Camp Quarantine: How to Keep Kids Occupied During the Pandemic
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Where I live, so many kid-friendly locations are closed because of the pandemic: museums, libraries, movie theaters, city/town recreation programs, the YMCA, and so on. I’m sure many of you, like me, are struggling to work from home while keeping your kids busy and trying to get them engaged in their school’s remote learning (if their school has been able to set that up yet, which ours hasn’t).
To help you out, we’ve rounded up many reader favorites (from this great comment thread from last week), most of which are either already in your house or available to purchase online. (Remember to practice social distancing as much as possible, all!) We’ve added a few of our own, too. If you have suggestions for other indoor and outdoor activities, educational resources, physical activities, crafts, and electronic/online activities, please share them in the comments!
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Here are a few ideas on how to keep your kids occupied during the pandemic:
Indoor Activities
- Marble Run
- Magna-Tiles
- Lego (including books full of ideas of what to build)
- “Dinosaur egg” excavation kits
- Puzzles, e.g., Melissa & Doug
- Playing dress-up
- Baking together
- Board games and card games
Outdoor Activities
The practicality of these (and the enjoyment you get from them) will depend on what the weather is like in your area, of course!
- Walks/hikes (did your neighborhood do a no-contact shamrock hunt yesterday? it’s a great time to join a Facebook group for your building or neighborhood…)
- Bike rides
- Bubbles
- Sidewalk chalk
- Gardening
- Composting
- Water table
- Sand table/sandbox
- Stomp Rockets
- Velcro catch and toss set
- For the littles: “painting” an old box (with water) is lots of fun!
Screen-Free Educational Activities
- Reading (see our posts on the best books for kids who hate reading and favorite kids’ books)
- Handwriting without Tears
- Beast Academy (math)
- Multiplication flash cards
- Reading Comprehension & Fluency: Grades 2–3
- Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding: Grades K–2
- Drawing With Children
- Busy Toddler: Playing Preschool
Craft Activities
- Make a doll bed or stuffed animal bed
- Craft kits from ALEX Toys
- Finger paint, watercolors, etc.
- Play-Doh
- Kinetic sand
- A kid-sized castle to color (buy or use a cardboard box)
- Craft supplies to use
- Pipe cleaners
- Googly eyes
- Pom poms
- Colored paper
- Repurposed items for crafts
- Shoe boxes
- Tissue boxes
- Toilet paper rolls
- Paper towel rolls
Electronic/Online Activities
- Osmo
- ABCmouse (30-day free trial)
- Khan Academy
- Podcasts for kids, e.g., Wow in the World, Six Minutes
- Google Earth: educational resources / Google Earth: Voyager
- Virtual tours of museums
More Ideas to Keep Kids Occupied During the Pandemic
Further Reading/Resources:
- These Library Apps Let You Access Movies, Books and More — For Free [The Penny Hoarder]
- “What If Coronavirus Means Your Kids Are Stuck at Home?” [The Cut]
- “13 Things to Keep Kids Entertained if Quarantined for Coronavirus”[USA Today]
- Free Activities for Kids (100+ Easy Ideas!) [Yummy Toddler Food]
Any suggestions for gross motor toys for relatively small spaces? My 2 year old walked super late and has always been gross motor delayed. We/her ped weren’t too concerned, because she was getting lots of gross motor time at school and making slow but steady progress as she tried to keep up with classmates. Now that we’re all home I’m not sure how to help her continue making progress. We do go on daily walks, but since she’s walking well at this point I don’t know how much good that does for her development.
At the advice of a friend, we just ordered a bounce house for our basement. It hasn’t arrived yet. According to our friend, it has been a lifesaver for her two young kids on cold, rainy days, also extremely popular for play dates. It’s not cheap (about $200), and you need space for it, but I’m psyched for it to arrive.
My husband stays home (and wow, am I grateful right now!), so he’s looking for some educational things for our 7 year old. When I got home yesterday, son was so excited to show me the math program (I wish I remembered the name) they were working on, where he learned how to add and subtract “really big” numbers. He had the whole multi-digit carrying thing down pat. He wanted to print out the certificate at the end of each unit and put it in his backpack so he can show it to his teacher when he goes back. It was so sweet.
What are folks feeding their kids for lunch? My toddler has school lunch and my second grader packs her own lunch and school lunch one day a week. To keep the kids busy, I’ve been fine with throwing worksheets at my 2nd grader, and letting them run wild about the house and backyard in general, but then I remember that I still have to feed them, and I’m out of ideas. i mean on weekends we often eat out or cook a lunch, and when I’m home by myself, I often eat Triscuits out of the box and cold soup from the Tupperware (we don’t have a microwave), but I feel like I should have an in between option for the kids? Or maybe lunch is just a social construct and I should give them the Triscuits and cold soup too? Also a little resentful that I have to spend my “lunch break” with my kids.