Practicing physical distancing and being away from school, sports and friends can be difficult for families. During this time, it’s important to offer children and teens and abundance of opportunities for play and to spend meaningful time together.
Experts from CHOC’s Cherese Mari Laulhere Child Life Department offer these engaging at-home activity ideas to do with your kids:
Ages 2-5 years
- Put on a puppet show
- Read aloud with your child
- Draw a road with chalk for toy cars to drive around on
- Engage in sensory play with ice, water or shaving cream and plastic toys in a bin
- Go on a family scavenger hunt around the house or outside, if you can do so safely, to find items of a certain color
- “Paint” with a paint brush or old toothbrush on concrete, outdoor wall or fence using water
- Play hopscotch
- Make a fort with blankets
- Play red light, green light
- Play Simon Says
- Make homemade Playdough using: 2 tablespoons oil, 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt and 2/3 cup water
Ages 6-12 years
- Create an indoor obstacle course
- Do an art project made from leaves, rocks and things you find in nature
- Read aloud together
- Play cards or board games
- Do a puzzle
- Make your own puzzle, using a pencil to draw the shapes onto cardboard and then cut out the pieces
- Go on an A-B-C scavenger hunt to find an object that starts with each letter of the alphabet
- Write and illustrate your own story
- Create a family tree
- Put on a play
- Have a family karaoke night
Ages 13+
- Listen to music
- Play board games
- Try new recipes using items in your refrigerator or pantry
- Make your own smoothie
- Play charades
- Create a vision board of your hopes and dreams for the future using cutouts of pictures and words from magazines that you glue onto paper or poster board
- Do a puzzle
- Read a book
- Do yoga or exercise together
- Learn a TikTok dance
- Make a quarantine time capsule
