10 Things Your Entire Family Can Do Together at Home

10 Things Your Entire Family Can Do Together at Home

Keeping your family entertained at home is easy with these fun crafts and activities.

Family life has changed drastically for kids and parents alike. With everyone home from school and work, coping with this sudden stay-at-home lifestyle can feel challenging to downright stressful.

But there’s good news! Having everyone at home gives your family a chance to really strengthen its bond, and one of the best ways to come together as a family is through shared activities.

Here are 10 awesome activities your entire family can enjoy.

1. Spend the afternoon folding origami or making printable paper crafts.

If your family loves art and hasn’t tried origami, now is a great time to experiment with paper folding. You can purchase origami paper online and find a number of different folding designs for all ages.

Here is a great website for finding both easy and challenging origami designs. You can also find plenty of videos on YouTube if your family members are visual learners.

Printable paper crafts are also a lot of fun and can even be quite addicting. You won’t need special paper for these, though a thicker cardstock can work well for some designs. This website has hundreds of paper craft designs for all skill levels.  

2. Stay active and release any tension or stress with kid-friendly yoga sessions.

It’s important to stay active and moving, even when we need to stay at home. Yoga is a great way to get your family moving and stretching while also releasing tension and stress.

Older kids and teens shouldn’t have a problem following along with standard yoga routines, but little kids might find instructional videos for adults to be boring. You can keep their interest by playing kid-friendly yoga videos instead. The YouTube channel Cosmic Kids Yoga is a must-visit for kids’ yoga videos!

3. Turn dinnertime into something fun and creative with a make-your-own pizza night.

Dinnertime is the perfect opportunity to do something fun as a family. Pizza night is a staple for many households, but you can put a creative twist on it by letting everyone top their own individual pizza. Set up a pizza topping bar with all of your family’s favorites—and maybe even some unusual or new ingredients. Supply each family member with a pie of their own to top, or you can have each member top one-half or one-quarter of a large pie.

You can take the make-your-own idea a step further by setting up a DIY ice cream bar for dessert. Think Coldstone right in your own home!

4. Experiment with new recipes for homemade, colorful, and scented slime, playdough, or sand.

Sensory activities are really exciting for young kids, but even older kids and parents can’t help but play around with slime and playdough. These items are super easy to make at home, and you can find hundreds of different “recipes” online.

Some really cool ideas include:

Google and Pinterest can help you and your family pick out interesting recipes to try.

5. Listen to an exciting audiobook while coloring, relaxing, or putting together a puzzle.

Audiobooks are a great alternative to music, especially when your family is lounging around or participating in some other quiet activity. Listening to an audiobook helps with reading comprehension and transports parents and kids alike to a fictional world—something that is especially appreciated right now.

You can search through popular family books on Audible here.

6. Revamp movie night by turning the living room or den into your family’s own movie theater.

Nothing beats cuddling up on the couch with your family to watch a new movie or an old favorite. Since public spaces are currently closed, one really fun idea is to turn your living room into a movie theater.

Select a movie to watch, print out tickets, and set up a makeshift concession stand in your kitchen. Your kids can use Monopoly money to “buy” treats, popcorn, and drinks (this is also a great chance to practice counting!). 

7. Take the family for a walk or hike at a local park and play nature bingo.

In most areas, it’s completely fine to go for walks at local parks or hit the hiking trails. In fact, it’s a really good idea to get some fresh air right now. You can turn a walk or hike into a challenge for the whole family with nature bingo. For young kids, this simple bingo printable will work well.

Scavenger hunts are a lot of fun, but due to social distancing recommendations, it’s best to keep your nature games hands-off, especially in public spaces.

8. Put all of those cardboard boxes from Amazon to good use by painting them or building a fort.

Staying out of stores and ordering online is very popular right now. If you find you have a ton of cardboard boxes lying around, why not put them to good use before recycling?

Disassemble your boxes and encourage your kids to use them as a canvas for painting or drawing. Another great idea is to build a cardboard fort or other construction projects like these. We think this cardboard geodesic dome would be a really fun family project.

9. Go on a virtual museum, zoo, or theme park tour and maybe get an idea for your family’s next vacation.

Your family might be stuck at home, but thanks to the internet, you can virtually visit a number of museums, science centers, zoos, and even theme parks right from your computer.

Some really popular choices include:

You can find an extensive list of over 30 virtual tour websites here.

As a bonus, if one of these places really catches your family’s interest, plan out your next family vacation afterward!

10. Have a cleaning or decluttering party complete with music, games, and prizes.

Get a headstart on spring cleaning and decluttering with the help of everyone in your family. Gather your cleaning supplies and boxes or bags for sorting, turn on some energizing music, and give everyone a list of tasks. Turning chores into a game is always a great idea for kids.

You can find a few chores-related games here. We really love this mom’s idea of paying her son in Monopoly money, which he can then use to buy small treats and prizes.

Stay-at-home orders are temporary, but the memories you make with your family during this time will be permanent.

Although we can’t control what’s going on in the world right now, we can control how we approach these new changes with our families. Spending time together as much as we can and growing as a family is the best way to make the most out of this less-than-ideal situation.

Don’t forget to take plenty of pictures and videos as you and your family discover new, fun activities. Sharing these on social media is also a wonderful way to put positivity out there and help other families who might be looking for ideas of things to do.

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