58 fun activities for kids of all ages

Need some fun ideas to keep your children and teens entertained? Read on!

1. Plan an indoor camping trip. Set up the tent in the living room, round up some tasty treats, and provide some flashlights, string some Christmas lights, and include a game for some late-night fun.
2. Make homemade slime. Little bins for little hands has numerous recipes for easy-to-make slime.
3. Catch up on some reading. Madi’s Musings writing and book review blog has some awesome reading suggestions for a variety of ages.
4. Get a healthy dose of exercise. Walk. Scooter. If the weather is nice, head outdoors with the family and enjoy some fresh air. Bring out the strollers and push little ones for a win/win situation.
5. Play a game of tag.
6. Put together a puzzle.
7. Join with your kids in serving others, beginning in your own neighborhood. Do elderly neighbors need grocery pickup or delivery? Could you rake leaves, mow the lawn, shovel snow, or till a garden? Walk their dog?
8. Set some decluttering goals. What a perfect time to organize! Join with the kids in setting a goal to organize their toys, a closet, or the living room. Play some music, then celebrate with a fun treat afterwards.
9. Bake cookies or muffins. Check out these easy recipes for chocolate crinkles,  no-bakes cookies, or chocolate chip muffins (all with gluten-free options). Or suggest kids decorate graham crackers with frosting for their own creations.
10. Take on a building/fixing project. Parents, kids love to learn and work side by side. What about building a wood project? Fixing a broken item? Changing oil in the car?
11. Enjoy a movie night. Don’t forget the popcorn! Need some movie ideas? Check out this list of some Mom-Approved Movies for Families.
12. Connect through a Bible study. Take turns reading, then discussing the chapter.
13. Partake in a Bible challenge. When my girls were younger, they loved it when I hosted Bible challenges and asked them questions. They would “ring in” when they knew the answer. Not only was it fun, but it also helped us learn God’s Word.The questions can be as simple as the following:Who created the earth?Who were the first two people God created?

    Who is God’s Son?

    To harder questions:

    Name eight of the 12 disciples.

    Name the nine attributes of the Fruit of the Spirit?

    Name the books of the New Testament in order.

14. Plan meals together and make them. One good thing to come out of our recent Covid-19 isolation is that we, as families, are eating out less and making more meals together. Put kids in charge of planning meals and making (or assisting in the making of) the meals. I recommend Quick and Easy Crock-Pot Chili (gluten free).
15. Make funny videos. Using your phone or other device, have your kids record funny commercials selling something they own or making a silly news program. When I was a kid, my sister and I filmed (with a gigantic video camera!) used car commercials, a news series on happenings, and music videos where we danced to our favorite songs.
16. Play mimic mirror. With two players (two kids or a kid and a parent) have one person make certain faces and the other person mimic those expressions.
17. Have a blinking contest. First person to blink loses!
18. Make it a spa day. Have daughters? Create a spa day complete with manicures, pedicures, and new hairdos.
19. Have a hot chocolate day. Who doesn’t love a huge cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows?
20. Host a tea party.
21. Snuggle before getting out of bed in the morning. One of my favorite memories is snuggling with my daughters when they were little and reading them stories before we started on our day.
22. Decorate boxes. Have some boxes from recent online deliveries? Be sure to let them sit for at least 24 hours (to be sure there is no germ spread from Covid-19), then bring out the crayons and markers and decorate the boxes.
23. Enlist your teens to make up exercise routines they host for the entire family.
24. Do a science experiment. This website offers some innovative ideas.
25. Play hide and seek. This is one of our family’s favorite past times. Years ago, we couldn’t find my husband during one particular game. It’s still a mystery how he perched himself way above the water heater in the water closet, reminiscent of Spiderman.
26. Have a treasure/scavenger hunt. Provide clues and a surprise at the end.
27. Write a book together. One person starts the “book” and passes it around with everyone handwriting a paragraph or several. Littles can draw pictures to illustrate.
28. Have a blind taste testing competition. Secretly collect different items and place a bit of each one in separate containers. Guests of the competition will be blindfolded and try to guess what they are tasting.
29. Build a fort. Kitchen chairs and blankets, anyone?
30. Listen to audiobooks. Adventures in Odyssey has some wonderful timeless stories.
31. Host the Olympic games in your living room or your backyard. Everything from skipping races to the three-legged race, to crab walking can bring a gold medal.
32. Design a fitness center with different stations. Jump roping, hula-hooping, hopping on one foot, somersaults, situps, and pushups. Set the timer for each station.
33. Create Playdough or homemade clay. The iheart naptime blog has a great recipe for your homemade playdough endeavors.
34. Create and color for family members. Grandmas love to hang those on their refrigerators!
35. Create and color pictures/write encouraging notes for those in nursing homes and VA hospitals. Call ahead of time to see if they are accepting artwork for their residents.
36. Make a craft. Make Cheerio necklaces or another fun craft, such as egg carton caterpillars, pasta pictures, and homemade frames. Check out this idea for mini-lid banjos from the Craft Train blog.
37. Plant seeds.
38. Host a touch testers competition. Put several items in a box and each competitor must guess what the item is. Keep track to see who wins!
39. Create and act out a play.
40. Play dress up with mom’s and dad’s clothes.
41. Play balloon volleyball. (Do not use balloons around small children, as they are a choking hazard).
42. Read the same book as your tweens and teens, then have a book discussion, complete with treats.
43. Stargaze.
44. Have a picnic in your yard, on your deck, or in the living room.
45. Go on a photography hunt. Using your camera, snap interesting photos of the world around you.
46. Shoot baskets. This works at the outside basketball hoop, or a makeshift “hoop” designed from a trash can and using a soft ball.
47. Have a paper airplane competition. Check out this link on how to make a paper airplane. https://www.diynetwork.com/made-and-remade/learn-it/5-basic-paper-airplanes
48. Create a blog. WordPress offers free blogs. Perfect idea for tweens and teens to hone their writing skills and write about what’s important to them!
49. Make smoothies or root beer floats.
50. Crank the music and dance.
51. Have a fashion show.
52. Cloud gaze/watch. What animals or shapes can you find in the clouds?
53. Watch science videos. Answers in Genesis has been hosting interesting science videos on Ken Ham’s Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/aigkenham/
54. Create a “grocery store” with empty boxes and plastic containers of items. Children can “shop” for items and pay with coins or homemade coins/dollar bills made from cardboard.
55. Make sock puppets. Using old socks, markers, and buttons, create sock puppets, then have them star in their own sock puppet show.
56. Play a game. Uno, Tenzi, Checkers, Old Maid, Yahtzee, Apples to Apples Big Picture, Monopoly, Clue, Canine Capers, and Pictionary are some fun options.
57. Be a gameshow host. The options are endless for this suggestion. When my girls were younger, we played a game called “Gameshow Contestant.” I would call out a letter and they would run to retrieve the letter magnet from the front of the refrigerator. I would excitedly call out, “can she do it in less than 10 seconds? Stick around, folks, let’s see!” At the end of the game, the girls would win fabulous “new cars” aka, Matchbox cars. J Other suggestions are to find items around the house and place them on the table in record time.
58. Encourage creative play. Our children need time to be creative with no structure. This is so important to proper development and fostering an active imagination.

What a blessing to be able to spend time with our children and teens! Let’s use this opportunity to grow closer.

How do you keep your children busy during this time of social isolation?