Ten Things for Kids To Do (During COVID)

Schools are out and children have a long break, but some of us are still not keen on public activities just yet, and I know that I’d like to keep my child busy at home for a few hours without complaining and hearing “mommy, I’m bored”. So here are some fun ideas to keep children busy at home during COVID or if they are quarantining.

For the younger kids between ages 2 to 5 years old:

1. Play with ice cubes. Give children some ice cubes, plastic bowls, and spoons, and let them go at it until they melt. Refills anyone?
2. Mud kitchen. Now that the weather is good and the kids will be spending some time outside, give them some sand and water to make mud pies and cakes in the garden or terrace. If you have some kitchen toys, then throw these in too. Trust me on this one, it will keep them busy for hours.
3. Let them do the dishes. Put some plastic tableware in the sink with dish soap and a sponge, and let them enjoy a soapy mess, we may clean some dishes along the way.
4. Cardboard boxes for craftsy creations. don’t throw out those delivery boxes just yet, as well as toilet paper rolls. During the winter break, I gather them up for the kids to create whatever their hearts desire. Robots, a store, doghouse, or any other idea they can think of.

For ages 5+

1. Make some homemade slime, although some ingredients may be harmful you can find safe recipes that don’t include borax like this one here from Kitchn
2. Science experiments. There are tons of ideas on Pinterest and YouTube to create science experiments for kids you can choose the ones appropriate to your children’s ages.
3. Cleaning or gardening chores. Kids can keep busy doing some chores like washing the car, sorting out toys to donate, or cleaning the garden and enjoy it.
4. Get the kids involved in meal preparations and cooking. For example, let them make their pizza from rolling out the dough to slathering on the sauce and cheese, they feel quite proud of making their meals.
5. Bake and decorate some sugar cookies. And here is my favorite recipe. You can also add to them some warm spices like cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg for the holidays.