Fun Activities for kids at home.

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We’re still over here in our day-to-day rhythm and like so many people our house has effectively become home, work AND school. It is becoming a bit more difficult to navigate through this all since work expectations have increased for both me and Sean.

It’s upsetting to me that through this time of social distancing children sort of get the short end of the stick. Ours have gone from large peer groups and teachers in beautiful and rich classrooms to being home 24/7. They’ve gone from seeing extended family members nearly every day to singing happy birthday through FaceTime and waving to delivery people through windowpanes.

Since I’ve lost all sense of normalcy it’s very important to me that the kids stay kids. I make sure they have free-time, that I’m able to observe them at work and that we do at least one thing together each day.

So! Here are some fun things we’ve done —

Baking soda + vinegar:

This one is such a classic! Just grab some baking soda in a glass and pour some vinegar in the glass too. The reaction is amazing (even as an adult!). I like to set this up so the kids can do everything themselves. Putting everything on a cookie sheet (with a rim) makes clean-up a breeze. And small pitchers are perfect for kids to pour from!

Make a volcano:

This is an extension to the baking soda and vinegar experiment. But, Sean did this with the kids over a few days and they LOVED it. They used paper mache and covered a beaker — then painted it like a volcano! Again, cookie sheets are the way to contain this because once you put the baking soda and vinegar inside the volcano — it explodes!

Color Mixing:

A great way to do color mixing is to use 3 small glasses of water plus some drops of food coloring in each. I always give primary colors: red, yellow and blue. Then give an ice cube tray and a medicine dropper (or real droppers) and put everything in a large storage tote bin. Kids can make new colors in each compartment of the ice cube tray by mixing different amounts of primary colors together!

Outdoors, rain or shine:

Rain suits must be a part of your kid’s wardrobe. They make going out in gross weather more bearable.

Magic Milk:

This magic was a Facebook find. Milk in a swallow dish with drops of food coloring all around. Dip a Q-tip into dish soap, stick it directly into the food coloring drops — and see what happens!

Recycled marble run:

Kids love marble runs! Don’t have marbles — use cotton balls or pompoms.

Cloud in a jar:

Shaving cream, a medicine dropper filled with food coloring and a glass of water. Watch the clouds form!

Sink + Float:

What sinks? What floats?

Caterpillars into butterflies:

We loved raising our caterpillars! Everything you need comes with and it’s an amazing production!

Crayon + watercolor:

I love drawing with a white crayon and adding watercolors over it. It makes a surprise as the crayon resists the watercolor. It’s like writing a secret message.

Paint on canvas:

We had some canvas laying around. I taped off the bunny and had the kids paint the whole canvas. Then I peeled off the bunny and was left with this!

Streamer obstacle course:

Streamers and obstacle course — what a great activity. Definitely is so exciting so don’t try it during anyone’s nap time! But it’s a great gross motor activity for a rainy day!

Here’s to many more weeks at home!