10 easy and fun activities you can do at home with your kids

Are you looking for ideas on how to spend the day indoors with your kid at home? One that doesn’t require much money or a lot of preparation? Then this article is for you! These are my to-go fun activities that I do when I am spending my time indoors with my child that does not require a lot of preparation or clean up. Continue reading to learn about the top 10 fun activities that you can do at home with your kids.

1. Gardening

Gardening is one of our most favorite activities to do at home with my kid. They need to understand that seeds don’t grow overnight. It takes a lot of care, dedication and patience for it to grow. It will teach your child how to appreciate mother nature more.

There are just so many values you can teach your kids via gardening such as the importance of recycling, responsibility and persistence. We have fun together from choosing which seed to plant, which pots to buy and sometimes we even created our own do it yourself (DIY) pots from recycling our plastic bottles. We even name our plants and decorate our own DIY pots. It doesn’t require a lot of money, and the best part about this is you get to make it a long term bonding session. We can always set a time slot every weekend to tend to our plants.

2. Baking

Baking is seriously so much fun. The best part about baking is it’s time consuming. Most of the time, unknowingly we would spend our entire afternoon baking. So you don’t have to think of another activity to prepare on this baking day. It’s a great learning opportunity for your kid. I always include my kid in the entire process starting from shopping for the ingredients itself. They can feel many different textures and smell the different ingredients.

You can take this opportunity to introduce different kinds of ingredients such as fruits or vegetables to your young kid. If they are old enough, you can even take the chance to teach them some simple mathematics. Give them simple instructions such as can you pour me, hmm what’s 100 – 50 ml of milk please? See, baking can be so educational. I like to have them to prepare and help with the clean up after, as it teaches them to appreciate food more as it takes a lot of effort and preparation to make a meal. Finally, the big bonus will be the yummy cake / cookies or bread that we will get to enjoy after all that baking bonding time.

3. Arts & crafts

Art and crafts is another great and inexpensive way to spend the time indoors. If your kind is still young, take this chance to introduce colors and shapes. If they are old enough, help them to unleash their creativity! There are so many things you can do with your kid from as simple as drawing to clay making to origami.

The good thing about art and craft is there are so many options out there that you can choose from. So you can always keep it fresh and make it interesting. Create different art projects every week. Today we can paint rocks. Next week, let’s make our own Happy Father’s Day card. Your son is a fan of Avenger? Sure, let’s make our own Captain America’s shield!

4. Science experiments

Science is so interesting. It’s a wide topic. You can do science experiments with many things you already have in your home. If they are still young, stick with something simple such as combining primary colors to make another color or even making lava lamps. Depending on what your older child’s interest is, customize your science experiments. Be creative.

You can incorporate science into music. One of the simple fun activities that you can do for a younger baby is blowing on bottles. You just need to fill different levels of water into several empty bottles. Then when you blow on the edge of the bottle, you will find that different levels create different kinds of sound. They love it when it makes sound. For older kids, you can read the detailed explanation of why here. Be sure to do a proper research beforehand, we want to be able to provide the correct information for our little ones.

5. Camping time

Can’t go outdoors? No problem! Don’t have a proper tent? No worries. Just set up a teepee tent at home and you’re good to go. Fuel your child’s imagination. Imagine you’re by the beach or inside the forest. Pack lunch boxes. Set up a fake campfire. Learn how to make knots. Play some forest background music and identify which animal sound together. You can take every opportunity you can to make it a learning experience. Take it as a drill before you go on a real camping adventure outdoors. As long as you are spending time together, I’m sure your kid will be as happy camping at home as camping outdoors.

6. Treasure hunt

Treasure hunt is another fun indoor game that can keep your kids occupied for hours. Depending on how old your kids are, you can customize the difficulties of the clues. It is a fun way to stimulate your child’s brain and at the same time we keep them moving. Take the opportunity to put some simple quiz or mathematics equations. Have them solve the problem to receive the next clue.

You can even try to add some chores in, for example to receive the next clue, find and fold three blue shirts. At the end of the day, reward your kids with the “treasure”. Be it cookies, or even some nice toys. It will be a fun day filled with happiness for sure.

7. Creating memories time

Make journals together with your kid. Create memories together. Write down how you celebrated your kid’s birthday with the family. Have your kids to help you. Have them draw in the journal. Decorate the journals together. Record all the fun activities you had together! It is a great bonding activity. Preserve the flower bouquet you receive on Mother’s Day, turn it into dry flowers and keep them forever in your journal.

They will grow up so fast. Record all the special moments together. One day you will look back and be thankful that you have documented all these special moments with your kid.So do it, don’t miss out on this activity in particular!

8. Board games

You can always rely on the good old board games if you are feeling lazy. They are easily available, inexpensive and a guarantee to occupy your kid’s time. There are so many selections to choose from the classic Monopoly game which is one of my favorites, or Scrabble and even Jenga.

If you feel like you don’t even want to clean after a board game, any card games will do such as Uno or Slapjack. Play a memory game with cards. Bam! Easy relaxing activity with your kid that you can play for hours without much prep or cleanup.

9. Story telling time

This is an activity you can do regardless of your child’s age. I love telling stories to my kid. It fuels their imagination and helps to broaden their horizons. Simply read a book together. Be it fairy tales or classic stories. Choose a book which is suitable which will help you to explain to your child the values behind a story.

If you are feeling like it, you can even make a cardboard stage and tell the story via finger puppets. Encourage your child to ask questions when they don’t understand the word you are saying. I believe that storytelling is one of the best ways to help your children to improve their vocabulary.

10. Movie time

As a parent, this will be our ultimate last resort. As much as possible, we try to limit the television time for our children. But, once in a blue moon enjoying a simple movie together with your child is a great way to unwind. There is no harm as long as you do it in moderation.

So take out the bean bags, make some healthy snacks and let’s all watch a movie together. Especially during this unprecedented time of Covid-19 where cinema’s are a huge no no, turn your very own living room into a cinema.

So, there you have it. Ten fun activities which you can do at home with your kids. Spend time with your kids today. Be thankful that you get to enjoy parenthood even more in the current pandemic. Tell me what fun activities that you enjoyed with your child, and leave me a comment below!

I hope you enjoyed this article. Visit my website for more articles on parenting here!

Parenting pain: I know sometimes being at home with your child all day long can be overwhelming. Don’t forget, chores can wait. Making money can wait, but there are things money can’t buy in this world. And one of it is your child’s childhood.

Featured photo image by Stephen Andrews on Unsplash (2019)