cold. Either way, fresh air before bed will help everyone sleep.
Create a Family Scrapbook
One evening a week, sit down an hour before bed and add to a large family scrapbook.
Make a Dream Catcher
Do an evening craft that will help keep nightmares at bay. Before bedtime, make cute and easy dream catchers for the kids’ rooms.
Have a Movie Marathon
Have a family movie marathon. Start the marathon right after dinner and watch fun flicks until it’s lights out, or choose one movie to unwind with each evening of the week, spreading the marathon out over several days.
Wind Down With a Family Puzzle
Before everyone hits the sheets, set aside a half-hour to work on a family puzzle.
Matching Jammie Party
Get in matching jammies and engage in your favorite evening activities. Be sure to snap some fun pictures, as this activity is a great memory to reflect on.
Virtually Connect With Loved Ones Far Away
Virtually reach out to someone who lives far away. Aunts, uncles, old friends, and other extended family members will be thrilled to see your faces.
Have a Family Sleepover
Roll out sleeping bags in the family room and sleep all cozied up with one another.
Learn via Educational Activities
School isn’t the only place for kids to learn and expand their mind. There is so much knowledge to seek out at home. Spend your family time engaged in fun and educational activities.
Virtual Field Trips
Visit some seriously amazing spaces from the couch. These virtual field trips will enhance everyone’s understanding of the world around them.
Make a Family Blog
Create a blog to share family updates and events with family and friends.
Plan a Family Vacation
Make a vacation into a multifaceted family learning affair. Research places to go, calculate costs, and map out mileage. Create a savings program or budget for the family so you can work towards a dream vacation.
Have a Presentation Night
Hold a presentation night! Everyone gets a few days to research a topic of their choosing, and then they create a PowerPoint or Google slide presentation. Gather around one evening and share your research and ideas with one another.
Build a Sensory Table
If you have young children, work together to build an amazing sensory table.
Have a Creative Writing Session
Write a family story. Have one person start the story, writing for 20 minutes, and then pass the story to another family member, who then takes the idea in a totally different direction. Do this until everyone in the family has had a chance to contribute.
Make Maps of the Rooms in Your House
Work on mapping skills. Create maps of the rooms in your home, hitting on mapping components like scale and key.
Build 3D Shaped Structures
“Oh, little Johnny, what did your family do this weekend?”
We built some polyhedrons!
Bravo to you for creating a mathematical wizard in your family downtime. Use straws, cotton swabs, rolled-up newspaper, and paper towel tubes to make various 3D shapes.
Have a Family Spelling Bee
Work on those spelling skills by hosting a family spelling bee. Tailor the words to children’s developmental levels.
Spend Your Family Days Making Memories
Choose family activities that please the members of your gang, and pick the projects that will help create wonderful memories. Someday the kids will be all grown up, and you’ll be able to smile fondly about the epic home adventures you had with your crew.
