Top 10 Stay at Home Kid Activities

These days we are spending record amounts of time at home. It gets difficult and burdensome to keep your kids busy in creative and productive ways. Are you feeling me right about now, moms? I thought so. It’s so easy to fall back on letting your kids watch YouTube videos or play video games like Roblox or Among Us to keep them busy. Well, we have a little treat for you! Here’s a list of our top 10 Stay at Home Kid Activities.

All of our at-home kid activities are either free or very low cost. Also, many of the supplies are things that you most likely already have on hand. Give some a try and let us know what you think!

Here are our top Stay at Home Kid Activities

Create a Box Fort

With all of the at-home ordering of products, I think we all have plenty of boxes around the house.  Can we say Amazon anyone? Why not put them to good use and make a fun box house fort! This is a great stay at home kid activity that will keep them busy for hours!

We’ve done this several times and it’s a hit every time.  The first was a box castle for my daughter and then a mini box castle for our cat.  She decorated the outside and inside with markers, brought blankets in, and would watch videos or draw while she was snuggled inside. 

The next box fort was a box that she made a swinging door and it had another box addition to it. She decorated the door with markers and drew a large rainbow.

Get creative and have fun.  You can paint your box or decorate it with markers.  (We stuck to the markers to keep it less messy).

We’ve kept both of the Box Forts that she’s made and switch them out. She has used them again and again!

Blanket or Towel Fort

If you don’t have boxes, or just want a little variety you can always go with the regular blanket fort (or towel fort as pictured below) because who doesn’t love a fort? 

We also have done blanket forts inside the house and gathered our kitchen table chairs in a squarish formation and then put a large blanket over top.  Then we put a yoga mat on the floor and added some pillows and blankets. 

My daughter read in there and even did some of her online homework and a meeting with her teacher under there. Her teacher got a kick out of it.  She also did some reading and had some snacks. Our cat, Meli, was her little sidekick and they had a ball.

Sidewalk Chalk Art

Another great option is to get outdoors and have some is fun is to do sidewalk chalk art.  We do this often as it is another great at-home kid activity that can bring out their inner artist. Sidewalk chalk is inexpensive and is a great art supply to keep on hand.

I realize that in colder climates this may not always be possible, but once it starts to warm up this is a great option to give kids something creative to do and also let them get some fresh air.  

We took turns drawing different themed drawings.  For example, we would both draw flowers, animals, or rainbows.  We also drew a classic hopscotch board and played hopscotch together. That is always a hit. 

This is a great low-budget option that can keep your kids busy in a creative way and let them get a little fresh air.

Baking Together

Another one of our go-to at-home kid activities is baking together. You will have to most likely be present with your kids and help them with this. If you have the patience, this is a great option.  It also may depend on your child’s age on how complicated or simple to keep it.

My daughter and I do this from time to time and she loves it.  You could make a family favorite or keep it something classic. 

We’ve done the classic chocolate chip cookies together – which was a big hit.  We’ve also made cakes and frosting.  My daughter has even come up with her own recipes.  Those were not maybe the best tasting recipes that I’ve ever had, but we still had fun doing it and creating memories together.

Giving your toys a bath

This is a fun one for the younger kids.  You can set up two containers with water (outside or in a water-friendly place) and have your kids give their toys a bath. 

In one container of water, you can have soap and the other is just plain water.  The kids can dunk their toys into the bucket or container with soapy water and scrub their toys down.  Then once the toy is all clean then they can dunk it into the plain water. 

This works great for toys like play cars for boys and maybe dolls for girls (or whatever water safe toys their heart’s desire). You may need to help them select toys that are water friendly.

It’s a great sensory activity and younger kids really enjoy water play.

Taking Colored Themed Pictures

This is a great at home kid activity that is creative and can help them build photography skills. Although we did this outside. It really can be done inside or outside.

My daughter and I did this together as an outside project. We each chose a color and took pictures using my iPhone of things according to a certain color we picked.  My daughter chose green – which gave her lots of options outside like grass, leaves, etc.  I chose pink which gave me fewer options – like certain flowers that we have growing, some pink shoes of my daughters, etc. 

It was a really fun activity though and left us with a group of curated photos within the same color group.  Also, it’s a good opportunity to get them to think about photography, subject matter, and colors!

The next time we play we are going to choose different colors and then keep building until we have a whole collection of photos of every color of the rainbow. 

We just did it with my iPhone but I would also like to do this one day with her Instax instant camera but I want to be mindful about it because it’s easy to waste the film. 

Indoor or Outdoor Scavenger Hunt

Another idea to keep the kids busy in a creative and healthy way is to do a scavenger hunt.

If weather permits you can take your scavenger huntYou can make a list of simple items found in nature – think of a grey rock, a green leaf, a flower, a long stick – things like that and let your children gather them and see how many things on the list they can find. 

This also does depend on the season and the weather outside but even during the winter if you’re bundled up enough this can be done.  I did this with my daughter and she loved running around and finding all of the items on the list.  Plus with all the running around she got lots of exercise and she was elated as we crossed things off this list.

If weather doesn’t permit, or you have littles that you don’t want to chase around outside, this can definitely be done inside as well. Just make a list of common house items – like spoons, a kitchen towel, a pillow, a box, a marker, or whatever you can think of. Let the kids loose and have them try to find everything on the list. Just watch the hustle – it’s a riot!

Make you Own Obstacle Course

If your kids need to get out a lot of energy, this might be the perfect activity to do for you.  This can be done inside or outside depending on the weather.  We’ve done both. 

Also, you don’t have to purchase supplies – you can use things that you have on hand to create this.  Think jump ropes, yoga mats, material tunnels, cones, etc.  We have even used closed umbrellas in place of a stick. 

The purpose is just to create some sort of obstacle course that gives kids different obstacles to walk, run, and jump over.   Also, there are days that I don’t have time to take my daughter to the park so it’s a great substitute. If you want to add more of a challenge you can time them for fun to see if they can beat their last time. Give it a try!

Make a Collage or Vision Board with Your Kids

This is one of my absolute favorite stay at home kid activities but a great way to be intentional with your children, open up the lines of communication with them and hear their dreams, and make something beautiful! 

My daughter and I really enjoy making vision boards together.  It’s a fairly simple activity, but we get to talk and discuss our dreams, goals, likes, while we do it!  It’s really so much fun. 

There really are no rules to this.  You can grab a bunch of magazines and start cutting out pictures and words that speak to you.  If you dream of going to the beach then find a picture of a beach scene.  If you love strawberries, find pictures of strawberries. 

You can really incorporate anything that you wish into your vision board.  The same goes for your kids.  Have them think of the things they enjoy doing or wish to do.  Help them find words that speak to them.  Cut them out and glue them onto a piece of paper or poster board.  I think it’s a really great activity for both being intentional, bringing out creativity, and helping to identify goals.  Try it out!

Have  a Dance Party

Nothing helps bring up your mood like a Dance Party!  This can be fun for moms and kids alike.  Just pump up the tunes and let everyone bust a move. This is pretty straight forward and so much fun. Every now and then I like to add in a little Freeze Dance action which the kids absolutely love. I don’t have the heart to get anyone out though so they just keep dancing.

So there you go, 10 fun and easy at-home kid activities to keep your kids busy in fun and creative ways. If you enjoyed this article, check out our other fun kids’ activities like these free virtual museum tours or our popular easy fun shrinky dink project!

Talk to you again real soon.

Live creatively. Live intentionally.

Love,