Avoid going stir-crazy when you’re housebound. These fun activities for kids at home will keep them entertained without having to leave your backyard! From educational activities to thrifty crafts that need minimal prep. Your kids will have a blast working through this jam packed list of activities to do at home with kids!
Fun Activities For Kids At Home
Whatever the reason, when you are stuck at home for a prolonged period with kids, it’s sure to start driving everyone crazy sooner or later.
Whether you are looking for wet-weather activities to do indoors, stuck at home due to illness, or simply looking for fun, inexpensive ways to spend school holidays at home, there are plenty of fun ways to fill your time.
I got you covered!
While we do love to travel, we quite often spend quiet school holiday breaks at home, enjoying crafts, cooking and creative activities.
It’s a great way to keep your spending down too, with so many budget-friendly kids home activities.
Afterwards, make sure you also check out these 100 outdoor activities for your backyard!
Tech-Free Fun
The easiest solution when you know you’re spending a lot of time at home with kids is often to turn to technology for entertainment. Our kids have tech limits, which are in place even during school holidays.
There are so many fun tech-free activities for families to do together, including backyard activities to get them outdoors. Or for kids to enjoy with their siblings and friends.
- Play a board game or card game
- Get active – check out these toy ideas for active kids
- Have fun with water play
- Set up an outdoor obstacle course in your backyard
- Build with LEGO or blocks
- Enjoy pretend-play by setting up a shop with boxes and toys
- Set up a sheet fort or backyard cubby house
- Colouring in and drawing
- Go exploring in the backyard to see what you can find
- Use water and a paintbrush to do water painting on the cement
- Play iSpy
- Backyard camping
- Stargazing
- Read a book
- Do a puzzle
- Play dress-ups – check out these fancy dress costume ideas including fun book character ideas & Halloween costumes or just dress up in mum and dad’s clothes
- Crosswords or word search games
- Build with rainbow magnetic tiles
- Do a science experiment
Monthly subscription boxes are perfect for fun at home, with activities to encourage creativity, learning and more for kids of all ages (and grown-ups too).
Fun With Technology
There are plenty of fun things to do with technology too. These days, we have endless options for tutorials to do just about anything online. This can be great fun for kids. Our girls love doing kids’ drawing tutorials on YouTube.
Here are some more ideas:
- Family movie night
- Outdoor cinema with projector
- Educational games and learning programs – such as Reading Eggs or ABCMouse
- Dance party
- Karaoke
- Online craft tutorials – scroll down for a huge list of craft ideas
- Make a playlist of favourite songs
- Battle it out with a computer game or gaming console
- Do a virtual tour of a famous attraction or tune into zoo live streams – check out this mammoth list of armchair travel ideas to get you started
- Make a stop motion movie
Do A Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts can be great fun indoors or out. All you need is a list of items to find. You can challenge your kids with different lists and see who completes their challenge first.
Here are 2 simple indoor scavenger hunt challenges you can use:
Cooking With Kids
Something most kids love to do is help you with the cooking. Especially when that involves delicious sweet treats! Cooking together is a great activity you can do at home together, or for older kids and teenagers to do on their own.
Here are some sweet recipes to make together:
- Mint Rice Bubble slice
- White chocolate crackles
- Healthy chocolate crackle slice
- Unicorn Rice Krispie treats
- Simple chocolate slice
- Cacao bliss balls
- White chocolate marshmallow fudge
- Mango yogurt muffins
- Banana choc chip muffins
Here are some savoury recipes to make together:
And don’t forget that not every recipe you make in your kitchen with kids needs to be about food! Why not try these messy play recipes too since getting creative is such a fun activity:
- 32+ easy slime recipes for kids
- Loads of simple homemade playdough recipes
- 50+ play recipes- paint, clay, kinetic sand, chalk etc
Productive Activities
While you are at home, you might as well tackle some projects with your kids that need doing. They may not sound like a lot of fun, but there are plenty of ways to add fun to cleaning and organising projects.
This is a perfect opportunity to give your kid’s room a makeover, giving them the chance to help out. Try reorganising their room in a new way, decluttering their bedroom or changing things up to give them a more grown-up bedroom to suit their age.
This girl’s ocean bedroom makeover is a great example of how to do it on a budget, however, you can likely make a few changes using items you already have at home too.
For younger kids, getting some cool toy storage set up will make it easier for them to find the toys they love best, including creative ways to organise outdoor toys too. It’s also a good time to do a big cull of broken toys and things they no longer play with.
Rainy Day activities to have ready
For those days when you are stuck inside only due to bad weather or illness, it’s always good to have a few activities you can pull out just for these times.
We keep a couple of cheap craft kits in the cupboard just in case. They also work well when we travel.
In fact, these DIY travel activity packs make a great option for home too, when you want something special to excite the kids when they are looking for fun indoors.
Here are some cool craft kits and activities to keep stocked up for the unexpected:
And for young kids, check out these fun toddler creative activities to do at home.
Indoor Activities For Rainy Days
When you are stuck at home with the kids, you can hide from the rainy weather with a fun activity inside such as one of these:
- Indoor obstacle course
- Indoor picnic
- Indoor scavenger hunt or treasure hunt
- Make a time capsule together
- Make hopscotch on the floor tiles with painter’s tape or masking tape
- Draw a self-portrait
- Make a sensory bin
- Build a fort
- Tea party
- Make paper planes
- Research your family tree
- Play card games like UNO, Go Fish and Crazy Eights
- i-Spy
- Write letters to friends and family
- Put on a puppet show
- Rock painting
- Read books
- Indoor hide and seek
- Pom pom art
- Make greeting cards
- Make paper chains
- Get out the art supplies
- Plan your next vacation together
40 More Fun Things To Do With The Kids At Home
In case you need even more ideas, these activities are sure to get the kids excited! From craft ideas, using items you have at home, to activities the entire family can join in.
These projects and activities are so much fun and will help you pass your time at home much more quickly, making plenty of fun memories together while you’re at it!
Fun With Yarn & Fabric
Teach your kids the basics of sewing, knitting and more with these fun projects. Most of us have a few of these items already at home, making them great thrifty projects to do.
Make rainbow coloured friendship bracelets from yarn to wear and share.
Teach kids basic sewing skills with this cute sock snack tutorial.
Make a fun personalised room decor item with your own pom pom rug.
Turn learning crochet into a STEAM educational experience for kids.
Gardening Fun
Get the kids excited about gardening with these garden-themed crafts and activities.
Fun Craft Projects
Craft projects for kids to do at home, many using items you already have at home.
These paper bag foxes are ridiculously cute and simple to make.
Make your own shrinky dink keychains - a perfect gift for kids to give their friends.
This simple craft project gives kids the chance to design and create their own door sign for their bedroom.
Mould mini clay figurines and accessories for play or decoration.
Create unique artworks with squirt painting, a fun creative activity for your backyard.
Mastering the paper aeroplane is a skill everyone can have with this tutorial.
Create your own floral bunny ears headband in under 15 minutes.
Create your own spend, save, give moneybox with this easy Kmart money box hack.
Sensory Activities
Sensory activities for younger kids. from slime to playdough and loads more fun ideas for home if you don't mind a little extra mess during play.
Sensory play activities are perfect for toddlers and younger children to enjoy.
Pretend Play Ideas
Simple pretend play ideas you can easily set up at home and keep the kids entertained for hours.
All kids love the thrill of creating an epic sheet fort.
Fun For The Whole Family
More fun ideas the whole family can get involved with to ensure everyone is having fun during their time at home and getting some quality time as a family together.
The fun does not need to end when the sun goes down. These games can be fun for the whole family!
Take some time to get creative together or solo with these mindful colouring pages.
These 6 secret codes are a great way to get kids started with coding activities.
Educational Fun
These educational activities mean learning while having fun, which is essentially the best of both worlds!
Make science fun with this volcano experiment using simple ingredients you likely already have at home.
With these super fun things to do with kids at home, being housebound doesn’t have to feel like a chore. No more bored, irritable kids arguing and no more mum and dad wanting to pull out their hair trying to calm the storm. Make family fun at home and create exciting new memories together!
If you need even more ideas, make sure you check out my school holiday bucket list, with several more ideas for things to do at home and plenty to do away from home too.
Don’t forget to check out these fun things to do in your backyard with plenty of inspiration for getting fresh air without going far!
Do you have any favourite activities to do at home with kids? I would love to hear them so make sure you leave a comment!
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