I don’t think I need to explain why I am writing this post right now. Summer camps have been canceled, pools are closed, I pulled my kids out of baseball this summer because people don’t know how to wear masks in public, and Target is totally wiped out of ” summer fun items” ( bubbles, sidewalk chalk, baby pools, sprinklers, etc.). Although I am sure my kids are getting more screen time than average, I don’t want screen time to be their preferred activity or the norm.
Here are 100 enriching activities that will help your family cope with this new normal.
Write letters to friends and family
Build a Lego City
Discover how your town used to look. on Whatwasthere.com
Have relay races around a local track.
Start a journal
Paint with watercolors.
Make Homemade popsicles
Connect with family members over zoom or google hangout.
Play Family Feud
Make paper airplanes
Sort and Count Coins. Play math games with them, learn how to hand out change.
Learn to write in cursive
Have your kids help you meal plan
Try an engineering challenge, using paper.
Brainstorm some random acts of kindness, and do them!
Color maps of the world.
Play some free online spelling games!
Check out JK Rowling’s new activity site. Harry Potter at home.
Research your Geneology
Create a chalk city.
Have a tea party and practice table manners.
Learn first aid
Learn how to edit photos
Try an online yoga class
Learn how to make vegetable broth
Learn how to fold towels
Create music in the Chrome Music Lab
Wash the car
Let your imaginations run wild with a cardboard box!
Learn how to calculate a tip.
Discover new places on google maps.
Make a recipe from America’s test kitchen.
Listen to the new America’s test kitchen podcast for kids.
Listen to music from each decade and analyze it.
Sort out all the books in the house and organize them
Do Madlibs
Jigsaw puzzles
Make an obstacle course
Create a ramp for cars
Camp in the backyard
Create a homemade Pictionary game
Watch Alton Brown’s quarantine cooking videos
Plant herbs, flowers, or vegetables
Paint rocks
Go on a walk.
Visit all the little libraries in your area. Donate some old books and get some new ones.
Fly a kite
Try Mud Painting
Pull weeds outside
Listen to the kid’s podcast, But Why?
Watch a nature documentary. ( We loved Disney’s elephants)
Make a quarantine scrapbook.
Play with playdough, or make your playdough.
Find an art project tutorial on Youtube for kids.
Take a video of yourself reading a book, share it with a younger cousin or friend.
Make a card for a health care worker.
Teach your kids how to be financially literate
Take a walk and pick up trash.
Read a novel out loud as a family.
Create a word search, maze, or connect the dots.
Play Sudoku
Watch a historical movie
Do Push-ups, sit-ups, arm circles, and jumping jacks.
Practice Public Speaking
Write poetry and take a poetry course online.
Learn about animals on National geographic kids.
Make Giant Bubbles!
Play bean bags
Make homemade cards
Go fishing
Check out some Montessori Science Experiments.
Run through the sprinkler!
Make friendship bracelets
Make Smoothies
Clean out your closet
Have a puppet show
Make chocolate-covered pretzels
Learn how to. make stovetop popcorn
Make fruit dip!
Make a giant tic tac toe game.
Compare/Contrast a book and the book’s movie ( here is a list of books that have been turned into films)
Play games and learn about longitude and latitude with a globe.
