Whether you’re quarantining or staying inside where it’s warm, these 5 fun things to do at home are great ideas for family fun!
If boredom is setting in at your house, one of these fun things to do at home with kids may just be the answer you’re looking for.
Especially if you want simple AND fun.
For our family of seven, we’re particularly looking for activities that:
- are easy to execute
- appeal to ALL my kids
- bring value to them (a.k.a. – get them away from their screens!)
If this sounds like something that would work for you and your kids, keep on reading!
Free Printable Library
In addition to the 5 fun activities that I’ll cover here, you also need to know about the Free Printable Library here at Jen Bradley|MOMs!
It’s full of free, fun seasonal activities for you to to download and print for your kids!
Click right here or on the image below to get access:
Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that I may make a small commission if you click through or purchase at no cost to you. For more information, click here.
Fun things to do at home with kids idea#1: Escape room kit
Of all the indoor family activities we’ve tried in the past year, our favorite fun thing to do is definitely the escape room kits we were gifted by Escape Kit!
What is an escape room?
An escape room is a game where you work as a team to discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks to reach a specific goal in a limited amount of time.
We received three different game kits and each of them was a blast for all of us!
3 Awesome Kits
Here are the 3 kits we played:
- Superheroes vs. Dr Villain – in this scenario, the kids were superheroes who were trying to stop Dr. Villain’s bomb from exploding and turning the town into zombies. They had one hour to move from 4 different locations like Superhero Hideout and Secret Laboratory. Along the way they collected clues and solved riddles to help them “diffuse” the bomb.
- The Sleeping Curse – this game kit was Harry Potter-esque and featured many things from the wizarding world. Using a map of the castle, the kids needed to break the sleeping curse that had been cast over the school. With so many little details, this game was very well thought out. This was my 6 year old boy’s favorite kit for sure!
- Cursed Treasure – in this kit, the kids were pirates trying to find a hidden treasure on an island. But that particular island only appears in the sea for one hour every thirteen years! This kit was less scripted than the others, which meant the kids had to not only find the clues, but had to put the clues in order themselves. There was a little more math and logic involved than the other kits. This was the favorite scenario for my 8, 12, and 14 year old kiddos.
Related article: How to Create Opportunities for Family Bonding Activities
About the Escape Kits
Each kit was super easy to download, print, cut out and set up.
(You’ll definitely want a simple paper cutter like this if you don’t already have one!)
Detailed instructions made it clear which clues went together in each room, so set up was a breeze.
I did take some time to set the ambience, so the average set up time for each of the kits was about 30-40 minutes.
It was awesome to see them totally immersed and working together. The littles would search for hidden clues, and the older kids did most of the puzzle solving.
When I asked them what they thought of the games after we finished, they all mentioned how cool it was that everyone had something to contribute! (every mother’s dream, right?!)
Everyone was completely engaged in solving the mystery. And the awesome music playlist links provided by Escape Kit totally helped set the mood.
We did the first one on Sunday afternoon and my kids loved it so much! They immediately wanted to do the next one the same evening.
After finishing the third kit, we were back on the Escape Kit website looking at the other kits available.
If you have a wide age range of kids, kiddos who love solving mysteries, or who enjoy logic puzzles, I highly recommend these fun on-demand game kits.
They are definitely one of our favorite fun things to do at home with kids!
Boredom stopping idea #2: Theme days
Another fun thing to do at home with kids is to create a theme day.
Our Harry Potter theme days
Because we are ridiculously huge Harry Potter fans, I decided we’d spend two days doing all things Harry Potter.
We played (almost) all of our Harry Potter games – Harry Potter Clue, Harry Potter Scrabble, Harry Potter Codenames, and Harry Potter Headbanz.
(To see a full list of the best Harry Potter board games for families, check out this article here!)
We also baked and decorated Harry Potter sugar cookies with wizard cookie cutters similar to these ones here.
To add some educational value, I downloaded a fun set of Harry Potter – inspired Mad Libs from Rock Your Homeschool.
Other possible things to do could have been putting together our Harry Potter puzzles, having a Potions or Charms class, and getting out our Sorting Hat. Of course, we could have also watched the Harry Potter movies or read the books.
Other theme day ideas
Putting together a theme day is super simple.
Start by choosing a theme that your kids love – Disney Princesses, LEGO, Star Wars, My Little Ponies, LOL Dolls, etc.
Next, look around your house to see what you have to support that theme.
If it’s something your kid really enjoys, it’s likely you’ll have things to pull together to support a fun theme day.
With LEGO for example, you could:
- hold LEGO building challenges such as blindfold building
- try one-handed building
- have everyone build the same thing out of LEGOs, such as a car or castle, for a set amount of time
- watch the LEGO movies
- read any LEGO books
- make LEGO cupcakes like these from Mommyhood Life
- take a virtual tour of a LEGO factory on YouTube
Although your kids may have already watched the movies, read the books, and played with the toys, creating a theme day will make it feel special and unique.
Fun things to do at home with kids idea #3:
Create a staycation
If you can’t take the vacation you’ve been hoping to go on, staycations are the next best thing!
A trip to Hawaii
My sweet friend, Andrea G, created an adorable staycation to Hawaii for her family.
She concocted Hawaii themed treats, made flower leis, and had everyone in the family pretend that they were on a trip to Hawaii.
They did things like hula dancing, drank virgin pina coladas, had a luau, and swam in their pop up pool. The boys wore Hawaiian shirts and the girls wore grass skirts and flowers in their hair. How fun, right?!
An indoor camping trip
Another amazing staycation idea is one I saw on the awesome blog, The Growing Creatives.
Christine created an indoor campout for her family – complete with a paper fire, tin foil dinners, paper binoculars, and flashlight story time.
This is something we’ve done as a family before, and it was a hit with everyone!
Boredom stopping idea #4: At-home mommy and daddy dates
Each of our kids loves these opportunities to get a little one-on-one time with either mom or dad.
Typical activities dates in the past have been things like going to the arcade, playing tennis, visiting the library, or getting pampered at the hair or nail salon.
When everything closed due to quarantine, my 4-year-old was asking if she’d ever get a chance to have a date again. (You may know how dramatic a 4-year-old can be! Ha!)
At home dates
Finally I had the idea to have at-home Mommy and Daddy dates! (*Thinking to myself, hello! Why didn’t this occur to me sooner?!)
Instead of going somewhere, we let one child at a time stay up “late” and choose an activity to do with us after the others have gone to bed.
Our 8-year-old girl chose to have hot chocolate, play the board game Villainous, and read in the living room.
Our 6-year-old boy picked to watch the Disney documentary Penguins on our bed with us.
And our little 4-year old choose to watch The Little Mermaid and have hot chocolate.
The best thing about at-home Mommy and Daddy dates is that they don’t need to be anything fancy. But your kids will feel special to have some extra alone time with you!
Fun things to do at home with kids #5: Create a chalk mosaic
Even if you’re not a crafty mom (like me!), making an amazing chalk mosaic isn’t nearly as difficult as you might think!
All you need is:
- 2-3 rolls of duct tape
- sidewalk chalk
- paper towels
Start off by outlining one small rectangle about 2 feet by 3 feet with duct tape. This will be the center of your mosaic. It’s a great idea to come up with a saying or quote to put here!
Then create another much larger rectangle of duct tape around the smaller one. This will be the extent of your mosaic, so it’s up to you to decide how big you want it to be!
Next use the duct tape to create lines going in all different directions to connect the smaller rectangle to the bigger rectangle.
Once you have your duct tape outline, fill in the spaces with sidewalk chalk. Using the long side of the chalk helps this go a LOT more quickly.
And you don’t have to fill in the entire space or color directly to the edge. Instead, use paper towels to spread the chalk to the edges of each space.
When every section is colored in, pull up your duct tape and marvel at your masterpiece!
One more thing: you may want to check the weather forecast to make sure you’ll have several days of sunshine so your mosaic doesn’t get washed away by rain too quickly!
Related article: 5 Cheap, Easy, and Meaningful Birthday Ideas for Kids
Final thoughts about fun things to do at home with kids:
I’d love to hear what fun indoor activities to stop boredom you’ve tried with your kids!
And if you have questions about the Escape Kits, please let me know – I’d be happy to answer them!
I know this is an odd time, but I want to encourage you, mama.
You CAN find fun things do at home with kids – activities that will appeal to all ages and that your kids just might remember forever.
Related articles about fun family activities:
–7 Brilliant Ways to Spend Individual Time with Your Kids
–11 Amazing Harry Potter Board Games Any Harry Potter Family Needs
–How to Create an Awesome Family Summer Bingo Board