Kids Fun activities to try at home

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Kid activities at home are just a fun way to invite play into their everyday life, which encourages hands-on learning, sensory development, and a lot of brain development for the eager minds.

HOW do we entertain our children at home?

You can use open-ended toys, cardboard boxes, mailboxes, tissue roll cardboard, eggs containers, or any everyday stuff that is kids friendly for play activities to keep them busy and engaged.

How do we come up with ideas to use this everyday stuff? Well, some days you have to think out of the box. You can be creative with anything on hand, water, ice, paints, flour, baking soda, vinegar, cereal pom poms, googly eyes, playdoh, water bottles, etc.

Sometimes, toddlers and preschoolers need a small push to get them going and their insight and creativity will surprise you!

The play ideas that encourage children to feel with a touch, move objects and manipulate them in order to be creative in some way is exactly the way to learn by experience.

Encouraging play at home helps children get exceptional at self-guided play, problem-solving, and forming conclusions on how things work in this world.

The following inexpensive at-home ideas will allow your preschooler or toddler to learn and explore in a fun way whether it’s an indoor activity or an outdoor play.

Try these no-screen kids’ activities for holidays when they are at home and the weather is not permitting them to go out. These fun engaging activities are sanity-saving for parents when kids are off from school and you can’t go out due to weather conditions.

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kids Fun and play activities to keep them busy and entertained at home

1. Scavenger hunt

Playing Scavenger hunts is maybe old but still fun for kids. This is the best indoor game and activity for any special holiday, special occasion to keep kids busy and entertained. You can hide seasonal stuff and have kids find them throughout the house or backyard if the weather allows.

Things you can hide are:

  • Toys
  • Letters
  • Numbers
  • Words
  • Seasonal accessories
  • puzzles

Get free printables here for preschoolers and kindergarteners.

2. Painting activities

  • Alphabet painting
  • Vegetable painting
  • Snow painting
  • fingerpainting art

3. Coloring sheet activities for toddlers

Try these cute and big enough images coloring sheets for toddlers that are perfect for little hands. Print one sheet a day and let your little one have fun coloring while you enjoy your breakfast in peace.

Coloring sheets for toddlers – Fan Favorite

Alphabet coloring pages

Alphabets coloring pages with pictures

Get these coloring pages for preschoolers.

Trying to homeschool a Preschooler? Check out this thorough Learning bundle with 100 Worksheets.

4. Color-changing activities

Use paints or food colors for color-changing activities. Use color wheel sheets to have kids experience color transformation all by themselves.

5. bath time crayons and painting

Most kids love spending time in the bathtub and for them, you can use bath bomb paints and bath time crayons for fun in a bathtub.

6. Kinetic sand

Well, kinetic sand is kind of a messy activity in my opinion but your kid would love it the most. The messier the merrier.

Use big sensory bins to keep the mess contained. Instead, you can use an inflatable pool inside the house for messy activities like sand or paints, etc.

7. Make Playdough by yourself

You can find plenty of playdoh recipes on Pinterest and Google. I have tried the conditioner and cornstarch playdough recipe. It turns out great just a way too fragrant for me.

8. Edible crafts or activities

Make edible playdough or flavored playdough.

  • Cocoa powder mud play
  • Create cereal sand
  • Cheerios necklace
  • Gummy worms cupcakes
  • Caterpillar counting M&Ms

9. Shaving cream and oats

You can create a sensory fun activity with shaving cream by making a sensory texture for kids to explore using rice, lentils, grams, chickpeas, oats, etc.

10. Color sorting using rice, pasta, chickpeas, etc

Create colorful rainbow rice, and lentils chickpeas by using food color mixed in a tiny bit of vinegar. Mix well in a separate ziplock bag. This will help your child enjoy color sorting or making rainbow color bins and be much more creative.

11. Outdoor activities

Set up some outdoor activities for kids to have fun when you are stuck at home due to weather or any other valid reason.

Toy wash activity – Set up with a bin filled with water, a tiny bit of dish soap, and a couple of brushes to have fun cleaning up the toys.

Baking soda and vinegar explosion activity – Experiment by adding some food color to baking soda and see how it explodes.

Sink and float using objects activity

Stay with your child at all times or around where you can monitor them. These activities may allow you an hour or so to finish your pending tasks.

Related:

What to do with kids during the summer break.

12. water and spray bottle activity

Kids LOVE playing with water, whether it’s a bucket full of water or a spray bottle filled up with water. Mist bottle is even more fun though.

You can buy Dollar store water guns for some inexpensive fun.

13. ice painting or snow painting

Painting is another old and most popular creative activity for kids. You can try various types of paintings along with ice painting. Stay-at-home moms who need some time to work can keep both toddlers and preschoolers busy in this fun ice painting activity.

Have a yoga mat set up on the floor. Put some snow or ice in a bin or a baking tray. Provide your child with some paints, and paintbrushes and allow him to explore ice painting.

14. inflating balloons with air or water

Filling up water balloons activity is so much fun for kids and are helps keep kids busy for hours.

15. Making seasonal crafts

Make seasonal crafts with your kids. Like Halloween, Christmas, Easter, New Year crafts, and much more.

Although you may find bazillion ideas for kids’ crafts on the internet, generally, you need cotton balls, paper plates, construction paper, glue, scissors googly eyes, sharpie, and popsicle sticks for nearly any craft. Most of the stuff you already have at home. Spending at least a half-hour in a day on a craft activity – depending on your everyday schedule – is a great way to keep kids entertained.

Download this free Christmas sheets template here.

16. Bottle flip

Bottle flipping activity is kinda addictive for kids. Even adults can have fun with bottle flip play in so many ways.

17. Freezer – Ice activity

Frozen hand activity – Fill up the gloves with small seasonal ornaments or toys. Fill up with water and now let it freeze for a night. Now fill up warm water in a bowl or a jug and let your little one explore the melting activity to find those tiny objects.

Moreover, you can freeze kids’ toys like cars, etc. Once frozen your child can use a kids’ hammer to break the ice or warm water

18. Baking soda and vinegar explosive play ideas

Baking soda and vinegar are creative and educational activities for kids who love science experiments.

Set up a Lava activity for kids using baking soda and vinegar at home. You can either set it up outdoor or indoors. As long as your child is having fun experimenting.

Use empty paint bottles, add some baking soda in each and enjoy pouring vinegar for some eye-pleasing play activities.

19. Physical outdoor activity play ideas

Some fun outdoor activities that you can try while staying at home are:

  • Play with sand or mud
  • Trampoline
  • Gymnastics in your backyard
  • Running
  • Rolling on grass
  • Watergun fight
  • Water balloons fight
  • Basketball
  • Badminton

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