The question of what to do during a holiday or quarantine period with children at home arises from time to time in different life situations.
1. Puppet theatre
Favorite toys come to life and become actors, and the back of the chair - an unusual scene. Base the script on the simplest fairy tale and let one person control several of the characters. Show the children how to speak in different voices, changing the characters, and matching the scenery. If the activity is to their liking, over time the tale can be made more complex and the stage can be enhanced with a curtain. By the way, home puppet theatre can be several kinds: magnetic theatre (the characters of the magnet placed on a special surface and move around), finger (mini-toys are put on your fingers) and theatre of the hand, where the toy is put completely on the hand, and the fingers of playing become hands or feet character.
2. Karaoke
It doesn't matter at all if children are hard of hearing or if they can sing. The most important thing is to think of the neighbours and don't have a concert too late. If you have a microphone, great, you can play your favourite tune with words and have a real concert performance. If you don't have a microphone, a laptop might be enough to get the singing family together.
3. Ingenious recipes
Find a simple recipe on the web that's sure to excite your child. It can be a baked good, a salad or originally decorated sandwiches. Prepare the ingredients together and leave the children with processes which they can cope with: cutting, mixing, rolling out the dough, cutting out the molds etc. Record everything on video as they cook. Serve up the table with pretty napkins, candles or flowers, and dinner or a simple tea party together will be one of the best occasions of the day.
4. Delicious painting
For this activity, you will need toasted bread, condensed milk and food colouring. Pour the condensed milk into several small containers and add colouring agent to each one. Arrange yourselves with clean brushes and encourage the children to draw, say, a rainbow on the plates of bread, or to be creative and make their own ornaments. The sweet bread may be eaten at the end of the drawing.
5. Salt dough
Although the ingredients are edible, the dough is not suitable for eating, but it can decorate the walls of a kitchen or room or be a perfect gift. Knead a dough firmly using flour, water and coarse salt and let the imagination run wild. Mix the dough into any shape or pattern you like, bake them in the oven and assemble them to create your own wall decorations. Paint and varnish them in gouache. This keeps the children occupied for several days at home. You can also read more on Visit This Page about the pastime .
6. Constructing
What kid hasn't assembled a car from a construction set? Anything with plastic, wood, metal or magnetic plugs you can buy at the shop. And in the construction process, you can use unnecessary shoe boxes and build them not only transportation, but also a miracle robot, for example, painted it with markers or decorating it with stickers. Fun for an evening out with the whole family!
7. Board games
Whether you like the good old Monopoly or the dynamic new Uno, try new games and pull old ones from the back shelves and see which one is the most fun and appeals to everyone in the family.
8. Word games
Why not bring up the undeservedly forgotten game of "Burime"? Arm yourself with a sheet of paper and a pen and instruct the first participant to write any two lines from a poem or song. The top of the sheet should be folded so that the next contestant cannot see the first line and to the second he or she will write his or her rhyme. The sheet is then folded again, leaving the last line, and handed to all the participants in turn. You will end up with a very funny poem that is sure to surprise you with unpredictable plot twists.
9. The naming game
A good old game suitable for younger children as well as older ones. Participants will need sheets of paper and pens. Start by drawing out a table with the following columns: male/female name, city, country, river, plant, animal, dish, points. Fill in the table with words to the given letter. Check if the players have no matches. If a word is not repeated, it gets 10 points, if it is repeated, it gets zero points. The options and the number of columns in the table can be changed, added or reduced depending on the age of the players.
10. Countries and flags
Suddenly you have a large map of the world at home, then there is a great opportunity for children to learn countries and flags. Draw flags and attach them to coloured buttons, gradually placing them on a map. When enough images have been learned, encourage children to take them off the map and attach them correctly on their own. It's great for broadening their minds and keeping them busy for more than a day.
This looks so fun! We don't do one-on-one activities with our kids enough, but you've definitely made me want to, even if this post is about a family walk! Now that it's cooling down we like going on walks in the evening before bed, and it has been so nice just to get out of the house! We'll have to try those Clif bars! The Oatmeal Cookie one sounds amazing!
I've missed your blog. So happy that I thought to check out your fb page and come visit. I'm never disappointed. Your free printable is the cutest thing ever. My children would love to do this daily.
How about winter walks though, you participate in those?! ? Oh wait... You're in Arizona (or somewhere) with sunshine year round. It's about to be a blizzard mess with snow to my waist in a couple months!!! =) Lol
Monica, long time no see!! I'm glad to hear you're doing well! Haha we definitely don't have to deal with blizzards but we have the opposite, 115 degree summer days, so I feel ya on certain parts of the year being near impossible to go on walks. Actually I feel like our "winter" months are coming to an end and we can finally venture outside without it feeling like an oven haha! ?
We are big on family walks. All great benefits, especially getting some of that energy out, haha!
My kids and I love going on walks! But, our neighborhood isn't really the best for it. It isn't horrible, but it's not particularly safe either. I'm hoping that by this time next year, we will be in a new house and in a new, family-friendly neighborhood. Then we will be walking all the time!
I hope you are too Marietta! I could definitely understand that situation, I've lived in some places before that were safe but were just...questionable haha.
Hi Jessica! Family walks are the best ? We have some of the best conversations with the girls when we go on walks. We definitely need to do them more often
Thanks for sharing us,