10 Independent Activities to Keep Children Busy At Home
So, it looks like our schools are closed until Wednesday due to “illness.” I don’t know if people are genuinely sick or if our county is wanting to use up our already-built-in snow days. But, I appreciate the 5-day weekend that these “Illness Days” have given me!
Despite the fact that I am celebrating, I know that there are many parents who are scrambling to find childcare or figuring out how they are possibly going to entertain their children at home for five consecutive days. Some of the parents here work overnights and then sleep during the day while their child is at school. What makes matters worse is if their children are actually sick, they’re cooped up indoors and, likely, bored out of their mind.
10 Ways To Keep Children Busy At Home:
These activity ideas may come in handy for those parents that work at home, need some quiet time, or are just looking for other ways to keep children busy at home!
1) Make a fort or upgrade your tent.
Kids love to have their own little nook, so grab some blankets cushions, and clothespins and make a fort for relaxing. Or, dig around for your camping tent and set it up somewhere indoors.
2) Magazine Scavenger Hunt
Put that stack of old magazines to good use! Make a list of 15-20 things (e.g. boy, purse, tree, etc.) and have your child search for these pictures in the magazines. Have them cut and paste their picture next to the word on the list. Once they’ve found all the pictures, they earn a prize!
3) Make Cards and Artwork for Friends and Teachers
Most kids can occupy themselves with drawing and coloring for a good chunk of time. And, chances are – if they’re sick or having a snow day – they’ll be more inclined to make artwork for their teachers and friends at school! Kids sure miss their teachers after a long weekend. (Or that’s just what I tell myself).
4) Make Jewelry
Do you have any old buttons, bead, and thread laying around? Making necklaces and bracelets doubles as a fine-motor activity and an activity to keep your child busy for a long time! They’ll be concentrating so hard on getting the thread inside the beads, they’ll be occupied for hours!
5) Create Origami Swans
If you don’t have an origami kit at home, not a problem. Whip out some of that wrapping paper, cut it up into squares, and sign onto YouTube for step-by-step instructions. Again, this doubles as a fine-motor activity and a way to keep children busy at home for hours!
6) Pop Stick Art
Start saving up those popsicle sticks! (Or you can also buy them in bulk at Target or Amazon.) You can check out Pinterest for some ideas. With popsicle sticks, there are so many possibilities! Here’s a website with a list of 30 craft ideas using popsicle sticks!
7) Paper Bag Puppets
Earlier this week, during Valentines Day, we told our students to decorate paper bags for the Valentine Exchange party. Half the class ended up making paper bag puppets. To say that this is an entertaining activity is an understatement. Apparently, watching the bottom of your bag open and close – as if it were talking – is quite thrilling for a child. 🙂 This activity also develops hand eye coordination and helps to improve fine motor skills!
8) Painting
Cover the ground with newspaper, throw on some ol’ clothes you don’t care about, and get down and dirty with those paintbrushes. Just the other day, while browsing Pinterest, I saw a picture of kids painting with ice cubes! First, you add the different colors of paint to an ice cube tray. Pour water over it and fill the tray to the top. When the paint starts to freeze a little, add popsicle sticks to it. (Check out this YouTube video for instructions!).
9) Jigsaw Puzzles
You can have them put together a puzzle (OR you can also have your child MAKE their own puzzle set using the face of cereal boxes). There’s a wide assortment of puzzles on Amazon, but you can also find them at your local Dollar Store! So cheap!
10) Magnetic Art
Your child can create works of art, attach them to tiles and apply magnets! This magnetic tile art set includes tiles, magnets, a paint strip and brush. These would be great gift options for friends or family!
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Whatever the weatherman (or the county) throws at you, you’ll be ready to have some back-pocket activities to keep your kids entertained for all the unstructured time!
Questions of the Day:
- How do you keep your kids entertained when they’re stuck at home?
We’ve had a lot of snow days lately in upstate NY. Thanks for sharing these ideas! My son loves making forts so next snow day, we are going to build one. He can play in it all day! Then maybe mama can get some blogging done. haha
I loved those craft kits when my kids were growing up. We learned to make all kinds of wonderful things and explore what they enjoyed.
Forts will keep them busy for hours- so long as you dont mind washing oodles of blankets afterwards.
These are some fabulous ideas! My daughter has a PA day today and then Monday is Family day in Canada, so we have a 4-day weekend. I love the idea to make a fort or bring out a tent! By the way, your jewelry image can’t be clicked to purchase in Amazon. Just wanted to let you know!
Have a great weekend,
Alee
The Beautified Life
These are all great activities. When my son was little he loved to make a forts in the living room.
Blanket forts are one of our favorites! We usually throw a blanket or sheet over a small table or several chairs. Kids love this and it’s easy to clean up after
I think it’s a great idea to have a few of these hidden away in the closet for “those days.” Great and varied suggestions!
Gosh, I need a snow day! These suggestions sound like so much fun for adults 🙂
I love these ideas especially the puppet making one. My son loves to play puppets and put on shows!
We don’t get many snow days in Mississippi, but my kids LOVE building forts and doing “art projects”. To avoid having to supervise messy supplies, I like to keep a special set of markers or fun colored paper put away. I get it out on “special occasions” and the kids feel like they’re working with something new and exciting.
These are some great ideas! Kids ALWAYS love forts and tents! Having a few craft kits on hand is a great idea too, as they can provide a fresh new project to do!
Lovely article. Especially activities like painting, jigsaw puzzle and jewellery making are so interesting. Not only kids but even adults would love to have a day off and do these fun activities. 🙂
You’ve made some great suggestions. Most of the time if school is closed for weather we just hang out, relax and watch movies together.
Brilliant suggestions.
Love you Divya for sharing such educational, informative thoughts.
You are a Champ!!!
Have a great weekend All.
Love all of these suggestions!! It’s pretty much the best when the school calls days off before the morning of. 😉
These are great activities. I’m sure my kids will love these!
Belle | One Awesome Momma
Great ideas! Nothings better than a scavenger hunt!! 😀
I think my kids have each done all of these. It is all a part of being a kids 🙂
Great resource! It’s so important for kids to learn how to play independently. Enjoy your time off!
kids have a 3-day weekend and this will be my lifesaver!!!! thanks for the great ideas ♥
These are such great ideas! I can’t believe your school is closed for illness. There has been some crazy stuff going around at my school too. Enjoy your break! I hope you don’t have to make up those days.
I loved making forts as a kid! These are great ideas – and technology free – even better!
When it comes to activities, you really have to be creative with the kids. I think these are all awesome, some of these you can even take with you on road trips!
These would make awesome gifts! I love these activities, especially the drawing and the pop stick art. It’s really nice that there are plenty to choose from.
Making an indoor fort is a great idea during the cold weather months when it’s hard to get the kids outdoors. We have done that many times and had so much fun.
These are great ideas! It’s so important to have some fun activities when we are trapped inside in the winter weather!
Such fun ideas and good ways for kids to learn! Love these ideas and I’ll have to share them with my SIL.
Building a fort has to be on every rainy day or yucky day agenda. We always bake some special cookies. Make fun sandwiches and snacks and camp out all day.
It’s raining here today so staying indoors with my three littles is on the agenda. They’d love all of these, especially bringing our tent indoors.
I love the idea of a magazine scavenger hunt! That’s really cute and could take a really long time:)
I still love forts as a method of keeping kids occupied, it saved my life when I was a dance teacher!
Those are great activities! When it rains I end up going to the go to indoor activity list to keep the kiddos occupied without getting bored
Great ideas!! We have so much snow here. I could easily use all of these ideas this week. 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing it!
The scavenger hunt!! Pure genius! Every day could be different, and it can be customized to a child’s educational level. Filing this away!
These are all fun activities! I’m sure my son and my niece would never be bored with these.
My little one likes to stay busy. These would all be great for him to do. A few would have to be supervised.
Great ideas.. I would recommend them to my friends who have crazy kids. Nice read.
What great ideas! I loved making forts and origami as a kid, and I know other kids would, too!
What great ideas! They are perfect for work at home moms!