Stuck at home ideas

[konapoppy]

Let’s do a new brainstorm thread for those stuck at home due to illness/weather/preference/etc.

What are your ideas for ways to keep the kids busy in the house or nearby?

[noodleoo]

This is what we've done in the last week when the kids were home 9 days with the flu.  Kids are 4 and 7.5:

• Bake sugar cookies and decorate them
• Make a gingerbread house (kit from grocery store)
• Painting, coloring
• Playdoh
• Took out some Xmas presents for them to have something new to play with (sticker books and activity kits)
• Watch Xmas movie with popcorn & hot chocolate
• Drive around to look at Xmas lights
• Walked the neighborhood to deliver Xmas cards
• Lots and lots and lots of TV
• DD1 loves to watch drawing tutorial videos on YouTube kids.  She really likes Draw So Cute and has drawn all the Encanto characters.

[konapoppy]

We made a list of all the parks
Might drive to the redwoods or snow
Get ice cream (even McDonald’s drive through)
Science projects
Reading together
Walking the dog
Watch movies we haven’t seen (greatest showman, etc)

Easter egg hunt
Floor is lava

[icedcoffee]

Bath time is a big one for us especially for kids that don't feel well. We have Crayola bath finger paint and crayons. Lots of random toys. Bring toys that don't even "belong" into the bath.

Lots of screen time.

Valentines Day is just around the corner. Work on making handmade valentines? It's one of those things we're always too busy in Feb to do.

Clean out some old toys to make room for the new ones. Post on Buy nothing or sell on FB for ice cream money.

[gastro]

Things we’ve done recently:

Make bath bombs
Coloring on a huge sheet of butcher paper I taped to the wall
Forts with Christmas lights and get to eat snacks/have iPad in it
Baking projects
Scavenger hunt
Solo stove roast marshmallows
Movie in the daytime
Make popcorn with toppings
Kids make dinner

[niq]

msniq has been doing a lot of cooking with the kids.

We have a ton of fuse beads or perler beads.

"Make a Rube Goldberg Machine" is a fun if kind of annoying project.

[turkletsmom]

Mine are 9, 6 & 6. They've been out of school all week so I've been trying to spread out the activities:

Gingerbread kits from Target
sticker books, work books, dig kits and craft kits to hopefully use some up to make room for new ones
DD made some gifts for her favorite stuffies and I let her use all the wrapping stuff to wrap them so that occupied her for awhile
H came up with the brilliant idea that our Elf looked tired and needed a rest so DD set up her Barbie and dollhouse furniture by the tree for the elf so that night we only needed to plop him on the tiny couch lol.
I think tonight we will have a picnic in the living room and watch some movies.

That's all I've got lol.

[countthestars]

- Magnatiles
- Pull all of the mattresses into a different room for a movie and sleepover (playroom? mom and dad's room? living room?)
- Have the kids set up a store and go shopping at it. The store can have things you already own or they can make things
- One day during COVID we decorated each room in our house as a different holiday (not sure how they came up with this one!). We did Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, etc. We pulled out some of the decor from the basement and they made decorations out of construction paper for the rooms that were lacking.

[hermione]

Do the marshmallow challenge (kids vs adults)

Silent family reading time

Have kid plan their next bday party

Alllllll the board games

Alllllll the movies

[al dente]

Bath with glow sticks.
Make oobleck - it's cornstarch and water. Wipes up or vacuums up super easy once it's dried.
Vinegar/baking soda stuff. Like a dot of food coloring in each muffin tin, cover with some baking soda, vinegar in separate container and medicine syringes or something to squirt it.
Toddler dance music playlist.
Make playdough.
I use to really like baking when my kid was like 2, but she's 4 now and recently I realized it really stresses me out so maybe that? But maybe not? She was a better listener at 2 then now I guess lol.
Hide and seek.
Ms rachel on YouTube sucks my kid in like no other.
Days With Grey and Busy Toddler have a lot of ideas. I sometimes scroll their Instagram and tell my kid to pick something because it's typically easy to set up and minimal stuff needed.

[scribellesam]

Obstacle course down the hallway or around the house has been a big hit in the past here, we put painters tape on the ground to indicate the route and they add in the obstacles. Good for getting energy out, especially if you add in jumping jacks, crawling, hopping, etc.

Hot wheels race down the hallway to determine the fastest car.

We also love a good dance party with the lights off. I replace the living room light bulb with a disco light bulb for a fun twist.

Inventor station with random recycling, craft supplies, and a low temperature hot glue gun. They will sit and create nonsense for hours. They also love to create their own board games and make us play (using random cardboard as the board). Generally excruciating to play as an adult but they’re happy.

Create a restaurant for stuffed animals including menu, table setting, fake food.

[jewel]

My kids love making race tracks or towns with masking tape on the carpet. Then they drive all their vehicles around, make trash(shredded paper) to pick up and take to the dump, deliver mail and packages, etc. Between designing and playing with their track or city, they can easily spend a few good hours on this. A lot of times they’ll use legos or magnatiles to make buildings too.

We also use masking tape to make hopscotch and other obstacles courses.

[tarajane]

My kids are currently obsessed with these math puzzles.

www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kayla-Bs-Classroom/Category/Math-Puzzles-FREE-350405

[arehopsveggies]

When mine were little they loved “crunchy boxes” where I took a huge plastic box and filled it with the leftover ends of the any open cereal boxes. They could scoop and pour and eat… and then practice sweeping when they were done. That could keep them happy for a long time. Basically just a sensory bin but one they could eat so safer for younger toddlers than rice etc

making bath time different with tub crayons, glow sticks, kitchen stuff instead of regular toys

Shaving cream on the table to draw and write and play in.

We love our kiwi and koala crate subscriptions

[al dente]

Oh idk how I forgot our favorite - listening to podcast stories! My kid will spend forever in her bedroom drawing pictures while listening to stories. She likes Circle Round (short like 15-20 min) and Story Bug (30min - 1hr).

[keweenawlove]

Our internet (and therefore steaming) has been down all day. So far DD has done
-unicorn/fluffy slime
-salt dough ornaments
-cut snowflakes out of paper and hang around the house

Long bath with "potions" (bath color tablets) is happening later.

[InBetweenDays]

When our kids were younger they loved to make forts out of the couch cushions. Then one time they decided to put on their roller skates and bike or ski helmets. One would crouch down on the roller skates wearing a helmet while the other one pushed them down the hall and into the pillow fort. Kept them entertained for quite a long time But we're pretty lax with wheeled toys in the house.

They also love playing hide and seek. Especially when we get the dog involved.

[jewel]

Another one:

My kids love to move the furniture around and play The Floor is Hot Lava. I don’t necessarily recommend this, but it does keep them occupied for a really long time and they haven’t yet broken anything major (items or bodies).

[mrsGreeko]

Dec 23, 2022 12:18:21 GMT -5 al dente said:

Oh idk how I forgot our favorite - listening to podcast stories! My kid will spend forever in her bedroom drawing pictures while listening to stories. She likes Circle Round (short like 15-20 min) and Story Bug (30min - 1hr).

If you haven’t tried National Geographic’s Greeking Out podcast you might want to give it a try. My kids love it. We listen to it in the car as a family sometimes, it’s pretty entertaining. And as an added bonus my 11 year old knows basically every Greek myth and can explain all of the stories and characters and he just knows a ton of Greek mythology.

[waverly]

They are currently rotting their brains out with TV and the switch. We only allow the Switch during breaks so I guess it’s a novelty right now anyway.

[al dente]

Dec 24, 2022 13:57:07 GMT -5 mrsGreeko said:

Dec 23, 2022 12:18:21 GMT -5 al dente said:

Oh idk how I forgot our favorite - listening to podcast stories! My kid will spend forever in her bedroom drawing pictures while listening to stories. She likes Circle Round (short like 15-20 min) and Story Bug (30min - 1hr).

If you haven’t tried National Geographic’s Greeking Out podcast you might want to give it a try. My kids love it. We listen to it in the car as a family sometimes, it’s pretty entertaining. And as an added bonus my 11 year old knows basically every Greek myth and can explain all of the stories and characters and he just knows a ton of Greek mythology.

Thank you! She listened to this all morning and it is now added to the rotation