Looking for things to do when you’re stuck at home with kids? Whether you’re home due to illness, school closings, bad weather, or rising gas prices, you need simple, sanity-saving ways to keep kids entertained.
If you’re searching for things to do at home with kids, you’re in the right place. We’ve gathered creative, realistic ideas to help you make the most of your time at home and even check a few fun bucket-list activities off along the way.
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, Kidding Around earns from qualifying purchases.
Things to Do at Home With No Power
Kids get harder to entertain when you’re stuck inside, whether the power is out, the weather is dangerous, or everyone is sick. Here are a few more simple, screen-free activities you may not have thought of to keep kids busy when there’s no electricity.
Bring the water inside to play
Lay out a towel and a long container or several small containers with a little bit of water in them. Let the kids play with small animal figures, pebbles, or anything else you can rummage up that’s waterproof. (Aluminum foil makes awesome boats.)
See who can make the tallest tower
Gather any and all supplies you can find and see who can build the tallest tower in your living room. Make it a competition. The winner gets to choose dinner.
Break out the coloring books
Grab all the broken crayons and coloring books you have lying around, and have a little art party. Break out your adult coloring books while you’re at it. No coloring books? Plain paper is great, and there’s something magical about a cardboard box. Let your kids go to town coloring all over your leftover Amazon boxes.
Use paper bags and macaroni to craft
Pull out any pasta with a hole in the middle (macaroni, tube, ziti) and string it on pipe cleaners or string to make bracelets and necklaces. You can also paint or dye the pasta if you want to make it more colorful. You can also take out lunch bags and let the kids draw or glue funny noodle faces on them. Afterward, hold a puppet show.
Do a puzzle (or make one!)
If you’re able to get out, thrift stores often have super cheap puzzles. If not, just reuse the ones you may have lying around the house or create a puzzle out of paper (just create a simple design of lines on the back and cut).
Clean out the closets
You know all those clothes you’d love to donate or sell, whether it’s yours or your kids’? Now is a great time to do that. Make piles of those clothes to trash, donate, and sell, and end up with a much cleaner closet.
Have a fashion show
After cleaning out the closet, let your kids go through and have a fun fashion show. They will LOVE wearing your shoes and clothes, and it’s super adorable.
Build and create with household items
One of the easiest things to make and mold is homemade playdough. My absolute favorite recipe for homemade playdough is my skin-therapy playdough made of oatmeal, oil, and flour. It’s a great recipe because it only takes under 5 minutes to make, requires no cooking, smells nice, and cleans up easily. Or, create use toothpicks and marshmallows to construct buildings, geometric figures, and more.
Building with marshmallows also doubles as a great engineering lesson! You can also use straws with paper clips stuck at each end of the straw. Attach the straws by interlocking paper clips!
Create with cardboard
You can also gather up some old cardboard boxes throughout the house, bring out the scissors, and create your own Makerspace. See who can build the best rocket or an awesome city!
Bring out the memories
When the power is out, and you’re stuck at home, it’s the perfect time to pull out photo albums and old baby books. Kids love seeing pictures of themselves when they (and you!) were little, and it’s a great way to spark conversations, memories, and lots of laughs. Flip through the pages together, tell stories about each photo, and let kids ask questions.
More Things to Do at Home
Write letters or draw pictures for others
Remember the days of handwriting a letter, putting it in an envelope, and mailing it off? Opening a handwritten note is still such a special feeling. Grab some paper and pens and write a letter, or have younger kids draw or color a picture, for a family member, someone serving in the military, a local nursing home resident, police officers, or anyone who would love a little happy mail.
It’s a simple, meaningful way for kids to be creative and thoughtful. It’s also a good opportunity for kids to be creative and thoughtful in their writing and practice while out of school.
Create paper dolls
You can find classic and modern versions of paper dolls online. Print some free paper doll patterns out and have fun cutting and dressing the dolls. If you have it, cardstock works best!
Gardening (start or plan it out!)
Starting a garden, whether a little one indoors or something in a larger space outside, is a fun way to get some fresh air and build responsibility for cultivating and caring for plants. So buy some seeds or you can get some from vegetables or fruits you already have handy, and start planting. If it’s cold, get some potting soil and seeds and keep the pots indoors until the weather warms up, then put them near a sunny spot inside. Then, around April, get them in the ground.
Or, grab a gardening book for kids, and you’re ready to go.
Break out of an online escape room
If you can’t make it to an in-person escape room, there are plenty of online virtual escape rooms. Put on your thinking caps and see if you can solve the riddles to break free from the virtual escape rooms…without even leaving your house.
Dance party
Kids need to get out their energy, it’s a basic fact, right? Either put on music you love, like the 80s (just sayin’), and have a dance party in the kitchen. There are plenty of kid friendly youtube videos!
Family movie night
Put the popcorn on and pick out a movie together for a special night of quality time together. You can use a streaming service or rent one from the library.
Family game night
Open up the game closet and pull out a few favorites to play together. Here are more than 50 board and card games our readers recommend for family fun!
Learn a new card game or magic trick
Card games are great because you can play them almost anywhere, and learning magic tricks is fun since they’re perfect for quick entertainment. You can find simple magic tutorials online, ask a family member who knows a trick to teach you, or pick up a magic trick kit that comes with easy instructions and lots of fun surprises.
Create your own sensory box
Using things you already have in your home, you can make your own busy box. Rice (add food coloring the night before to make it any color you want), beans, or crushed Cheerios can create an entirely new world for your kids to explore. Add in some kitchen utensils, toy sea creatures, and paper towel tubes, and you’ve got an underwater oasis. Sensory boxes are a great way to learn, play, explore, and get a little messy.
Bake cookies
I’m terrible at baking cookies because I love cookie dough and rarely get to the actual baking part. Hopefully, you aren’t like that and have willpower. If so, baking cookies together with your kids may be fun. Sugar cookies aren’t just for the holidays. Grab some fun cookie cutters and get baking.
Start a journal
If your kids don’t have a journal or diary yet, starting one while stuck at home could give them an opportunity to think of something else, daydream, or write whatever is on their mind and get out some stress or anxiety. You can use almost anything from paper stapled together and decorated with stickers and markers to neat, guided journals for kids.
Have an indoor snowball fight
Crumple up old newspapers or discarded papers and throw them at each other in the hallway or anywhere else that you dare. You can also purchase these realistic-looking snowballs made of soft cloth to store away for a sneak attack on a rainy day!
Order a busy box
Order a busy box from somewhere like Learning with Kelsey. She has monthly boxes or you can also purchase one without a subscription. The boxes come filled with everything you need to complete a month’s worth of activities.
Do a photoshoot
Grab your camera or phone, get everyone dressed somewhat nicely, use the self-timer, and do a quick family photo shoot. Or let the kids get totally messy, run around outside, and snap photos as they play. Some of my favorite pictures of my kids are from moments like jumping in puddles.
Have a salon day
If you’ve got little girly girls, set up a little salon at home with a place to do hair and nails. Just keep the scissors safely tucked away (speaking from experience….). Need supplies? Grab a Kids Spa Kit for extra fun.
Play with paint in the bathtub
Strip your kids down to the bare necessities and put them in a dry tub with plenty of washable finger paint, or make your own by mixing tear-free soap with food coloring. Let the kids paint themselves, the tub, or whatever they want. When they’re finished, spray off the kids and the tub, fill it with clean water, and let them enjoy a bath. It can get a little slippery, so add a towel or non-slip mat to the floor to help prevent falls.
P.S. I have never had trouble with these Crayola washable paints staining my tub, but of course, you would want to test the paint first to be sure that it won’t stain!
Have a cooking competition
Give your older kids or teens a few ingredients from the pantry, or have them pick some, and then do a cooking competition! Bonus points because parents don’t need to make dinner then.
Take a walk and do a scavenger hunt
Simple enough, but fresh air is always a good thing. Just Google “scavenger hunt ideas” and you’ll be presented with thousands of ideas for this. And here is info on geocaching. These are some fantastic scavenger hunts you can do outside or indoors at your home.
What other things would you suggest for having fun while stuck at home?