100 Things to Do with Kids When you are Stuck at Home

Staying home, whether it is due to mandatory quarantine or anything else, can be a challenge when you have young kids. It can be a relaxing break from being busy with the right attitude, but it definitely gets interesting when you need to entertain young kids at home. These 100 activities are the perfect way to entertain kids and help everyone enjoy a day at home.

1) Salt painting – We LOVE these salt painting fireworks but you could create anything you’d like.

2) Shaving cream art – There are so many ways to do this. Create marbled shaving cream art, make shaving cream puffy paint, or use shaving cream to teach kids their letters and numbers.

4) Read a book – My family LOVES to read. Check out our favorite book suggestions to read for kids who loved Harry Potter here.

5) Bake homemade bread – Bread can be really fun for kids to make because they can get in there and get their hands dirty. Check out this easy bread recipe that only has 3 ingredients!

6) Play board games – Board games are such a fun way to unplug as a family. Check out our favorite board games for families and our favorite card games for teens.

7) Play hide-and-go-seek

8) Organize a small space – It can be fun to organize, especially when you can see the results right away. Choose a small space and have your kids help you organize. My kids actually had a lot of fun helping me organize our pantry.

9) Learn to code – There are some great resources out there to help kids learn to code. Our favorites are these coding classes for kids.

10) Make a fort – Any fort is a blast (we highly recommend pillow forts) but we love using the air tent when we want to make a quick living room fort. This is my kids’ favorite toy and they get so much use out of it.

11) Create a new smoothie recipe – We love smoothies but it’s always fun to let the kids go nuts and throw whatever they like in the blender. If you want something tried and true, we love this Blueberry Banana Smoothie or this Strawberry Kiwi Smoothie.

12) Have a dance party – You can never go wrong with a dance party. Crank up the music and move.

13) Create a structure with spaghetti and marshmallows – If you want a fun basic engineering project you can create structures using spaghetti and marshmallows. Older kids like to see how tall they can make their structures. Younger kids love to practice making letters.

14) Raise butterflies – My kids love watching caterpillars grow into butterflies in the spring. Order some caterpillars with this kit and you’ll have several weeks of fun.

15) Train the dog to do a new trick. – There are some great videos on YouTube that show you how to train the family dog how to do a few new tricks. We really like the Dog: Impossible show on Disney +. It has some great training tricks but may not be great for younger kids since it shows aggressive dogs.

16) Set up a pretend grocery store – My kids love the grocery store exhibit at our local children’s museum so they love to try and recreate it at home. We ended up getting this play grocery store for my kids and it has kept them very busy. You could certainly set up a pretend grocery store with some empty food boxes on a shelf as well.

17) Use painter’s tape to create “roads” on the ground – This was always a HUGE hit with my kids when they were little. Use painters tape, so it doesn’t damage your floors and tape several “roads” to the ground. We’ve even done this on the carpet before to use with larger toy cars.

18) Take an online course – There are so many great courses out there for kids of all ages. Outschool has some of our favorite classes for kids and there are all kinds of courses to choose from.

19) Learn to braid hair – There are some fantastic videos about braiding on YouTube. My teenage son taught himself how to braid his sisters’ hair by watching videos and now he is better at it than I am. Our favorite channel is Cute Girl Hairstyles.

20) Play with artificial snow – Artificial snow is so fun to play with. I started using this when my boys were little and now my girls love it too. See artificial snow in action here.

21) Make Paper Weaving Art – Paper weaving is always a fun project to do with kids. We love this wavy paper weaving project or painted paper weaving is always fun with older kids.

22) Watch a Movie – There are so many great family movies out right now. Don’t forget that Frozen 2 is streaming on Disney + now. We’ve watched it 5 times already!

23) Learn photography – Photography is a great skill to have. Explore your yard with a camera or take an online class (we love this kids photography class)

24) Write a Story – My kids love this fun little story starter to get them going or you can do a round robin style story with all of your kids.

25) Make a pretend zoo

26) Learn Moorse Code – My boys got bored and started teaching themselves Moorse code thanks to a Tinker Crate that they had build months ago. Now they are wandering around the house tapping out messages to each other.

27) Learn to Draw – I am not an artist but all my kids love learning how to draw new things. There are some great YouTube videos out there. We also love this book for younger kids.

28) Have an inside Picnic

29) Plant an inside herb garden

30) Make homemade play dough – Homemade play dough is so easy to make. We love this recipe.

31) Make a movie using a Phone

32) Create a Treasure Hunt

33) Write Letters – Letter writing is becoming a lost art. Have kids write letters to grandparents, friends, or find them a pen pal!

34) Do a Science Experiement

35) Put on a Puppet Show

36) Play School

37) Make Holiday Decorations

38) Play Video Games

39) Tell Silly Jokes to Each Other

40) Make Paper Airplanes – We love this paper airplane book that shows some creative paper airplane designs.

41) Decorate Cookies

42) Call a Grandparent

43) Make Slime – This 3-ingredient slime recipe is our favorite and it can be customized so many different ways.

44) Paint Nails

45) Listen to a Podcast – We LOVE this new podcast that teaches kids about how to deal with their emotions.

46) Do Cosmic Kids Yoga – Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube is a serious favorite around here. My kids love the Harry Potter themed episode but there are so many great ones.

47) Dye your hair with Kool-Aid (I mean, you aren’t going anywhere, right?). Check out this great Kool-Aid Hair Dye tutorial from All Things Thrifty.

48) Apple Stamp Painting – My kids love apple stamping. All you have to do is carve something into an apple (or any other vegetable. Potatoes work great too), and use it to stamp paint onto paper. Check out this Letter “A” Apple Stamping Activity.

49) Make a Stop-Motion Video

50) Watch Art for Kids Hub on YouTube – We just discovered Art for Kids Hub and it is fantastic. They take kids step-by-step through the process to draw some really cute things. My girls absolutely loved it.

51) Make oobleck – This is always a favorite. Get instructions for making oobleck here.

52) Play with Stickers – When I was on bed rest with my twins I gave my toddler stickers and just let her stick them all over me. She thought it was hilarious and it kept her busy for hours.

53) Play with Wikki Stix – Wikki Stix can be used for so many different activities. I’m always happy to see the creative ways my kids discover to use them.

54) Make a Homemade Board Game

55) Make paper crafts – We love these paper craft Anna and Elsa dolls!

56) Make recycled planters – Check out how cute these recycled Minion planters are!

57) Make homemade bookmarks – These Pokemon Corner Ball Bookmarks are so much fun!

58) Research your Family Tree

59) Make Homemade Posters to Decorate a Bedroom

60) Build a Tinker Crate – My kids absolutely LOVE Tinker Crates. KiwiCo has boxes for several ages and we’ve found something for everyone in my family there. Check out what my son thought of his Tinker Crate.

61) Build a Robot – There are all kinds of robotics kits out there. We’ve really loved Jimu robots. Check them out here.

62) Make a Homemade Suncatcher out of Glue – These homemade suncatchers are such a fun project to make with kids and you probably have everything you need around the house already.

63) Fingerpaint – Fingerpainting is always a hit (at least with my kids. I usually cringe the whole time they are painting because of the mess). I love this fingerprinted catcus art and these fingerprinted snapdragons.

64) Make a DIY Unicorn Pen Holder – I love when we can make a functional craft. These DIY Unicorn Pen Holders are super cute and a fun way to dress up a homework spot.

65) Make a Paper Flower Garden – This paper craft is super cute and a great fit for spring. If you need something to do indoors, have your kids create a paper flower garden. Use the flower garden templates we have here or create your own.

66) Experiment with Chemistry – My boys LOVE chemistry and it is been fun to discover how many different kits there are for kids to do at home. This home chemistry kit has been our favorite for tweens.

67) Make a Sensory Bin – Sensory bins can be as simple or as complex as you want them to be. When I ran a home daycare, we had a themed sensory bin that changed each week. I use the under the bed storage containers because they are the perfect size and fill them with dried beans, sand, water, or anything else we feel like. Check out this Veggie Garden Sensory Bin here.

68) Make DIY Pool Noodle Swords – This project was one that my boys came up with on their own but they turned out so fun. Use pool noodles to create Pool Noodle Swords! These are easy to make and kids have hours of fun playing with them. Check out the full instructions for Pool Noodle Swords here.

69) Learn a Life Skill – Just because you are stuck at home doesn’t mean you can’t learn something important. Sit down with your kids and create a life sills list of things they should learn how to do. Choose one thing and get to work.

70) Make an Obstacle Course – You probably already have plenty of things around the house to create a fun obstacle course. Have kids take turns setting it up and they’ll be kept busy all day.

71) Play Balloon Volleyball Indoors – This is a fun one to do with the whole family.

72) Make a digital photo book – My kids love helping me choose photos for photo albums because it means they get to look at pictures of all the fun things that they have done. Have you kids make a themed photo book of their own. This could be of a family trip, their sports season, photos of their artwork, etc.

73) Do a Puzzle

74) Make a Coffee Filter Craft – These are some of our favorite coffee filter crafts.

75) Make a DIY Lego Table – These are so easy to make (we put ours together in about 5 minutes) and they are much more affordable than buying one. Check out the full instructions here.

76) Take a nap.

77) Make homemade cards – We love this cute ASL I-Love-You card and it is easy to make for kids of all ages.

78) Make Washi Tape Bead Necklaces – Homemade jewelry is always fun. These Washi Tape Bead Necklaces are super cute and easy to make. You can also make beads out of recycled magazines.

79) Make Sandpaper art – This project usually works best for younger kids but it’s such a fun sensory experience that my older kids have enjoyed it too. Check out how to do sandpaper art here.

80) Blow Bubbles

81) Color a Large Box – One of my favorite things to do as a kid was turn a large cardboard box into a play house. My dad would cut windows out of the side and I’d color it for days. My kids have had just as much fun with it and it’s always the first thing they ask for when we have a large box show up at our house.

82) Paint Rocks – In our community people paint rocks and hide them all over town. It has been really fun for my kids so they now love to paint rocks of their own to hide. Check out these great ideas for painting rocks. You can also use this hot rock painting technique for something different.

83) Make Toilet Paper Roll Crafts – There are so many options for making crafts using empty toilet paper rolls. We really like this Toilet Paper Roll Octopus.

84) Recycle your Own Paper – It’s always fun for kids to see how things are made. We love to recycle our own paper using old paper we would otherwise be throwing away and a blender. Get the full instructions here.

85) Paint without Using a Paintbrush – We always have fun painting with oddball art supplies. Check out all the crazy things we found around the house to paint with.

86) Marble Painting – My kids have always loved marble painting and it is such an easy project to do. You end up with such fun looking paintings with this! Check out our instructions for marble painting here.

87) Make Friendship Bracelets – This was a favorite when I was a kid and now my daughter has discovered that she loves making friendship bracelets too.

88) Make a Twine-Wrapped Picture Frame – My kids always love finding creative ways to display their favorite photos. This twine-wrapped picture frame is so easy to make and looks fantastic when it is done.

89) Go on a nature walk around your yard.

90) Memorize Something – Memorization isn’t a skill that is emphasized in most schools right now but memorizing a poem, math facts, quotes, and more can help exercise your memory. Working on memorization can help kids develop a better capacity for memorization as they grow.

91) Plan a Menu – I’m a big fan of bringing kids into the kitchen. Planning a weekly menu is a great life skill and often gets picky eaters more excited about mealtime. Check out these 5 ways we get kids more involved in menu planning.

92) Take a Virtual Field Trip – There are some amazing places that offer free virtual field trips. Doing this gives you the chance to explore the world from your home.

93) Garden – Gardening is a fun activity for the whole family. Help kids be more invested by giving them their own garden plot in the yard that they can be responsible for.

94) Learn a new language – It’s never too early to learn a new language. There are some great online resources and TV shows that help kids pick up a second language. We love the Signing Time show for younger kids or try a service like Lingo Bus where kids get one-on-one time with a native Chinese speaker.

95) Read a Book Together – Cuddle up together and enjoy a favorite read-aloud book. My kids have always loved when we read books together as a family. We read The Hobbit when my boys were little (among other books) and they still talk about it as being one of their favorite memories. Even my teens still enjoy listening to an Audible book together as a family.

96) Learn about Electricity with Snap Circuits – If your kids haven’t discovered Snap Circuits yet, they are missing out. This is one of my kids’ all-time favorite toys and it has gotten so much use over the years. We have several different kits and they never get old.

97) Make Elephant Toothpaste – This is on our to-do list for quarantine because my daughter has been watching YouTube videos and thinks it looks like the coolest thing ever.

98) Have Backyard Relay Races – A little healthy competition is always a good thing.

99) Play Charades – This has serious potential for giggles. My little girls LOVE playing this version of charades for kids. It’s the most requested game in my house at the moment.

100) Have an Unbirthday Party – I’m a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland so unbirthday parties are kind of my favorite thing ever. Half my kids have summer birthdays and the other half has birthdays near the holidays (that was not planned well) so when we are stuck at home sometimes it’s fun to pick a kid and have an unbirthday party.