Whether it’s due to snow days or a global pandemic, a school closure can occur and students just need to stay home. These can be challenging times for everyone. Teachers might worry about the extended periods away from school and the impact of this on student learning. Maybe parents are not sure what to do with the children each day. Or sometimes, you just want to pre-empt that cabin fever.
That’s Where I Can Help
I’ve put together a list of great ideas that parents can do with their children at home. Some are simple, five-minute tasks, while others could take the entire day. Try them out and let me know what you think with a comment below!
Free Activities to do at Home with your Kids
- Play board games
- Look through old photographs and tell a story for each one
- Play card games
- Jumping competitions in the backyard
- Build a Lego city
- Read together – set a challenge to read every day or to read every picture book in the house
- Play with pets
- Running races in the backyard
- Find a new recipe in your cookbooks and create it
- Make cards to send to extended family or friends
- Weed the garden
- Throw a large blanket over the table, grab some flashlights and pillows, and have an adventure in your new ‘tent’
- Go on a bug hunt in the backyard, make a graph showing how many of each bug was found, look online for some interesting facts about the bugs
- Do some simple science experiments like mixing cornstarch with different amounts of water
- Create a family drawing (one person draws for one minute, then hands their paper for the next person to draw for one minute). This also works well with writing a story
- Wash the car
- Design a new house for the family
- Clean all of the bedrooms – sort out all of the toys and clothes and donate what you no longer need
- Bake something
- Write letters or emails to friends
- Climb a tree
- Write a book review or instructions for creating something
- Make a list of all the plants in your garden. Learn the different parts of the plants
- Set a challenge for every family member to create a new game and then play all of the new games
- Write a journal or diary entry for each day of the school closure
- Play outside
- See who can make the longest paper chain
- Decorate an egg to look like a baby and create a ‘bed’ for your egg baby
- Rewrite a favorite picture book with an alternate ending
- Grab an educational resource from my store to use at home
Not only are these activities a great way for parents to bond with their child, but they can also be educational opportunities (which is great during a school closure when other learning activities may not be available). For example, washing the car could involve a lesson on capacity, water conservation, dirt, car maintenance, or problem-solving (how to reach those hard to reach places or remove the stubborn dirt).
Extra Activities that Use Technology
- Learn a new skill (YouTube is a great place to find tutorials for just about anything!)
- Use the Stop Motion app on your iPad to create a movie of your kids playing with their toys (they can even narrate it!)
- Facetime with friends or family
- Watch a movie together. Dim the lights and pop some popcorn for the movie theatre experience
- Do a digital spring clean – delete any unused apps, files, photos, etc from all devices
- Scholastic has some great learning activities to do at home
Have another great idea that I didn’t mention here? Leave a comment below to share what works for you!
