“Stay At Home” Activities for Tots to Teens

By TMoM Team Member Rachel Hoeing

Looking for ideas for indoor fun? Whether it’s due to COVID, bad weather, trying to save money, or just sheer boredom, we all need new ideas (away from screens!) to enjoy time while we are staying at home!

Most of these are not necessarily new ideas, but just good reminders of screen-free fun! TMoM has many additional ideas on our Pinterest page here! You can always get great craft ideas in our Craft category and on our Instagram page as well. If you have some good indoor fun to share, please post your ideas in the comment section below or email us about guest blogging.

 

Make a TikTok

OK, I know I said “away from screens,” but you aren’t sitting and you aren’t watching, you are just videoing yourselves! Even if you don’t have the TikTok app, chances are high that one of your children do. They’ll show you how it’s done! Basically you are just copying dance moves and making a fool of yourself, and it is so much fun! Find one that seems fairly simple (example below of Ciara and family) because it is surprisingly harder than you think to learn and remember some of the dance moves! It’s even more fun if you can get someone who is usually a non-dancer to participate!

 

Make an Obstacle Course

We loved to do this growing up. We would make an obstacle course that would take us through the entire house and then time each other to see how long it would take to complete it. Ideas would be things like: crossing the kitchen without stepping on the floor, crawling through hula hoops that would be propped up on their sides, throwing beanbags into buckets, the ideas are endless!

 

Play Board Games & Cards

For tweens and teens, we love Rummikub, Catan, Sequence, Blokus, Trivial Pursuit, Risk, and classic card games like Poker, Gin Rummy, and Spades.

For elementary kids, try Ticket to Ride, Clue, Quirkle, and classic card games like crazy eights, war, slapjack, and go fish.

For the little ones, try Zingo, Candyland, Chutes & Ladders, Memory, and Pete the Cat!

Check out this recent blog with more board game ideas!

 

Make Friendship Bracelets

Do you remember these? I spent all summer making these bracelets when I was younger. I think we ran out of friends to actually give them to! This idea is better for the older elementary kids, tweens and teens. You can find simple instructions on how to make these bracelets online. One demonstration I found you can see here, but there are plenty more!

 

Make Flubber

This is fun for all ages! This is a super easy craft that takes minutes to make with little to no mess. It’s a lot like Playdough, but less messy. But fair warning” keep it away from hair! We learned this the hard way.

Materials:
Warm Water
Elmers Glue
Food Coloring
Borax

Using two separate bowls, combine the following mixes:

Mix 1
3/4 Cup Warm Water
1 Cup Elmers Glue (equal to two 4 oz bottles)
Food Coloring

Mix 2
2 teaspoons Borax
1/2 Cup Warm Water

Stir mix 1 together in a bowl. Stir mix 2 together in another bowl. Pour mix 1 into mix 2 and work it with your hands. You’ll notice the flubber concoction beginning to solidify. At first it will be wet and slimy and there will be some water at the bottom of the bowl. But the more you work it with your hands, the water will start to evaporate and become more of a “gummy” consistency. Soon the flubber will get to the point where it doesn’t stick to your hands anymore and that’s when it ready to be played with. It helps to fold the flubber inside out when working it with your hands to make the extra water disappear. After you’re done playing with the flubber, you can store in a Ziploc bag and it will stay pliable and moist.

 

Cooking & Baking

This is a great idea when you have a mix of all ages of kids in your home because the older ones can assist the younger!

You can start cooking/baking with toddlers by making simple sugar cookies and letting them decorate or mixing dips for fruit and veggies. As kids get older, throw in more difficult recipes. For tweens and teens, assign them a night to make dinner. Let them determine the menu, accompany you to the store to get the ingredients, and let them act as chef for the evening.

You can find some of our favorite recipes for families here. We ran this blog and  this blog previously which included some fabulous recipes for cooking with kids. Also be sure to check out this one with healthier dessert ideas!

Build A Fort

All you need is some sheets, blankets & towels and somehow the normal den is transformed into an amazing world of tunnels. My kids love building forts and amazingly they will play games inside their fort that normally are not cool enough to do just at the kitchen table. You can even add holiday lights to their fort! Uno cards are brought out from under the bed, books have dust wiped off of them, and puzzles take on a whole new world of excitement when they are done in a fort!  🙂

Workout as a Family

We have some neighbors who did a “step challenge” this spring and it made us laugh to constantly see their teens walking back and forth through the neighborhood trying to up their step count! This could be a fun idea to implement when you want to get outdoors. While indoors, why not find a YouTube video to follow together? You can find Frozen themed yoga, family cardio, teen strength training, and so much more!

The photo below is taken from havenlife.com/blog/family-workout, which also has some great tips for working out as a family!

Have fun, stay safe, and let us know other ways your family has enjoyed indoor fun this past year!

Related articles:

Triad Indoor Activities During COVID
99 Ways to Reply to “I’m Bored”
20 Things To Do With Your Preschooler this Winter
Boredom Busters
Indoor Activities for Kids
Keep Calm and Carry On

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