We all want to be good parents and enjoy our time with children. We have beautiful visions of parents doing things together with their children and having fun. However, when we have a spare week at home with our children it may not necessarily look so idyllic. We need ideas about what to do with our children so that everyone enjoys it.
We have put together some activities that do not require much preparation or where the preparation itself is an enjoyable activity. Another advantage of these activities to do at home with children is that they make use of things you have around the house and, therefore, can be done virtually any day any time.
Games and activities to do at home with children 2-6 years old
Little children crave attention. And they deserve it. What to do with little children at home? Here are some easy activities to do together with your child or just set them on a mission and assess the result. In either case children will remember these activities they did with parents as some of the brightest moments of their life.
These activities for children are done without preparation and without fancy resources.
Just pick one and go! Have fun!
SCAVENGER HUNT
This game is always fun to do as a competition between family members or as a timed activity for one child. Make a scavenger hunt around the house – see who can find more items or who can collect a certain number of items faster. You can ask your child to collect ‘something soft,’ ‘something with spots,’ ‘something round,’ ‘something yellow,’ etc. Ask your children to sort these things by color, shape, size etc. Then play a guessing game – where each item has come from.
SCAVENGER HUNT
This game is always fun to do as a competition between family members or as a timed activity for one child. Make a scavenger hunt around the house – see who can find more items or who can collect a certain number of items faster. You can ask your child to collect ‘something soft,’ ‘something with spots,’ ‘something round,’ ‘something yellow,’ etc. Ask your children to sort these things by color, shape, size etc. Then play a guessing game – where each item has come from.
CARTOON CRAFT & ROLE PLAY
Children love cartoons! Give them a chance to use their imagination. Watch a cartoon and make a cartoon character craft from a toilet paper roll, a paper plate, straws, some cotton and colour paper! Get creative! Act our your favourite cartoon episodes! Your child will remember this game for life!
BLIND TASTE TEST
Prepare a set of random foods or a variation of food in one category like jellies or yoghurts. Taste the samples one by one and guess what they are! Each person gets points for guessing correctly.
BLIND TASTE TEST
Prepare a set of random foods or a variation of food in one category like jellies or yoghurts. Taste the samples one by one and guess what they are! Each person gets points for guessing correctly.
DANCE FREEZE
Choose some of your kids’ favourite tunes and turn up the volume. Ask them to dance but when you stop the music they have to freeze in whatever position they find themselves in – even if they have one leg up. To make the game more challenging, ask the kids to freeze in specific poses: animals, shapes, letters or cartoon characters.
STUFFED ANIMALS ZOO
All animals in your zoo will have a fun time! Create a stuffed-animal zoo and make “habitats” in different rooms. Create a name and a story about each animal. Make an announcement, invite your parents and be a guide in your own zoo.
STUFFED ANIMALS ZOO
All animals in your zoo will have a fun time! Create a stuffed-animal zoo and make “habitats” in different rooms. Create a name and a story about each animal. Make an announcement, invite your parents and be a guide in your own zoo.
TREASURE BOX
Fill a box with mixed grains – you can make any mixture of your choice. Best grains to use are – red or white beans, yellow and green peas. Hide little objects or toys in the grain – let your child find them! Let your child hide some objects in the treasure box for you to find in 1 minute! The soothing effect of the sensory box is just what you need!
BUILD A FORT
Give your child a few pillows and a blanket and challenge them to turn the couch into a fort. No child will turn down the chance to make a secret base—and they’ll be much more likely to play independently once they’re inside.
BUILD A FORT
Give your child a few pillows and a blanket and challenge them to turn the couch into a fort. No child will turn down the chance to make a secret base—and they’ll be much more likely to play independently once they’re inside.
MESSY MIXING
Cover up the floor and give your child some bowls, spoons and things from the kitchen they can mix together. Let them go wild. Your child will be so excited that they get to be messy indoors that they’ll be willing to play without your constant attention.
SOCK PUPPETS
Find some socks with patterns and colours that appeal to your imagination. Add button eyes, a ribbon tongue, threads for hair, a cape or any other details you might want. Set up your puppet show or just use the puppets to tell your children to do some chores! Use funny voices! This helps turn any communication into fun!
SOCK PUPPETS
Find some socks with patterns and colours that appeal to your imagination. Add button eyes, a ribbon tongue, threads for hair, a cape or any other details you might want. Set up your puppet show or just use the puppets to tell your children to do some chores! Use funny voices! This helps turn any communication into fun!
ORIGAMI
Learn how to make different things from paper. Easy and fun things to make are a paper airplane, a cootie catcher. Once you have made your airplanes – fly them around and see whose can go farther, higher or do more tricks. A cooties catcher is a ubiquitous fortune-telling tool – so use it!
MIRROR
Play mirror and mimic your partner’s actions. The idea can be – the one who copies their partner correctly wins a prize. For example, to throw a tea party, organize it and invite your family.
MIRROR
Play mirror and mimic your partner’s actions. The idea can be – the one who copies their partner correctly wins a prize. For example, to throw a tea party, organize it and invite your family.
WATER PLAY DAY
Cover up the floor and put a basin with water. You can also just run some water in the bath and let your children play in the bathroom. Collect a dozen objects made from different materials, hollow and solid, flat and 3D. Let children play ‘sink or float’ – make a guess whether an object will sink or float before putting it in the water.
UNDERWATER WORLD
Use a big glass jar, any other glass container or just a basin. Arrange objects to create an underwater kingdom. Use little plastic toys to play out underwater stories.
UNDERWATER WORLD
Use a big glass jar, any other glass container or just a basin. Arrange objects to create an underwater kingdom. Use little plastic toys to play out underwater stories.
BUILD A VOLCANO
This popular science project will keep your child busy for a long time! Mix flour and salt 50/50, add half a cup of water and 1 tbs of oil for every 2 cups of the mixture. Put a 20cm tall glass or plastic bottle in the middle of a tray and arrange the dough mixture around the bottle to make a volcano. Leave it to dry for 1 day. When dry paint the volcano in any colors you want.
Start the eruption experiment. Put half a cup of soda inside the bottle. Pour half a cup of vinegar inside the bottle with soda. Watch the eruption!
PLANT A HOME GARDEN
Fill some jars with water. Put little onions so that their bottom part is in the water. Wait for the onion to sprout.
PLANT A HOME GARDEN
Fill some jars with water. Put little onions so that their bottom part is in the water. Wait for the onion to sprout.
MAKE A BIRD FEEDER
Smother a cardboard tube in peanut butter (no added salt and sugar versions are suitable for birds). Roll it in bird seed and thread some string through the hole. Tie it up somewhere out of the window where birds will feel safe eating.
DO THE HOUSEWORK
Doing useful things together with children can be fun for both of you! If you’re cooking or cleaning let your children assist you. Give them a job they can handle. Children can set the table, cut up the salad, take care of pets, dust the furniture or sort the fridge. Children feel that housework that you do together is an enjoyable activity!
DO THE HOUSEWORK
Doing useful things together with children can be fun for both of you! If you’re cooking or cleaning let your children assist you. Give them a job they can handle. Children can set the table, cut up the salad, take care of pets, dust the furniture or sort the fridge. Children feel that housework that you do together is an enjoyable activity!
TREASURE HUNT
Turn doing chores into a treasure hunt! Completing each task will get your child the next clue like a part of a puzzle or a treasure map. When the map is complete your child can find the treats!
CHAMELEONS
Turn pictures face down and put them in a row. A child throws a dice and makes as many steps as it shown. Then, he turns a picture and names a color. You can ask a child what else of this color he can see around? What things do you know of this color? One can use this game to practice Russian as well as English vocabulary.
CHAMELEONS
Turn pictures face down and put them in a row. A child throws a dice and makes as many steps as it shown. Then, he turns a picture and names a color. You can ask a child what else of this color he can see around? What things do you know of this color? One can use this game to practice Russian as well as English vocabulary.
Games and activities to do at home with children 7-14 years old
What to do at home with a school child or a young teenager? They still need a lot of parents’ attention, but it is often hard to come up with ideas for activities to do with your children at home. But it is these activities as opposed to going to entertainment parks that children will remember best.
Here are some easy ideas for activities without preparation that you can do with your children at home at any time.
BOWLING
Setting up indoor bowling is a great way to reuse water bottles. Fill up the bottles with water and screw the tops on tightly. Decorate or number the bottles if you want. Line six to ten water bottles up at the end of your hall or living room. Place a line of duct tape at the starting line. Grab a medium-sized indoor ball and start bowling! If you want, keep score and give out trophies at the end.
BOWLING
Setting up indoor bowling is a great way to reuse water bottles. Fill up the bottles with water and screw the tops on tightly. Decorate or number the bottles if you want. Line six to ten water bottles up at the end of your hall or living room. Place a line of duct tape at the starting line. Grab a medium-sized indoor ball and start bowling! If you want, keep score and give out trophies at the end.
LONG JUMP CONTEST
To keep fit and have fun hold a long-jump contest. Find a long rope or scarf, put it on the floor and jump. Mark the place you landed. Let others try.
BOOK vs MOVIE CHALLENGE
This challenge takes a long time so it may be perfect for the summer. Read the books and watch the movies made upon these books. Perfect books made into movies are Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Doctor Doolittle, Peter Rabbit, The Secret Garden and, surely, Harry Potter!
BOOK vs MOVIE CHALLENGE
This challenge takes a long time so it may be perfect for the summer. Read the books and watch the movies made upon these books. Perfect books made into movies are Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Doctor Doolittle, Peter Rabbit, The Secret Garden and, surely, Harry Potter!
UN-SCRABBLE
Take a long word like hibernate, phosphorous, incomprehensible etc. See how many words each person can make out of the long word in one minute.
ALPHABET FAMILY
A fast fun game will end up in laughing together! Take a letter of the alphabet – make up a family where all names start with the same letter – 3 men and 3 women.
ALPHABET FAMILY
A fast fun game will end up in laughing together! Take a letter of the alphabet – make up a family where all names start with the same letter – 3 men and 3 women.
REDECORATE
If your children have their own room – let them plan and redecorate the room! Move the furniture around, change the décor. A side benefit of redecoration is major decluttering!
MAGIC TRICKS
This is the right time to learn how to do magic tricks now and impress your classmates after you come back to school!
MAGIC TRICKS
This is the right time to learn how to do magic tricks now and impress your classmates after you come back to school!
DINNER NIGHT
Setting up a dinner night will make your children feel important, teach them a useful social skill and let you have an elegant dinner. Let your children lay the table, decorating it with candles, a centerpiece, napkins and nice cutlery.
JUGGLING
Juggling is a skill that will allow your child to impress their peers at parties and events. Learn easy juggling with 2 pieces first, moving on to 3 pieces later. Use oranges or apples if you do not have balls.
JUGGLING
Juggling is a skill that will allow your child to impress their peers at parties and events. Learn easy juggling with 2 pieces first, moving on to 3 pieces later. Use oranges or apples if you do not have balls.
CREATE YOUR OWN BOARD GAME
Take a sheet of wallpaper or poster paper and draw a path made up of circles, squares, clouds or other shapes. Fill in some shapes with – MOVE ON – GO BACK – GO TO START – MISS A TURN. Fill up the other shapes with challenges, eg – Name 5 insects, all the continents, 5 African countries etc or make counters from household objects.
COMIC BOOK
Create your own comic book using a sheet or paper. Cut a strip of paper 7 cm wide and wrinkle it as a fan. Draw your story developments in each frame of the comic book. Make a cover. Share!
COMIC BOOK
Create your own comic book using a sheet or paper. Cut a strip of paper 7 cm wide and wrinkle it as a fan. Draw your story developments in each frame of the comic book. Make a cover. Share!
GUESS AN EMOTION
Great opportunity to talk with kids about different shades of emotion.
So, one turns cards upside down add takes them one by one and try to play out this emotion. the others should guess what it is. Emotions could be different of your choice. We can have happy, excited or sad, angry, frustrated.
COUNTING WHILE PLAYING
Math can be difficult, but not when it turns into a fun game!
Draw hopscotch grid add put just numbers or simple addition tasks. Then, one way to play is to calculate and then hop onto next square. Another way to try is to put one number on top and depending on what number a child stands he needs to add to have a number on top. After that he can skip to another square.
A parent can put any number on the top to practice. Help kids to count with pasta items, rocks or marmbles.
COUNTING WHILE PLAYING
Math can be difficult, but not when it turns into a fun game!
Draw hopscotch grid add put just numbers or simple addition tasks. Then, one way to play is to calculate and then hop onto next square. Another way to try is to put one number on top and depending on what number a child stands he needs to add to have a number on top. After that he can skip to another square.
A parent can put any number on the top to practice. Help kids to count with pasta items, rocks or marmbles.
Choose your MAGIC CASTLE
THE GREAT GATSBY
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