15+ Activities for Kids to Do at Home – Parental Guide

Children’s famous slogan is “I am bored.” Every parent is very scared of this slogan. One of the difficult tasks for parents is to entertain their child at home.

No matter, it is a rainy day or weekend or school summer vacation, your kids are at home. They have no activity to do at home.

Being a parent is not an easy task; you always think about keeping your child engaged in healthy activities. If you run out of ideas for engaging a child, then this article helps you a lot to engage them in various activities.

Parents often think that engaging children needs tours and trips to places or expensive toys to teach them, but it is not a fact.

All these require money and expensive things. Various home-based activities create fun and lasting memories at home at cheap prices.

We will list down 15+ activities for kids at home that include creativity, artwork and gameplay that engage your children with the least expense.

1. Fort Building

Fort building is an activity in which kids make buildings and forts out of household items. They use pillows, cushions, bedsheets, tables and chairs to create their forts.

Either they can create one building or multiple. Kids use tables and blankets to build a roof and a house for themselves. Then they sit inside their own home and have fun.

This activity sparks kids’ creativity and imagination. Fort building is not simply a game but it is a learning experience for kids.

2. Homemade Play Dough

Playing with sand and dough has always been the favorite activity for kids of all time. Making things out of dough, kids find lots of fun in playing.

This activity sparks creativity and imagination among kids. You can add more excitement and fun to the game by letting kids make their own dough.

Making dough is easy to make, simply use 1 cup of flour, ½ cup salt, 1 cup water with 1 tbsp of vegetable oil, and a little food color.

Mix them and let the mixture cook on low heat with constant stirring until it forms a smooth dough. This activity will also add cooking skills to your kid’s expertise.

3. Mini Music Show

Are your kids fond of music and singing? Yes, it is a fun game for children to express their creativity. You can have a wonderful karaoke night.

Parents and kids together can create a small stage area with little decorations. Arrange the microphone and soft lighting.

Now kids sing songs while background music runs behind. Kids can sing their favorite song in front of the family. This activity brings confidence in kids.

It will also assist the kids to get rid of shyness and feel proud of their capabilities. One of the best things to do as a family is to have some life-long memories.

4. Cardboard Art

Playing with cardboard is an evergreen activity of all time kids can enjoy at home. Kids create different things from cardboard.

Often, we throw leftover cardboard as trash that we get from unpacking things. These cardboards can be used by kids to have fun.

Your kids can have fun with free cardboard. They can create different things like diy rocket spaceship, a race card or a marble maze and much more.

Your kids can find many ideas on YouTube or Google that keep them busy for the whole day. You can even assist them in creating that stuff.

5. Rock Painting

Rock painting is another exciting activity for kids to do all home. All they need is to find some quality and well-shaped rocks outside the house to paint.

Kids can use acrylic paints to create cartoon characters on rocks or some flower painting. It depends on whatever they want to draw.

They can draw their favorite cartoon character or animals and patterns to have more fun and excitement.

6. Playing Word games

Playing word games is one of the favorite activities kids love to do at home. Parents always loved this activity for kids as well.

Playing games is not fun, but it also enhances kids’ learning. You can include multiple word games such as strands unlimited, connections and Solitaire in their daily routine.

They will not only have fun while playing, but their English skills will also improve. Specifically, if you want your kid to be good at vocabulary, then we think strands are the best game to play. 

Being parents, you will be satisfied that your kid is not wasting time but learning and growing with fun activities.

7. Playing Video Games

Parents often think that playing video games is a waste of time. Although it seems but in reality it is not.

Yes! It harms kids’ eyes when they play video games for a long time without taking a break. Kids can play video games at home that improve their cognitive skills.

With video games, they learn how to collaborate with friends online and work in groups as a team. They know the use of the latest technology.

By playing such games as Minecraft and Roblox, kids can learn a lot about space and distance. The video games also assist kids to learn hand-eye accuracy and spatial skills.

8. Make a Volcano with Baking Soda

Children would want to see their volcano erupting at home. We can consider this activity to be one of the popular baking soda volcano-making activities among the children.

To prepare a volcano, children require baking soda and vinegar. They only need two simple ingredients.

It is not only an activity that is fun but also educates kids on chemistry. Behind it is a chemical reaction of acid and base.

As the product combines, a stream of bubbles comes out of the container resembling a volcano. To properly look like a volcano, kids can use dough or sand to play with friends or alone.

9. Egg Drop Challenge

Kids can have fun a lot doing Egg Drop challenge at home. Even grown-ups can enjoy it or join kids in playing it.

For the egg drop challenge, kids have to drop a raw chicken egg from a certain height. It can be played alone or with friends.

There are different ways to drop the egg. Kids can place an egg on a sponge, make a frame with straw & sticks or place the egg in a ziplock bag containing cornflour mixture.

Behind the challenge is a science concept. It is basically a STEM activity that teaches the impact of force and shock absorption.

Successfully landing an egg teaches them a new concept, but practically makes them good at doing experiments.

10. Making Cupcakes at Home

Kids love to eat cupcakes, so why not teach them how to bake? This activity needs parents’ assistance with the kids. Cooking in the kitchen will help them to learn practical math skills.

Kids really enjoy baking because it involves measuring ingredients such as counting eggs, measuring flour and sugar in ½ or ¼ cups.

While practically doing it by themselves, kids will learn how to use fractions. They will be good at fractions concept with practical implementation while having fun.

11. DIY Sundial

Making a sundial is another amazing activity kids can do at home. It is again a STEM activity that is not only fun but full of knowledge behind it.

Sundial is a diy clock that tells time according to the sun casting a shadow. To make a Sundial, you need paper and straw.

Cut paper into a round form like a clock and place on cardboard. Mark numbers on paper and put a straw in the center.

Place it in an open sunny area. The straw shadow will fall on the number written on paper. It tells the time at the current moment.

This activity teaches kids observation skills and astronomy valuable knowledge in further studies.

12. Indoor Treasure Hunt

Treasure hunt has always been a fun and exciting activity among kids. In this activity, kids have to create a treasure hunt by themselves.

All steps and activities they designed accordingly. Being a parent, you can help them in planning and making clues.

It is not a solo play, but you have to invite kids’ friends. There is great learning behind this game. Children have to read the clues, interpret them according to the situation and take the next step.

It is team play that allows kids’ logic to find the next location. It is a great way to develop critical thinking and deductive reasoning. 

13. Create Obstacle Course Activity

It is an entertaining game that all children enjoy playing. Obstacle course activity involves physical challenges such as running, jumping and crawling.

Moreover, it involves climbing and balancing tasks. Let your kids create scenarios that affect all these activities with pillows, chairs and tables.

For jumping through activity, you can use hula hoops and for crawling, use chairs and a table. For balancing, walk over a line of tape. The activity is more fun when kids play with friends or siblings.

14. Dance Party

It is a fun activity for the whole family that strengthens the bond between parents and kids.

If you do not feel like gathering stuff and making a mess of things, just organize a dance party. Children are fond of this activity.

To add, little challenge and excitement, ask your kids to freeze dance, emoji dance or ribbon dance.

15. Balloon Games

When you want your kids to have a simple activity at your house, then you can play balloon games with your child. They enjoy playing with balloons and doing various things.

They can have fun activities such as throwing the balloon and ensuring it does not touch the floor. They can also strike the balloon backward and forward or have a collection of balloons in the air.

16. DIY Bowling

Kids admire the bowling game, but it’s not a cheap game. It takes lots of money to have fun and a bowling experience.

Kids can make their own setup at home with bowling pins and enjoy it with friends. To make a pin, you can use empty plastic bottles or cans.

Now cut them into a pin shape. For ball making, use a soft ball or rolled-up socks to throw at pins. For more excitement, keep track of scores.

Conclusion

All these are fun and engaging activities for kids. The main idea behind it is to entertain kids without stress. These activities should not be taken as stress or competition. With little crafting activities kids’ can improve cognitive and motor skills with fun.